Nikon Coolpix P7700 (old premium point and shoot) for IR Review

[microbat52]

I haven't seen this camera mentioned here so I thought I would do a quick review. Hope this is the right place.

 

Disclaimer

• First time ever playing with IR so if I say something wrong or I miss anything important please let me know!
• The camera I am using was very loved but suffered two crashes during fun adventures and now the autofocus malfunctions and it has dust inside the lens element.

Camera

• This is a great little premium point and shoot from 2012.
• They don't sell it anymore but you can find it second hand for around £150 ($200?)
• The camera does everything. Great zoom range, good aperture range, shoots raw (nwr), pop up flash, external flash, filters (40.5mm), flip LCD, you name it.
• It fits in your pocket.
• The main cons are that the manual zoom is fiddly (its a small dial next to the display), its quite slow in recording onto the SD card, and the LCD is linearly polarised so annoying if you wear shades.
• Its not supported by nikon because of no more spares.

Conversion

• Quite simple to access the sensor.
• I didnt bother changing the hot mirror.
• Cant comment on any autofocus shift since my autofocus was already broken.

 

Test

• IR pass filter is a 40.5mm 760nm from dHD (ordered on amazon)
• WB was set to 3850K
• Those are dust specs from the crash, they were already there before the conversion.
• It was not sunny today, low light and partially cloudy (and a bit foggy).
• These are jpegs compressed to 50%, not edited.
• I tested the whole zoom range and focus range and seemed to do fine?

 

 

 

Without the filter:

 

 

Hope you find this useful.

Now I need to learn to properly edit photos!

[Stefano]

You may try setting the white balance on a white neutral surface, such as paper. This way you will have more natural-looking photos without the pink cast.

[microbat52]

You may try setting the white balance on a white neutral surface, such as paper. This way you will have more natural-looking photos without the pink cast.

 

Im trying to get the white balance in post and all im managing is a black and white image....

[Stefano]

If you have a deep IR filter, such as 850 nm, it is normal, but I think I am seeing some colors.

[microbat52]

I finally managed, but it did get super noisy! Maybe I should try with 720 instead of 760.

[Andy Perrin]

Yes, don't use as deep a cut off and you will get more colors. Nice photos, and honestly I would just leave them as black and white.

[microbat52]

Thank guys, I found a 680nm so I ordered it :)

I think I also need to try on a sunnier day. So much to learn!

[dabateman]

Last image is great. Its fun to bring new life into old cameras.

Keep having fun, that's the most important part.

[Adrian]

That looks like Epsom Downs racecourse to me! One of my favourite spots for testing IR photography, and just two miles from home!

[Andrea B.]

Microbat, during the Dec 6/7 outage, you lost the photos from the first post.

Go into the editor and delete the existing photos from the list under the editing box.

Then re-upload your photos and place them in the text.

[microbat52]

That looks like Epsom Downs racecourse to me! One of my favourite spots for testing IR photography, and just two miles from home!

 

Ah sorry I missed this ( need to figure how notifications work).

We are neighbours! What are the chances???

I still need to go to Ashtead common to try the IR camera. If only the weather cooperated....

[microbat52]

Microbat, during the Dec 6/7 outage, you lost the photos from the first post.

Go into the editor and delete the existing photos from the list under the editing box.

Then re-upload your photos and place them in the text.

 

Andrea I think I missed the editing timeframe