Hello from southern Sweden

[ulf]

Hi Everybody,

My name is Ulf Wilhelmson and live in Malmö in the southern of Sweden.

I have followed this site for some months and have gotten very much inspiration and useful information that has helped me to begin with UV-photography.

I really like the high technical level and the good polite tone in the posts at the site.

Half a year ago I converted a Canon 60D to full spectrum by installing a compensation-window I bought from Astronomik.de, replacing the camera's original filters.

I was aiming att trying IR-photography, to see if that could restart my dormant photo hobby.

IR went reasonably well, giving a new kind of pictures and a different nicely slow way of taking pictures. I like this more thoughtful way to work.

When looking at the UV-side of photo I thought it was reserved mainly for Nikon-users with expensive specialist UV-lenses. After some reading on the net, I understood that this was not completely true and decided to see how far I could reach with my camera into the UV area.

I started to collect suitable lenses and filters for UV. The collection is still growing, and I guess that will never stop.

Today, a few months later I would like to be able to contribute to the site. I have read several posts here where I think I have more information to add. Also It would be very nice to be able to discuss ideas with other members.

My professional background is from electronic engineering with analog design for measurement equipments.

My knowledge area stretch somewhat into physics and mechanical design as I worked with designing test equipment for optical media, from CD to BluRay discs.

I love to try to make the invisible visible.

My contributions will mainly be from the technical side.

Flowers are very interesting and I like to study them. However I can only identify between 20 and 40 of them, and then only with their Swedish names. I have to learn more about that. If I post pictures I might get some help with proper identification.

Photo.

I have always liked to try challenging new areas. The latest before UV/IR has been Panorama photo, Spherical Panoramas and extreme macro with focus-stitching. I have always liked macro-photography.

I hope I qualify as a member in the group.

 

 

/Ulf

[JMC]

Welcome Ulf. I also use Canon for UV photography - I have a modified 7D for that, so assuming the sensor respond similarly you will be able to take UV photos with Canon. Filtration is the key - finding the right filter which completely blocks IR when you want to take UV photos. There's plenty about that on here.

[Andrea B.]

Hello Ulf and welcome to UVP! I hope you enjoy the website and find the information you need. And we welcome your technical contributions and photos.

 

Please look in our Indexes, Lists, Stickies and References section for lists of filters and lenses. And let me know what lenses you would like to see added to our Lens Sticky.

 

We are a slow little website. Sometimes Bjørn and I (and our members) are busy shooting or with a 'day job' and don't respond to the posts immediately. But we return eventually. :D And we are most happy to help members identify a flower.

[ulf]

Thank you Andrea!

 

Already I have enjoyed the website very much during the last few months.

I have just been looking around, leaning and sometimes getting confirmed that I have understood things correctly.

 

For me this must have been the most interesting and informative site, found for several years!

 

I fully understand that there can be delays with responses.

Even if this is a very interesting area, there is much too few hours left in a day when you have a 'day job' to attend to.

 

I have several ideas that I would like to discuss about UV technique and soon hope to free some time to begin posting.

 

Thanks for letting me be a member here.

[ulf]

JMC

 

Thank you for the tips.

 

Nice to know that at least one more member is using Canon for UV.

Do you know how your camera was modified.

I assume the internal filters were replaced by some kind of window to keep the autofocus working correctly.

Do you know what type? Spectral response?

 

It will be interesting to find out if our modern Canon sensors are more limited than other brands.

We might be able to do that eventually.

 

I'm already on my way with UV-photos.

I have collected some lenses and filters and started photographing to get a first feeling of how to best work.

 

My filters for UV so far: Baader U, S8612 2mm, UG5 1.5mm, BG3 2mm

I think it is quite interesting to see how different images are with pure UV (Baader) and other UV-B-G stacks and hope to find more useful filter combinations.

 

My lenses for UV:

El-Nikkor 50/2.8. 80/5.6, and 105/5.6, all old metal type,

a few 35/3.5 Kuri type clones from Soligor, Prinz and Prinz Galaxy,

Staeble Lineogon 35/3.5 (same optics as the Novoflex 35mm+)

Streinheil Cassar S 50/2.8, and Cassaron 40/3.5

Rodenstock Apo-Gerogon 150/9.0 and 240/9.0

 

For most of them I have only verified the UV-performance with the pinhole method.

I have only used the El-Nikkor 80mm for flowers in the nature so far.

 

Possibly more lenses are on their way in.

 

I suffer from grave lens collectitis.

Could it be dangerous?

[nfoto]

Nah, not when you are just ramping up., It'll get worse later.

 

And needless to say - welcome to UVP !! Don't worry about any wild flower, we'll help sort them out for you.

[JMC]

JMC, Thank you for the tips.

 

Nice to know that at least one more member is using Canon for UV.

Do you know how your camera was modified.

I assume the internal filters were replaced by some kind of window to keep the autofocus working correctly.

Do you know what type? Spectral response?

 

It will be interesting to find out if our modern Canon sensors are more limited than other brands.

We might be able to do that eventually.

 

Hi Ulf, The camera was modified by Advanced Camera Services in the UK. The sensor filter was removed and replaced with one of theirs which blocks visible and IR. I do not have a filter transmission curve for it (which after having joined here I have now discovered is unusual for a supplier not to provide one). Apparently some type of recalibration was done by ACS to keep the UV in focus on the sensor while the visible image is in focus on the viewfinder.

 

It's an interesting question about the relative sensitivity of the different cameras. I am fortunate position of have a Nikon d810 and Canon Eos 7D modified in the same way - I am hoping if all goes to plan, to have the spectral sensitivity of both cameras measured so that I can compare them.

 

With regards to the Canon, using a 40mm Eos pancake lens, taking a picture outdoors in bright sunlight in spring/summer, my settings to get an image with reasonable exposure are 1/30s, ISO1600, f4. Funnily enough the pancake lens seems to be ok at letting UV through - I get similar settings with one of the old 35mm lenses that are often used for UV.