RED IR sensitivity

[fphgrb01]

I plan on going for LEICA via Birger Lens Mount Canon EF plus (+) Leica R for Canon EOS adapter (thanks to Third man's fast spreading infection :)) and I was wandering about the IR sensitivity of the RED? Here is what LEICA can do with the M8 camera and one Schneider-Kreuznach filter (type 092) on:

http://www.leica-camera.co.uk/photography/magazine/2/

so I begin dreaming; or it could turn real?

[Mike Prevette]

Ir sensitivity is NOT a good thing. The M8 is plagued with a weak IR filter. Thats great if all you want to do is IR shots, but for normal photography it's a pain. I got one of the first M8's and helped discover this issue. Leica's answer was: I have to put $120 dollar IR filters on my $3000 lenses mounted to my $5500 camera, It's a bitch.

It turns some black things magenta because of the nonvisual spectrum IR being reflected off dyed things. Since IR light focuses at a different point than the normal visual spectrum light your images are plagued with a "vieling" of a soft ir image layed over the sharp visual spectrum image. You see this on leaves hit by bright sunlight, and other IR rich shots. It's a total bitch. If you want IR, remove the OLPF/Ir filter, but for normal imagery I don't want any IR sensitivity on my RED.

_mike

[Kevin Halverson]

Removing the IR (high pass filter) would be fine, but there is never a situation where you want to shoot without the low pass filter, the camera would alias badly with it removed. As for what type of effort would be required to remove the filter I can't comment on as I haven't torn a RED down far enough to know.

[Mike Prevette]

Unfortunately they are usually the same piece of glass. It would be cool if they made a Low pass only filter you could swap, with the standard one. That would start to necessitate some kind of clean room though.

[Kevin Halverson]

OLPFs on their own, don't have chromic properties so the high pass filter would have to be a separate element. These might be bonded into a sort of monolithic structure, but the filter block would be comprised of three distinct elements, two for the low pass (one for horizontal, one for vertical) and one for the IR high pass.

[fphgrb01]

The thin filter of M8 was a conscious decision, as far as I know, LEICA love to play on the edge and honestly, I like that. Surely it is not for normal imagery, but if you want to go for that kind of look, and I can think of quite a few cases where I actually would go for it, then, IR sensitivity is not a bad thing. I have no idea how crazy actually is to remove the OLPF/Ir filter and whether it could actually be done without doing some damage to the camera. Also, not sure whether the sensor would not get too exposed in a bad way. But my quiestion was more like what if without removing the IR filter we attach Schneider-Kreuznach filter (type 092) to some of the LEICA (or not just LEICA for that matter) fast lenses? would we get something like the images Rainer Bültert got with the M8? I guess the answer is no :)