Self-converted Nikon D70 & Aerochrome test

[colinbm]

They all look good Christoph.

I need to paint my converted Sigma fp so-as to differentiate it from the non-converted one.

[Christoph]

Yes, it's fun and just nice to have a camera that is also visually different from "normal" ones :-) It's just time consuming, also converting, restoring and getting the cameras ready. Especially the Nikon D70 can be a real pain because it gets a sticky grip after a while. Not to mention dust on the lens from converting. Ugh! But now it's working and produces clean images, even at large f-stops...

[Christoph]

Building my own Aerochrome camera.... it really depends on the combination of camera, lens and filter. The D70 works wonderfully - plus older AF lenses, X1 and Orange... It only takes the channel swap, depending on the combo, to get the results below.... Will probably sell one or the other of these....

 

[Andrea B.]

Great topic, Christoph. Nice work with that converted "Aerochrome D70". And, again, I love the paint job.

 

For future reference, I also have liked the old D300 for IR. Should you ever get the chance to try one, do.

 

******

 

And, have you ever used a "black click" or a "black dropper" after making the white balance in an IR photo? This old technique can sometimes give you a wonderfully colorful IR photo. (It does make things look no longer IR.) You can find black droppers in levels tools. May be in different place for other editors.

 

Here is a tiny sample from your previous photo. I just wanted to pass this along, but it's quite OK if you don't like the effect. It's more dramatic if you see the entire photo, but I did not want to "grab" the entire photo without express permission. Hence the tiny slice.

[Andy Perrin]

I'm always tempted to get one of those AgroCams, just to see what they spit out:

https://www.ebay.com...UIAAOSwetBdgTYo

https://www.ebay.com/itm/123112597783?hash=item1caa152917:g:S34AAOSwbtNaE-x8

[Christoph]

some more pictures from today...

 

[colinbm]

To hot Christoph

[Cadmium]

Christoph, I love these last few that are more red, very nice. I am not a big fan of orange myself.

[Christoph]

Thank you. Yes, red is more beautiful than orange, and if the sky and the color changes are right, then it's just as it should be....Crazy how much depending on the camera/lens/filter combo the whole thing works smoothly or so not at all.

 

[colinbm]

Hi Christoph

Can you show me this photo with a WB click on the brightest part of a cloud, to compare, please ?

[Christoph]

After Photoshop Raw converter:

 

After Channel mixing:

 

WB on cloud:

[Christoph]

Red stays red --- blue skies become a little bit more magenta... I like the cyan cast version - you see that a lot in old Aerochrome images... it matches also well with the pink, reddish tones...

[colinbm]

Love that blue......

Thanks for showing the white clouds, I like it this way.

[Cadmium]

Christoph, These red versions are very appealing to me.

[Nisei]

So you're switching to GBR after shooting with a 550Nm filter?

My method is switching to BRG

How can foliage become red when you've blocked visible blue (and B therefore being the IR channel)?

Original EIR also had R=IR, G=R, B=G

Below are some pictures I took with a Hoya O(G) filter and swapping to BRG (or IRG as it's also called)

 

 

 

 

[Christoph]

I use Green X1 plus Orange 16… I think the 550 (OG) cuts to much, but I‘m unsure. The X1 is the ‚secret‘ ingredient… I lowers IR influx and makes it easy to move the tones of trees (in Raw file) from blue-violett to shades of blue— after that… B to R, R to G and G to blue…