If it is digital, you will need a modified camera. Unfortunately, film seems to only be sensitive to one spectrum at a time (if you can still find IR film, that is). I have a true full spectrum video cam (not moditronic) and can look it over for you if you wish...

I'd love to send it to you - but it isn't mine to send. /sad.png' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':rolleyes:' />

Andy

We tried this back in the 1960s with IR photography which had its own problems. I may have been the first to use thermal imaging in the mid 1970s, which was another attempt to see past our physical limits (that one did not work btw). And now we have digital photography and the extension from UV through visual on into the near IR as 'full spectrum' photography. Again trying to see out into those nasty margins. Experience with all of these technologies has indicated to date that we probably will discover nothing but new artifacts. This is what happened before. We all thought we had something, but upon closer inspection and with a fuller understanding of the technologies and their quirks, we came to realize that there was nothing truly 'unexplained'. In fact some of the most disturbing photos have been taken under normal illumination conditions with very standard photographic equipment.

Now as to the questions. The nature of the detectors used in the cameras is such that they are sensitive in the IR region in what seems at first a non-uniform way. This has to do with the physics of the detectors. The important thing to note is that the IR (near IR) signal is much stronger than the near-UV signal. And this means you have to go through hoops to be absolutely sure you aren't really seeing IR leaks. The UV is so weak that it can be easily overcome by IR light or even visual light. And that could be one of the first sources of artifacts.

As to how one detects UV (or IR for that matter) things become a bit dicey there as well. CCD cameras behave one way while CMOS cameras behave slightly differently. Ironically, one of the better cameras for the purpose otherwise actually shows the near UV as a range of colors ranging from pink through a deep violet. In other words, you can't be assured that UV signals will all render as you might think they would intuitively. To compensate, you can try to filter out the UV, which is the primary cause of most of the confusion. That way, if you see a strange pinkish glow you know you are really looking at a piece of the UV spectrum and not a piece of the IR spectrum.

What no one tells you is that you need extremely high quality optics to do all of this. I feel for people who have tried to do this with cheap cameras. What is takes is a camera that will run you about $400 or so with proper modifications, and anotehr $1600 or so in the lens. This is because you need to use very high quality glass (quartz lenses are common) to avoid creaming the weak UV signal. The lens I use is virtually flat optically from about 100nm up through about 1200nm, which means the glass is not getting in the way opticallly. You have to use equally high quality filters for precisely the same reason; don't want to spend all that on a lens and then screw up by putting a standard glass IR filter in front of it.

The same problems maintain whether the camera is a UV-only or a Full Spectrum. That IR is still out there to get you if you aren't careful. Once you understand how your camera behaves, it is a good idea to do color separation in software. Be careful though, because, yet again, you can introduce some lovely artifacts in that process.

Do I believe FS will actually uncover anything? I have this gnawing suspicon the asnwer is 'no'. But my eternal optimism hopes that I am wrong.

slideshow

enjoy!

Andy

Andy (excited like kid on christmas)

My wife sure wouldn't. It's too close to Christmas for me to spend any money on myself.

I had a greenlight until an unexpected paper service, now it looks like I will just be getting one. People. Ugh, lol...

Andy

Andy

EDIT: ok, so I am a sucker, lol I am ordering both. For comparative data. Yeah, that's it....comparative data. Think she will buy that? /wink.png' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':wub:' />

Be sure to let us know how it does. There's still something fishy about the site to me but I've never dealt with them so I could be wrong. If you like the camcorder and it does what it says it will, then I might think about one as well.

Will do. The principals look sound enough, and they aren't really doing anything that you cannot do for yourself, but if someone wants a Deep IR camera or full spectrum camera without the hassle of the conversion, it is hard to beat their prices/product. I'll let you know what I think about it when I get it and run it through it's paces...

Andy

Andy,

How would you go about making a full spectrum camera? I saw a website for a company making them in a camcorder for under $200 and the website is funny to read about the claims but I'm just wondering it's a simple lens removal or is it more complicated than that.

It is as simple as it sounds. All that needs to be done is to remove the IR cut filter (hot mirror) from in front of the image sensor and replace it with the appropriate filter. Moditronic, The company you are speaking of, has contracted out to an optics lab and they have produced the filters that moditronic use for their camera conversions. I had inquired about obtaining just the filters from them and modding the cameras myself, but they did not wish to sell those alone (understandable). The filters that they use are really good, and optically some of the best I have seen out there. IMHO the price they are asking for these cameras is a fair price.

I too find their page humorous, as they make some pretty wild assumptions as to the abilities of ghosts. I still think that it is worthy of research though. I am really impressed with the HD quality of those SVP cameras that they use, and you can also use them to record video input just like a DVR. I am going to pick up a full spectrum camera next month, so I will put it through it's paces and let everyone know what I think about it's performance. I find it amusing, given my first post in this very thread, that I am going to get one. Reason is simple, though, I don't have the finances to purchase separate cameras, and at this point, I would just be happy with having the capability of taking video in UVa and IR.

Andy

How would you go about making a full spectrum camera? I saw a website for a company making them in a camcorder for under $200 and the website is funny to read about the claims but I'm just wondering it's a simple lens removal or is it more complicated than that.

A.