I have been a fan of infrared photography for a while now (largely thanks to Bob Vishneski’s amazing infrared work), but I have not had a chance to explore that side of photography yet. After I bought the D810 to replace the D800E, I first thought about selling the D800E. But seeing how much the D800E was going for on eBay and other sites, I decided to keep it and convert it to an infrared camera instead. After some research and a few email exchanges with Bob on who he recommends, I picked the folks at Kolari Vision, who effortlessly converted my D800E to an IR camera. I did not want a full IR B&W conversion, so I opted for the thinner 720nm filter that allows some colors to come through. Have not experimented yet, as it is really cold and snowy outside, but there is some great news for our readers – my future lens reviews will now include infrared ratings and hot spot reports! So if you already enjoy infrared photography or want to start exploring it (I highly would recommend reading Bob’s excellent introduction to infrared photography article), then you will find the IR section of the reviews particularly helpful!
Although I am not currently planning to measure lens sharpness with the infrared-converted D800E (focusing seems to be particularly difficult with IR filter in front of the sensor in Live View mode), I will be doing some tests to see how lenses perform at different apertures and provide examples of hot spots, if I find them. Here is a good example of hot spots visible on the new Nikkor 20mm f/1.8G (captured at f/5.6 and f/16 – move the slider to see both):
Hot spots can be very painful to deal with, making some lenses more desirable than others for infrared photography. In some cases, cheaper is actually better for IR, as expensive lenses with high-end coating and optical corrections can exhibit such hot spots. In the case of the 20mm f/1.8G, seems like that lens will do OK for IR at large apertures, but when stopped down to f/5.6 and smaller, it might show hot spots as seen above. Please keep in mind that the above images have been exaggerated to reveal the hot spot (I dialed -85 in Blacks in Lightroom). The effect is not extreme but will be visible if you make contrast and black level adjustments.
I know that some will say that full-frame is overkill for infrared. Yes, that’s certainly true for most situations. However, I decided to go this route mostly for testing reasons.
Happy holidays!
Tested the Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 16-35mm f/4G ED VR.
Impressive!
Results: www.mathieu.photography/Photo…t-Database
Tested the Rokinon 24mm f/1.4 ED AS UMC (model RK24MAF-N).
=> Not suitable for IR
Results: www.mathieu.photography/Photo…t-Database
I am looking for a 24mm (35mm full frame equivalent) for my modified Canon T5i. I am looking for good results with a 720nm filter. Which lens would you recommend for IR work?
I definitely need to contribute too ;-) Here are the lenses I have tested:
– Nikon 85mm f/1.4G (model 2195)
– Nikon AF Micro-NIKKOR 200mm f/4D IF-ED (model 1989)
– Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 300mm f/4E PF ED VR (model 2223)
– Rokinon 20mm f/1.8 ED AS (model RK20MAF-N)
– Samyang 24mm f/3.5 ED AS UMC Tilt-Shift (model SYTS24-N)
– Sigma 50mm f/1.4 DG HSM Art (model 311306)
– Sigma 135mm f/1.8 DG HSM (model 240955)
– Tamron 17-35mm f/2.8-4 DI OSD (model A037N)
– Tamron SP 35mm f/1.4 Di USD (model F045N)
– Tamron 35-150mm f/2.8-4 Di VC OSD (model A043N)
– Tamron SP 70-200 f2.8 Di VC USD G2 (model A025N)
– Tamron 90mm f/2.8 Di VC USD Macro (model F017N)
Each one combined with these IR filters:
– 830nm (Deep B&W IR)
– 720nm (Standard IR – Hoya R72)
– 590nm (Super Color IR)
Results: www.mathieu.photography/Photo…t-Database
Hi Nasim, I am in the same spot as you were some time ago – want to have a D800 converted for 720 nm infrared. I could luckily borrow a converted D800 from a friend. Now testing that one a) for hotspots, b) for sharpness (with/without AF fine tune, in Live View). Flare can be an issue, but I try to avoid that here. Short for now: Nikkor AF-S 1.4/50 mm and AF-S 1.8/85 mm (my favourites in normal studio work) have bad hotspots from low apertures on; they also have sharpness issues, “should be beyond -20 AF fine tune” (by Reikan Focal testing), in Live View sharpness is OK f2.8-8 (50 mm), 4-11 (85mm). Both 50 and 85 are very sharp in visible light in my testing setup (no surprise). Luckily, my AF-S 1.8/35 mm is fine (no hotspot and very sharp in IR). AF-D 2.8/60 mm is pretty OK f/4-11, no hotspot. Surprising to me, my AF-S 4/24-120 VRII is fine at 50 and 85 mm, no hotspot and pretty sharp at 5.6-11. The AF-S 4/16-35 mm VR is fine, although sensitive to flare. An AF-S 2.8/105 mm VR macro I tested is not sharp in IR. A Tamron 2.8/90 mm macro VC USD (vibration control, not same lens as without VC!) is pretty sharp f/4-8. Will test more lenses if I have the opportunity. I am certainly going to have my D800 converted in a while. I could keep you guys up to date on that. Cheers, Rob Polder
sorry forgot: looking forward to your and others experience with FX converted camera and lenses – cheers!
