Hello, Done IR for a while, now diving into UV

[KarlBlessing]

Hello,

 

I'm Karl Blessing, been doing photography in general since around 2002, professionally from around 2006+. I've played with infrared photography starting with film (Kodak HIE), then some filters on non-modified cameras yielding results like this requiring long exposure on my older Olympus E-M5

 

 

Then getting a modified Olympus E-M1 Mk1 (which was sold as a 'full spectrum', but seller meant 'full color' as LifePixel calls it, doing 590nm and up), and dived a little more into that including doing nighttime infrared under a full moon.

 

 

 

 

Ended up taking my old Pentax Q10 and removing the hot mirror myself (Very easy to do, but you lose some autofocus capabilities with native lens), and using either a BG3 UV/IR filter, or a Luv U II (320nm~390nm with 360nm peak) UV only filter, I found that it's a little more difficult even in full daylight to capture (needing to shoot ISO 800 and 1/4th of a secon at f/1.9), which I suspect is mostly due to lens optics being natively coated with some UV blocking elements. I have an EM-5 Mk II coming this week that has been full spectrum converted and may be able to test most of my adapted lens with that including an old Nikkor 75mm f/4 enlarger lens.

 

[montanawildlives]

Welcome! Cool shots. A .25 second exposure at iso 800 is faster than I can usually manage with my UV gear.

[KarlBlessing]

Welcome! Cool shots. A .25 second exposure at iso 800 is faster than I can usually manage with my UV gear.

 

Kind of what I was wondering. When I was looking it up, since I had the little Q10 for years, when they came out they were an expensive little mirrorless with a 1/2.3" sensor, didn't really take off, so the price of them dropped substantially, so I was able to get it, and its prime and zoom lenses for under 200 total. Was trying to find what to do with it from there, and turned out a lot of people were pulling the hot mirror for astro usage since the sensor was considered very sensitive ( http://mecastronics.free.fr/PentaxQ10AstroIR.html ), but course just cutting out the hot mirror and not replacing the glass with some kind of silica or quartz you lose accurate autofocus beyond a short range, especially with the zooms, though I've found filtering the front to either UV or IR, or UV/IR (ie: not all three ranges) tends to regain some of that AF.

 

The "LUV UII" filter is a custom one made by uviroptics on ebay, which is basically SCHOTT UG11 UV Bandpass filter stacked with a S8612 glass (VIS/IR suppression), any other filtering that includes IR or visible, the sensitivity is a lot better than just standard visible light capture.

 

It's my hope that the converted Olympus E-M5 ii to full spectrum will be a little more sensitive and better overall quality, similar to that of my IR converted EM1 but to get similar quality on the UV side. I know at the very least if I had to do ISO 800 or 1600 on the EM5ii the noise quality is going to be a looooot better than the Pentax Q10 (it's small 1/2.3" sensor suffers a lot of noise for anything above ISO 200).

 

The main reason I have that UV-only filter is because of another obsession being the Oakley sunglasses I've gotten into, and a member there was curious if I could use my full spectrum Q10 to detect any passage of at least UVA thru damaged optics (scratches, dings, etc) , and for that purpose with either the 362nm peak flashlight or studio strobe (gives off a residual amount of UV from a full discharge of the tube) I could easily test that, even if the photo quality isn't that great.

 

 

 

I'm still working on a way to do something a little more clean for that purpose.

 

Though at least UV/IR with the BG3 is quite doable, but I know there's some residual visible light on the blue side probably around 400nm~450nm being let in.

 

[Fandyus]

Hi Karl.

Very nice photos! Good luck with your future UV work and be sure to post the results here.

[dabateman]

I got my Em5mk2 converted to full spectrum at the end of 2020 by Kolari. Very happy with it.

I set my Olympus cameras with noise filtering off, for best sharpness and I always have the dark frame subtract mode on for every exposure.

If your subject is perfectly still, you can use multi shot mode to take two images at higher ISO and the camera internally merges the images to reduces the noise.

