I recently came across this web page and thought that some of you may find it interesting:

Digital Infrared FAQ

I would be interested in your comments as well.

Terry O

Yes

I have seen this before as well. The technique was also practical with IR-sensitive film - pre digital camera days. Mainly used fir artistic effect in photography.

I recently found out that my plain old Pentax Optio S4 detects near-infra red.

To test if your digital camera is suitable,
turn on the digital camera, make sure you have the preview screen on as well, the just point any old IR remote control at the camera lens, push a button on the remote and you should see the IR LED illuminated when working ( a bit like shining a torch into the camera ).

Some digital cameras have a IR blocking filter built into the lens system so it may not work with every camera.

To capture near-IR images you still need special dark filters in front of the camera ( a HOYA R72 ) has been recommended to remove visible light. You need to play around with the camera settings and exposure times, but they say it works.

NOTE: you can only see the Ir spectrum in the 350nm-1000nm range.

Thermal imaging cameras for CM work in the 10000nm - 14000nm ( 10 micrometre - 14 micrometre ) section of the far-IR range, so don't expect to get glorious thermal images out of a domestic digital camera.

Fujifilm, produce a near-IR camera that works in the near-IR range. It's called the FinePix S3 PRO UVIR ( google it ).

Applications for CM ??

Forensic types use the camera for all-sorts like aerial drug crop detection, blood splatter, bodily fluids, burn marks, bight marks, damaged document visual enhancement and maybe more.

Surely a useful CM application can be found for the camera.

Useful links

http://dpfwiw.com/ir.htm

http://echeng.com/photo/infrared/tutorial

Petri

Terry,

Petri is correct in that this is NOT thermal infrared. Seeing in other wave bands can provide a great deal of useful information but this hardware is not a replacement for thermal cameras. A good discussion of seeing in various parts of the electromagnetic spectrum can be found in a great book by Dr. Austin Richards called Alien Vision. Among other things he shows images of himself taken in various wavebands. I highly recommend it both as a good read and as a great basic primer on the subject.