Trying to Infrared, but not quite getting there

This morning I was processing / sorting some greenbottle photos. In the afternoon I went out to test my fisheye lens with the Cokin P filter holder and a Hitech ND0.9 filter. I also decided to test my cameras with my Hitech Infrared filter.

It took me quite a while to get all the camera stuff together, then I went out to a nearby field. Unfortunately the old piece of farm machinery that used to be in the field wasn't there any more. And the grass had turned from being red about a week ago, to being yellow / brown.

Anyway, I tested the ND0.9 filter, and found that at f/11, it only got the shutter speed down to about 1/10s. So I would need a much darker filter for doing long exposures in daylight.

Next I tested the Hitech Infrared filter on my different cameras, I found I needed about 5s at f/8 on the Canon 450D and Nikon D200, and 1s at f/5 on the Panasonic FZ5. I found that the lens / filter needed shading to prevent flare. I didn't bring the lens hood(s) for the Cokin filter holder, so I just used my hand as a lens shade.

I was surprised not be disturbed by anyone walking their dog all the time that I was out in the field (about an hour I think).

When I got back home I started processing the images, and found that they were very IR - the trees and green foliage was still quite dark. Also, some of the images still had some bad flare from the filter, and some had my hand in them.

After dinner I watched an episode of Star Trek TNG, and it was just so incredibly maniacal and rubbish. The only thing that could have made it any worse if Picard and Riker were doing stretching exercises along with Dr. Crusher and Troi. I did notice that Gates McFadden's hair was shorter in this episode. It does still look a bit like dog's hair, but no longer looks like a horse's tail.

After that I looked into IR photography, and found that all 3 of my cameras have strong IR blocking filters. The Hitech IR filter cuts at approx 720nm, which apparently lets in some of the visible spectrum of red light. So in effect, the Hitech Infrared filter was acting more like a red filter than an infrared filter.

Looking at my images, I would say the Panasonic FZ5 is the most IR sensitive of my cameras, though it seems that even the FZ5 has a strong IR filter.

I found out that the B+W 093 filter cuts out all visible light (which should mean that I could take real IR photos with my cameras, just with much longer exposure times).

So I looked to see how much the B+W 093 Infrared filter was. First I tried to find the place I'd seen cheap B+W filters before, but I couldn't remember its name. After some searching on the dpreview forums, I found it was hvstar, and they have now changed to maxsaver.net. But looking at the B+W 093 filters on their website, they are still quite expensive. Actually, if I had to pay VAT plus Post Office fee, they would work out cheaper to buy from the UK ($149 from maxsaver.net vs. £129 from UK shops for the 77mm filter size).

I would want to get the 77mm filter size so it would be compatible with possible future lens purchases, e.g. the Canon 24-70mm/2.8 or the Sigma 10-20mm/4-5.6 DC lens.

Since the filter was very expensive, I looked at IR compatible cameras, the Fujifilm IS Pro (which has no IR cut off filter, so you would need to use an IR cut off filter on your lens for normal photography), is currently £599 from Warehouse Express. While the the Sigma SD14 (which has a user-removable IR cut off filter) is about £279 from thedigitalcamerashop.co.uk. Of course, both cameras would still require an IR filter to let only IR light through, but they would 'absorb' a lot more IR light than visible light (unlike my current cameras).

I won't purchase either at the moment though - I need some money!