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mamiya ZD IR photography - urgent advice needed

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mikeinlondon

Guest
i currently own a phase one P25+ for landscapes with my Phase one camera. I also own a Olympus E3 converted to IR only, but am dissapointed with the resolution

i have been offered a ZD back for sale but was also considering a second hand P21/21+ back to convert (but that would need sending back to P1 for recalibrating costing £1000 or more)

i think on the face of it the ZD would be great but I cant seem to find out any info on potential focus problems (eg unable to focus at infinity due to focus shift when not using IR cut filter for example) if you shoot IR

Do you shoot with the mamiya IR filter removed completely? or with no filter or with your own IR filter attached in the metal frame?

is it dangerous to the chip to shoot with no filter attached? how do you deal with dust etc?

I would be grateful if you could reply asap if you are in a postion to help me avoid a mistake!

Kind regards

Mike
 

MaxKißler

New member
Hello Mike,

I recently figured out that IR Photography with the ZD Back doesn't work too well if you aren't using Mamiyas IR Filter, replacing the standard IR Cut Filter. I tried an IR filter on the lens with removing the IR Cut filter. But the missing element in the optical path seems to have an effect on focusing. So focusing on infinity doesn't work. Of course you can focus on infinity AND use the smallest aperture to get a somehow usable/sharp result. However, if you want to use this back exclusively for IR Photography you should consider buying Mamiya IR Filter aswell. Both the back and filter should be cheaper than a new or even used P21+...
 

Jack

Sr. Administrator
Staff member
I had a ZD back and had the Mamiya IR pass filter for it -- basically a clear glass that cut excess UV. It worked pretty well with an 072 over the lens, but nailing focus was tough. It would hit infinity though, but finding the correct amount of focus shift for each image iteration was problematic.

In the end it's why I chose to convert an M4/3rds camera. If you follow the link to this thread: http://forum.getdpi.com/forum/showthread.php?t=13852, you'll see several images I got from it, both full monochrome and false-color. In addition to this camera nailing focus automatically, it nails exposure too AND you can see the image "real time" on the camera's live view LCD. Plus, the added DoF from the M4/3rds frame helps the appearance overall. Finally, even these little cameras at 12 MP offer more than enough resolution for IR since it's basically "fuzzy" out of the box anyway.
 
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mikeinlondon

Guest
thanks for replies guys....much appreciated!

Its sort of what I expected!

Mike
 
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