[song_hm]

It's been asked, but so far no answers. How much moola?

Check this thread.

[cygnet]

Thanks, I had not found that thread when I was searching on IR info.

[atnbirdie]

I highly recommend the Pentax Forum member "lianglunche". He's located overseas, but even with the shipping charges to get my K100D to him it was cheaper than other locations I found when searching for a conversion source.

He converted the camera very quickly and got it back to me quickly too. The sensor was spotless and he re-calibrated the focus well.

I love my converted camera's speed too!

Good luck,
Steve

[jfsavage]

I have a converted K100D and I love the results. I do have a spot under the sensor which is a pain, so watch out for that.

Also, cleaning the sensor seems much harder than normal; I had a friend do it who has a vast amount of experience, and he has not been able to clean my IR camera fully (the spot under the sensor can't be changed of course). Once you get a reputation for cleaning sensors, everyone wants you to do it!

There are lots of things that become harder in IR - metering is different, as the ratio of visible to IR light varies by scene - get used to doing lots of preview shots to check the historgram. I've also found different lenses need different focus compensations - a K20D conversion would be much better ;}

[slomojoe]

I can also vouch for lianglunche's work, I have bought a K100D from him (off ebay, you can search for his name, though right now he only has Canons for sale). And I also have a couple recalcitrant dust spots, which however are usually fairly easy to fix in pp. I suspect that unless one works in a completely, industrial-level dust-proof environment, spots are probably unavoidable.

Incidentally, I asked him if the IR-filters he uses are safe to clean with conventional wet cleaning methods (e.g. Eclipse/E2), and this is what he replied:

Hi I think you had better abandon wet-clean. I use tampon clean the filter, take it easy, the filter is very hard, if the dust is very stiffly , you can use tampon with few(just feel little wet) 95% alcohol to clean, but you have to do it carefully.

I haven't tried this yet, since I am not too bothered so far.

Here are a few IR pics taken with that camera that I posted here just recently.

[atnbirdie]

I guess it depends on what you mean by wet? I see in his response to you, he noted that he does us a damp method of cleaning.

I use sensor swabs to clean my sensor when air blasts fail to do so. I asked about using the swabs and he noted that as the filter was glass you could sensor swab clean it. I didn't say I used a cleaning solution on the swab, but I follow well documented procedures that involve dampening the sensor swab with Eclipse2 cleaner. As I said, the IR converted camera came back with a clean sensor, so haven't had to clean it yet, but I feel safe in using this method on it.

Steve

[slomojoe]

I guess it depends on what you mean by wet? I see in his response to you, he noted that he does us a damp method of cleaning.

I use sensor swabs to clean my sensor when air blasts fail to do so. I asked about using the swabs and he noted that as the filter was glass you could sensor swab clean it. I didn't say I used a cleaning solution on the swab, but I follow well documented procedures that involve dampening the sensor swab with Eclipse2 cleaner. As I said, the IR converted camera came back with a clean sensor, so haven't had to clean it yet, but I feel safe in using this method on it.

Steve

My concern was whether the IR filter has any sensitive coating that swabbing (even wet, and as opposed to "tamponing") may scratch, or that the methanol in Eclipse or methanol/isopropyl alcohol in E2 may damage (I assumed the 95% alcohol he recommended was ethanol, which is also in E2, but in retrospect I don't know). I use sensor swabs and Eclipse/E2 for my cameras, so that's what I asked about. I guess I can always get some 100% proof ethanol and give that a shot.

[atnbirdie]

Well, call me reckless, but I'm going to continue to use the Sensor Swab/Eclipse2 method. I'll report back when I next have to clean my sensor with a swab and let you know if I screwed it up!

It just seems to me that if we follow proper sensor cleaning technique like doing a thorough air blast cleaning first to remove all the big chunks, then using the sensor swab (very lightly moistened) for only 1 gentle swipe per section of swab, there's not a whole lot of chance of damaging a hunk of filter glass.

Steve

[slomojoe]

Well, call me reckless, but I'm going to continue to use the Sensor Swab/Eclipse2 method. I'll report back when I next have to clean my sensor with a swab and let you know if I screwed it up!

It just seems to me that if we follow proper sensor cleaning technique like doing a thorough air blast cleaning first to remove all the big chunks, then using the sensor swab (very lightly moistened) for only 1 gentle swipe per section of swab, there's not a whole lot of chance of damaging a hunk of filter glass.

Steve

So, you did use it on your IR filter? If so and it works, I would not worry about it either. As it's often the case with these things, an excess of caution is the rule (e.g. many camera manufacturer do not recommend any kind of wet cleaning, other than sending it back to service, where of course they do wet cleaning themselves).

[atnbirdie]

No, I haven't done an IR sensor clean yet. I was just reiterating how I do any sensor cleaning procedure and so how I will do it when my K100D-IR needs a cleaning.

[slomojoe]

No, I haven't done an IR sensor clean yet. I was just reiterating how I do any sensor cleaning procedure and so how I will do it when my K100D-IR needs a cleaning.

OK then, you'll be the guinea pig (strictly speaking, your sensor will be...). Just let the rest of us know how it works.

[jem]

I highly recommend the Pentax Forum member "lianglunche". He's located overseas, but even with the shipping charges to get my K100D to him it was cheaper than other locations I found when searching for a conversion source.

He converted the camera very quickly and got it back to me quickly too. The sensor was spotless and he re-calibrated the focus well.

I love my converted camera's speed too!

Good luck,
Steve

Just wanted to add my recomendation for Leiyun's (lianglunche) very professional work. I just bought and received a K10D converted to 720nm. The sensor is spotless and the camera has been well tuned for the near-IR filter. The whole transaction took less than a week from query to the camera arriving on my front doorstep. This kind of camera conversion is a wonderful new way to revisualize the world. Now I just have to work on my near-IR post-processing technique.

Best,
John

[miltona580]

I was wondering, has anyone done this lately? It looks like Spencer's is still doing it. If you used them, did you have good luck with it?

[Old Man]

I was wondering, has anyone done this lately? It looks like Spencer's is still doing it. If you used them, did you have good luck with it?

You should do a search, I read somewhere that some folks have had some bad experiences getting their
cameras converted and some have had good experiences.
I did my own to an Olympus camera, but would not even try with one of my Pentax's.

[smigol]

I used them several years ago and it went well.
Looking at the CCD of my K10D, I see clips that hold the hot mirror plate in place. It seems that there may be a way to remove this without too much disassembly of the camera.
The people doing Canon mods all approach from the back of the camera, but then that system doesn't have the SR.
When I had my K10D open, I could see how the CCD rests on a moving panel. The whole SR system adds extra hardware and cabling that aren't in the other devices.

Some of the older bodies are getting pretty inexpensive. If I were to do it again, I'd get another body and try it.