In March 2010, I bought a Canon PowerShot SX120IS camera specifically for spectral modification. With compliments from my boss at Camera Clinic who provided me with a Wratten 89b equivalent polyester filter, I dismantled the camera, cleaned dust off the filter as best as possible, fitted the filter, and set down the imager sensor to a height for correct focus. The camera is now able to see infrared from about 730nm and higher.
I used this infrared modified camera during my Good Friday Easter Sunday super long weekend road trip to Port Campbell National Park, Warrnambool and Port Fairy.
The spectral response of digital cameras can be modified to capture infrared (IR) and ultraviolet (UV) light which is invisible to the human eye. In all digital cameras, a specially coated glass filter which blocks/rejects IR and UV is seated above the CCD/CMOS imager. When this filter is removed, the camera becomes highly sensitive to IR and UV, making it a full-spectrum camera. If an IR-passing filter or UV-passing filter is fitted above the CCD/CMOS imager, this camera presents the user with an alternative realm in photography.
IR and UV photography is mostly used for scientific, surveillance, and medical purposes, but has been gaining popularity through increasing discovery on the internet by the average person. More people appear interested in the novelty of doing IR photography than UV photography, and very commonly photograph landscapes and sometimes even portraits.
The bandpass filter of a digital compact camera to be removed.
In my work place at Camera Clinic, I have modified the following cameras for infrared.
Nikon D1, D70, D200
Nikon CoolPix 5000, CoolPix 5700
Canon EOS 10D, EOS 20D
Canon PowerShot G9, PowerShot G10, PowerShot SX100IS, PowerShot SX120IS
Pentax Optio W60
On some days, I suffer lens envy when a very admirable lens in the eyes of serious photographers is brought to my work bench.
Broken Canon EF 50mm f/1.2L USM lens.
Considered a super fast lens for its very wide f/1.2 (as labeled 1:1.2) aperture, this Canon 50mm lens had a broken filter barrel and a front baffle that had lost its adhesion to the cam barrel.
Occasionally accidents do happen. People drop their cameras into water. On some days, a “drowned” water-damaged camera is sent to my work bench for assessment. This is a Canon EOS 7D that had taken the plunge. Its insides were badly corroded and rusted.
Water-damaged Canon EOS 7D camera.
Most cameras do not survive accidents that involve water or liquid intrusion.
Jemapela Photography has a models’ wardrobe containing clothes, costumes, fashion accessories and theme props. Over time, certain items become less useful and are put up for sale.
Jemapela Photography also sometimes sells unrequired photographic equipment.
Sale items are displayed in the gallery below.
For enquiries, please contact Jemapela Photography.
Jemapela Photography specializes in portrait photography including thematic conception, artistic direction and styling. Jemapela Photography also does event photography including weddings.
To request a service quote, please contact Jemapela Photography and provide details such as:
[1] Day, date & time
[2] Location – outdoor, indoor, studio, include suburb, city, state
[3] Duration – how many hours/days?
[4] Description – what is happening? what should be photographed?
[5] Purpose – how will images be used? on a billboard, website, printed article?
[6] Scope – is any digital imaging / image manipulation required?
[7] Delivery – how should images be delivered? electronic (JPG or TIF)? print (size)?
[8] Deadline – when must images be ready for its purpose?
During the recent Good Friday Easter Sunday super long weekend, Averal and I went on a 790km return road trip.
Starting at Melbourne CBD, we drove through the regional city of Geelong and on to the world-famous scenic Great Ocean Road (B100). At the coastal town of Lorne, we went to see Erskine Falls, then continued to the next coastal town of Apollo Bay. Continuing on route B100, we drove through the towering trees of Otway Ranges and some farms until we reached Port Campbell National Park where the famous 12 Apostles stand.
At the Great Ocean Road memorial.
At dusk, we arrived at the town of Port Campbell to spend the night in a motel, and dined at a local beach bar amusingly called 12 Rocks. After washing down our delicious dinner and dessert of rich chocolate cake with a bottle of chardonnay, we swayed back to our motel room for the night.
Dessert of chocolate cake washed down with chardonnay at 12 Rocks bar-restaurant in Port Campbell.
We rose the next day to explore more of Port Campbell and then continued further west to the regional city of Warrnambool where we stayed a night at Herb’s Hus. Our kind hosts recommended us a restaurant called Breakers for dinner. Early next day, we followed our hosts to their farm to watch cows being milked. Later that same day, we drove to Port Fairy where we had ice coffees and a brownie cake while watching the ocean from the verandah of a café called Time & Tide Café.
