Cameras for UV: Pros & Cons of Various Choices

[Andrea B.]

IR Phone

Thanks for the cool link, Col. I think this should go into the Sticky somewhere.

 

It would be great fun to have an IR phone I think. But I'm not sure I would want to pay for two cellies because I think I would want to keep my current visible cellie as a visible cellie. I find myself using it more and more for casual stuff. (Ymmv and all that.)

 

I looked thru the DIY instructions. Very cool of Eigen Imaging to include that. And they have made up a nice filter kit.

 

It looks rather tricky to mod a cell phone. In the past I've tackled modding my own Nikon cams a time or two, but it never involved soldering or dissolving adhesives.

 

The natural question: Could a Baader-U be fitted internally in place of the IR blocking filter so that we could have a UV Cellie? What fun!!!! Maybe I'll write and ask the Eigen guy.

 

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UV-Capable Film

I wanted to say how much I have enjoyed the film discussion above. Of course I've frequently remarked that I am a 'child of the digital age' in spite of my advanced age. And I know absolutely zip about film and much less about UV-capable film. Recently we had a NYC photographer asking about UV film shooting. I hope she saw that discussion above as it might be useful to her.

 

I would like to excerpt some of the preceding posts and put something in one of the Stickies about UV-film. I'll start a new thread for that. I will credit any contributers, of course.

[Daniel Geiger]

I recently had a Canon 5D mark II converted to full spectrum. IR works well with super color to deep IR filters. I mainly shoot Zeiss ZE lenses, even the F-Distagon 16 mm C/Y with orange filter gives interesting images.

UV: still learning a lot. It produces an image, but I cannot compare it to anything. Use Nikkor EL 80/5.6 (old), and MPE 65 with 10x lower transmission than Nikkor EL 80).

[Bill De Jager]

I have some additions to the list:

 

Canon 3Ti/600D https://www.ultravio...fepixel__st__40 (issue in subsequent posts was over quality of filter)

Canon 5Ti/700D

Canon 6D https://www.ultravio...__fromsearch__1

Nikon D5100 https://www.ultravio...__fromsearch__1

Panasonic GX1

Sony A6000 https://www.ultravio...h__1#entry18532

 

My avatar photo was taken with a Canon 6D!

[dabateman]

Thanks for bringing this thread up from the history. I tried a film search on the site with too many variations and missed this thread.

I am testing out my Porta expired film now for deep UV and the above conversations give me some confidence I might see something.

I am have 2 rolls expired Tmax 400, most of my film in the freezer is Portra, as I liked its color. But its all 10 years or more expired now. So interesting if that helps or hurts for UV detection.

[Bill De Jager]

Taken with broadband GX1, Sigma 60mm f/2.8 DN, and Baader Venus filter, using autofocus.

 

This is an older camera so sensor performance isn't as good as more recent ones. ISO was limited to 800 for that reason. UV index was 4 at the time the photos were taken. White balance had been set to 2500K to try to reduce oversaturation of the red channel. Camera was on a tripod and a self-timer was used to reduce movement. Post-processing included desaturation and a very large contrast boost.

 

Both photos taken today in the San Francisco Bay area. The mild Mediterranean climate means that un-irrigated grass is green in winter, while some trees are evergreen and others have lost their leaves.

 

 

GX1 Test #2 by Bill de Jager, on Flickr. 0.6 second at /5.6. Grass is green in foreground and background.

 

 

GX1 Test #1 by Bill de Jager, on Flickr. 1/2 second at f/5.6. Grass and foliage at top of photo are largely green, with a limited amount of dry grass left over from the previous winter green season as well as a great deal of debris (bark, dead leaves) from the eucalyptus tree.