Everything that was said about the hotspot is dead on. That is definitely flare you are displaying. My current IR cameras are an Olympus PEN E-P3, converted to an 830nm and a Canon S100, converted to 720nm. The Olympus is incredible to use and handle, but the Canon is notorious for experiencing hotspot issues. But since I only shoot black & white IR, the hotspots are very easy to handle in post-processing. When I do experiment with color with the Canon, I’m lucky if 15% of the shots wind up without a hotspot and are usable.
Something about infrared just feels scary. It completely changes colours and makes everything look like its made of some kind of metal.
I’m not sure that is really a hotspot. Normally, hotspots show up in the center of the image. They also normally show up stopped down a bit rather than wide open, so I rarely go beyond f/9 or so with IR. Wide lenses certainly tend to be problematic, but this might be flare or another issue. I use a blue sky test to test for hotspots and test in full stop increments 120 degrees opposite the sun. You normally see them in the same place for all images at a given aperture.
Congratulations on your new camera. IR is a fabulous option – especially for older FX cameras. Having a high resolution camera like the D800 opens up opportunities for IR. I’ve been using a converted D600 for almost two years. The Nikon 16-35 is a very good lens for IR – and does not have problems with hotspots.
One of the big advantages of having some color detail is the ability to selectively edit your image. Most editing tools use color information for selective editing. If you have no color, everything is shades of gray, so masking is much more time consuming.
Thanks for the tips Eric, very helpful. I will be trying infra red for the first time at the weekend via a filter. I have no idea which lenses work for infra red, but will now start with the 16-35. Merry Christmas!
Glad to help. You may get some variation across copies of the same lens, so testing yourself is useful. For example, my Nikon 24-70 is terrible with hotspots beyond f/5.6, while others find it okay. My favorite IR lenses are the 16-35 and 70-200.
Eric, Bob Vishneski emailed me right away this morning and let me know that I was not looking at a hot spot. He also said that hot spots appear in the center. His suspicion, just like yours, was that I was looking at flare. But the weird thing is, there is nothing that could have caused that flare. The target was backlit, but the illumination is very even and there are no lights peaking out anywhere. Either way, I did take the lens out today and although we do not have fully blue skies, there was no trace of the same thing when I looked at the sky pictures. So it was a weird occurrence that I cannot explain. The good news, however, is that the Nikkor 20mm f/1.8G seems to be great for infrared photography as well! I will go ahead and update the above article and the review that I am writing :)
Thank you for letting me know and educating me on this. IR is very new to me, so I will have to learn a lot!
P.S. That’s a beautiful image! Can’t wait to go out and shoot with my IR-converted D800E!
It’s quite possible that you had a small highlight hitting the edge of the front lens element, a filter, or even the edge of a hood. I’ve noticed IR can be quite sensitive to small reflections – especially the hood of wide lenses. You might even get a reflection off a clip or a glossy element in the room.
It certainly is an area you’ll enjoy exploring. Some of the most enjoyable photo outings I’ve had were using IR cameras. It’s a great tool for extending the day.
Eric, highlight hitting the edge is probably not the case, because there is nothing behind the target – it is a gray wall :) I think the stuff I was seeing was uneven backlight illumination, since the target was backlit.
Just re-tested the lens with the blue sky and updated the article. Thanks again for the feedback, now I know how to properly test lenses with IR :)
Eric, I just got my converted Olympus OM-D E-M1 mark 1 back from Kolari and am trying to figure out how to test my lenses for hot spots. None of them are listed on Kolari’s web page. In your post here you seem to have a system for testing lenses. Could you be more specific? Actual step-by-step instructions would be helpful. I would be willing to share my results if I knew where to post them?
Thank you for your time in this matter.
I’ve been shooting digital infrared for about 12 years now. Started with a Nikon Coolpix 5700 and a 820nm filter. Exposures were typically 8-15 seconds. (Shot both color and b&w infrared in the film days too, but that was a PIA to load and develop) Then a Fuji Finepix IS Pro, using several different infrared filters. It didn’t have the resolution I wanted so I traded up to a Nikon D200 converted to 720nm. I’ve done most of my IR work with that and a 17-35mm Nikkor. Works great at any aperture. I just acquired a 16-85 3.5-5.6 Nikkor that works great as well, though it’s a bit slow on the long end. And so far, my Tamron 70-200 2.8 VC lens seems to work fine with infrared, but I need to test it more to be sure. Also the 24mm and 85mm PC lenses work great for infrared.
This is welcome news. Can’t wait.
I have a D600 converted at Life Pixel–it’s great, but my lenses are hit-and-miss for hotspots, and I’m still looking for that one lens I can stick on the camera and just leave there. I wish it was the 35 1.4G–it’s not.
I wouldn’t think FX is overkill for infrared. Certainly wasn’t in the days of film infrared. I dabble in IR from time to time and finding which lenses work can save a lot of money and time.
Interesting note, the front facing camera on an iPhone (and possibly other brands) doesn’t have an IR blocking filter on the sensor. So you can literally put an IR filter in front of the front camera and take IR pictures. The scene still needs to be bright because we’re dealing with a tiny sensor. It’s like the IR camera you can take anywhere.