Exploring more of the rugged shipwreck coast at Port Campbell National Park.
Dinner at Breakers restaurant in Warrnambool regional city.
Watching about 100 cows being milked at the farm of our hosts.
After retrieving our belongings from Herb’s Hus, we made a stop at Hopkins Falls outside Warrnambool, then got on Princes Highway (A1) for the road back home to Melbourne.
During this road trip, I also used my newly infrared-modified Canon PowerShot SX120IS camera. Infrared images will be uploaded in the relevant category soon.
More images of our road trip are in our Facebook profiles.
Photography is both as creative as it is technical. A creative mind is required to produce attractive images, but a technical mind is also required to understand, correctly operate, and precisely repair the cameras used to make those images.
Photography has spanned more than a decade of my life, and continues to do so even today. Since I stopped creating images as a studio portrait photographer, I moved to repairing cameras for professional photographers.
With the passing of 2009, I have clocked 3 years in my current job of repairing DSLR cameras and lenses at Camera Clinic Pty Ltd. Most of my work involves repairing of Canon products by replacing damaged or worn parts. Due to company confidential policies, I cannot show or teach you how to repair cameras and lenses.
Repairing a Canon EOS 40D.
Electronic calibration of a Canon zoom lens.
My typical day at work would involve cameras such as EOS 1D Mark II, EOS 1D Mark II N, EOS 1Ds Mark II, EOS 1D Mark III, EOS 1Ds Mark III, EOS 5D, EOS 5D Mark II, EOS 20D, EOS 30D, EOS 40D, EOS 50D, EOS 350D, EOS 400D, EOS 450D, EOS 1000D, and popular lenses such as EF-S 18-55mm, EF-S 17-85mm IS USM, EF 16-35mm L USM, EF 24-70mm L USM, EF 24-105mm L IS USM, and EF 70-200mm L USM.
Infrared modification of a Nikon digital SLR camera.
Sometimes my work involves camera modifications for infrared photography.
Averal returned from her holiday in the US to Melbourne in time for Australia Day 2010, and also to experience the new lunar year celebration in Melbourne Chinatown.
Averal and I on Australia Day 2010.
Averal and I with our housemate and Aussie friends dinning Szechuan on the eve of lunar new year.
Currently staying in Melbourne, she is pursuing her interests in writing through an online writing class and developing her e-commerce website knowledge, while learning to cook meals and further maturing herself towards independent living in a foreign country.
Digital camera infrared (IR) photography can be done generally in 2 ways. The cheap but inconvenient way is to attach an IR-passing filter, such as the popular Hoya R72, over the lens and shoot images. The expensive but convenient way is to have the digital camera modified and calibrated for IR photography.
The cheap inconvenient method is slow and clumsy, and it is not always a sure-fire way of producing IR images. This method can sometimes produce a whitish circular flare in the center of the IR image, often called a hot-spot. This hot-spot becomes more visible with images shot at small apertures, and it can be observed that the hot-spot bears the shape of the diaphragm opening. There is no easy remedy for this optical problem.
The expensive convenient method is fast and easy. Not only are hot-spots absent, exposure times are short enough for hand-held photography. Not only can the tripod be left at home, the modified camera can be used at lower ISO values hence producing images with lesser electronic noise and higher clarity, or used at smaller apertures for longer depth-of-field to complement landscape photography which IR photography is popularly used for.
Modifying a digital camera for IR photography requires careful disassembly by a qualified technician, and sometimes the camera has to be optically (focus) calibrated after the modification. The imaging sensor (focal plane) position and lens focus (autofocus shift) can be calibrated to suit IR transmission in the camera-lens system. This calibration is necessary for the camera to correctly focus IR wavelengths and hence produce sharply focused images.
For more information on IR photography and IR modification, please see the Camera Clinic website.
I thank my good Burmese friend Pyay Phyo Kyaw for hosting me in Sydney in December 2009. Photographed in Sydney CBD, Royal National Park, Sea Cliff Bridge (Grand Pacific Drive), and Hunter Valley wine region, these IR images were appropriately enhanced in Adobe Photoshop for an improved visual appearance. Comments are welcomed.
The Canon PowerShot SX100IS camera was modified at my workplace Camera Clinic.