You can also shot in high resolution shot mode up to 8 seconds to get excellent images that can be down sampled later or used directly.

Its a very good fun camera for UV.

[KarlBlessing]

I got my Em5mk2 converted to full spectrum at the end of 2020 by Kolari. Very happy with it.

I set my Olympus cameras with noise filtering off, for best sharpness and I always have the dark frame subtract mode on for every exposure.

If your subject is perfectly still, you can use multi shot mode to take two images at higher ISO and the camera internally merges the images to reduces the noise.

You can also shot in high resolution shot mode up to 8 seconds to get excellent images that can be down sampled later or used directly.

Its a very good fun camera for UV.

 

Good to know, I haven't had any of the Mk2 onward of the Olympus cameras, but I'm very familiar with doing HDR merges to stack cleaner images as well as doing dark frame subtractions with the same cameras (mostly for star trails etc). Until I took the IR cut filter off my little Pentax Q10 I mainly been using my converted Olympus E-M1 (mk1) for Infrared stuff.

 

And some images like this one, are stacks of about a dozen images at varying exposures, about dozen in infrared, and dozen in visible light.

 

 

That big orange infrared of the dirt area above is a panoramic composite of 2 rows and 4 columns of shots taking 20 minutes to complete (60 seconds for each exposure plus dark frame, at ISO 800 and f/2.8 for each image), and then printed to about 60 inches wide by 24 inches tall.

 

So I think taking some of the tricks I've done with the infrared side will help give me the patience to do the same on the UV side, plus those additional features you mentioned of the Mk2 model of the E-M5.

 

Currently camera wise what I own is the Pentax Q10 (full spectrum by filter removal), Panasonic GH1 (hacked for 100mbps), GH4, GH5, OIympus E-M1 (Vis), EM-1 (590nm+ IR by LifePixel), E-M5ii (inbound, full spectrum), and my DJI Mini 2 which is technically a camera.

 

The converted E-M5ii I have coming is coming from the ebay user eeassa and I'm aware of this forums history of him, I will be testing his work quite diligently when I get it. (I know he advertises his with that spectracil 2000 for 170nm+ up, but if the sensors aren't even sensitive below 300nm, I'm not sure what the point is).

[Andrea B.]

Loving the IR street work above.

Both the lady in the plaid coat and the next one which almost seems like a ghost parade.

 

I hope you enjoy the forum! Sometimes we are a bit slow paced, but we have good discussions. And there's always something new to learn.

[dabateman]

My Em5mk2 has fused silica on that magical Sony IMX109 sensor and it can see at least to 254nm. I reported about it here:

https://www.ultravioletphotography.com/content/index.php/topic/4346-holly-smokes-the-em5mk2-can-see-254nm/page__hl__em5mk2__fromsearch__1

 

Sadly my Em1mk1 can't see to 254nm. It too was converted in the exact same way as the Em5mk2.

[KarlBlessing]

My Em5mk2 has fused silica on that magical Sony IMX109 sensor and it can see at least to 254nm. I reported about it here:

https://www.ultravio...__fromsearch__1

 

Sadly my Em1mk1 can't see to 254nm. It too was converted in the exact same way as the Em5mk2.

 

Well that's good to know :P except I don't think my choice of filter let alone glass will let me see down to that far (plus how would you light it?)

[dabateman]

 

 

Well that's good to know :P except I don't think my choice of filter let alone glass will let me see down to that far (plus how would you light it?)

 

Oh yes, sorry Don't. Don't try it.

You need a very very expensive lens or you would need to build one.

Then you need a super expensive filter or be lucky and snag a good used one.

 

Then you would need extremely dangerous lights, and not be anywhere near it while imaging.

 

And if you're crazy like me to do all that, most of what you see is black. Some interesting things pop out like a dandelion

But most things are just black.

[nfoto]

Hi and most welcome to UVP -- seen your introduction images, we have high hopes for the future ....

 

It might be wise to initiate new topics, or add to exisitng threads, instead of showing more images here in this thread. The same applies to discussion about csmera gear and modifications.