G1X - New Day, New Pics

Marco, could you post a few more IR pictures. That is something I am interested in exploring. I am surprised the the G1X does so well with IR. I would like to see more! How does it handle focusing?

kayaker353 said:

Marco, could you post a few more IR pictures. That is something I am interested in exploring. I am surprised the the G1X does so well with IR. I would like to see more! How does it handle focusing?

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I took another one today. Only one. Will post it when I get home.

It focuses VERY fast through the lens with the IR filter over the lens. I noticed that when a cloud blocked the sun the other day, it had some delay in being able to lock focus.

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Regards,

Marco Nero.
http://www.pbase.com/nero_design/powershot_pro1

I wonder if Marco gives photography lessons?

ts

gail said:

Bananasplit said:

Unless you have flaws (like orbs), or you go to images with very large size, you will not make a difference between good cameras.

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But where the G1X should shine is at high ISO. I wish G1X owners would show more high quality, high ISO photos. For most outside shots, I agree, there is not much difference between good cameras.

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No offense, but what is the purpose of high ISO? I can see the need, but it is rare indeed for me, I seldom see ISO over 400 and generally mine is 80. I do live in a sunny bright area and most of my pics are taken late in the day when light is best.

Member said:

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My S100 Galleries ~ http://www.pbase.com/gailb/canon_s100
My Canon S100 Blog: http://www.digicamhelp.com/topics/camera-logs/canon-s100/

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Eternity was in that moment.

Great photos - all I have seen of yous with the G1X. Looks like I need to rent one.

Marco Nero said:

I took another one today. Only one. Will post it when I get home.

It focuses VERY fast through the lens with the IR filter over the lens. I noticed that when a cloud blocked the sun the other day, it had some delay in being able to lock focus.

Click to expand...

Hi Marco, I apologise for my ignorance as I am new to IR photography, but how on earth do you manage to get the camera to focus that fast? On P mode on the g1x, nothing at all turns up on my lcd screen with the IR fliter (opteka r72 720nm) on, and as a result, the camera cannot focus. When I snap a shot, a pure black image turns up.

I notice that you've shot in P mode at these settings:

Tv - 0.4 sec
Av - f/3.5
ISO - 800
Lens - 19.6 mm
WB - Custom

How did you acheive that? The only way I manage to get a visible shot, is to set the exposure to 30 secs at iso 1600 and above. And this is in sunlight that will scorch your face off! Am i missing out of something here?

Cheers!
Nick

Depeche77 said:

Marco Nero said:

I took another one today. Only one. Will post it when I get home.

It focuses VERY fast through the lens with the IR filter over the lens. I noticed that when a cloud blocked the sun the other day, it had some delay in being able to lock focus.

Click to expand...

Hi Marco, I apologise for my ignorance as I am new to IR photography, but how on earth do you manage to get the camera to focus that fast? On P mode on the g1x, nothing at all turns up on my lcd screen with the IR fliter (opteka r72 720nm) on, and as a result, the camera cannot focus. When I snap a shot, a pure black image turns up.

I notice that you've shot in P mode at these settings:

Tv - 0.4 sec
Av - f/3.5
ISO - 800
Lens - 19.6 mm
WB - Custom

How did you acheive that? The only way I manage to get a visible shot, is to set the exposure to 30 secs at iso 1600 and above. And this is in sunlight that will scorch your face off! Am i missing out of something here?

Cheers!
Nick

Click to expand...

Hi Nick.

The IR filters look absolute black when you hold them up to your eyes. There might be a slight red tint to anything that comes through it. Note that my earlier shot of the cactus garden was taken with the filter held over the front of the camera lens. This is what it looks like if you get a filter mount for the G1X and then mount the IR filter in place:



But your camera can see the IR light that makes it through the filter. If you hold the IR72 (720) filter partially in front of any camera lens, you'll get something like this:



NOTE: Taken with a Canon s400

Here' what the scene looks like without any filters at all:



NOTE: Taken with a Canon s95

And if you take a picture without resetting your White Balance on something green like grass or foliage, your picture will look pink, like this:



NOTE: Taken with a Canon s95

You can then desaturate and alter the image in post processing to get something like this (note the light-disc artifact in the middle of the picture... typical of CCD chipped cameras with internal IR filtering)



NOTE: Taken with a Canon s95

Now if you set your WB THROUGH the lens WITH the IR filter in place, you should see things have a greenish cast when you take the IR filter away from the lens. This means you have set your WB for IR use and for a more appealing and easy to edit final exposure.

There are several types of IR filters available and this is the breakdown:

• 1000nm is suitable for low latitudes and strong light use;
• 950nm is suitable for outdoor and strong light use;
• 850nm is suitable for outdoor and strong light use;
• 760nm is suitable for indoor and weak light use;
• 720nm is suitable for indoor and weak light use;
• 680nm is suitable for dawn or faint light use;

The Infra Red filter I use is a 52mm HOYA R72 (720nm).

I have just ordered another one for bright sunlight (950nm) on Ebay. Yet to arrive.

These are the three filters I currently use with the G1X - a 500D Closeup Lens. a Circular Polarizer, and the HOYA R72 IR filter.



However, i have just ordered a 250D Closeup Filter, a Red Filter (for B&W high contrast photography) and a 950nm IR filter. NONE of these are necessary, but some inexpensive filters (except for the closeup filters) can be found these days, especially on EBay. I think I can get more creative with a few extra filters to experiment with and the RED filter should be interesting. The G1X is the only digital camera that I've used that is a lot of fun to shoot B&W with.

If you are shooting with IR, aim your camera at an area of bright contrast. I usually aim for the brightest area of the scene. Remember that IR photography works best with bright sunlight. Not with interior lighting. Cloudy days can be darker when shooting IR. The camera should not have a problem locking onto any object in bright sunlight. If your LCD is black, then you need to set the ISO higher or set it to AUTO ISO. I find that in Manual mode, it's easier to set a high ISO, a slow enough shutter speed and an ideal aperture.

Your camera should indeed focus, even with the IR filter on. You can always use the Manual Focus option but I think you'll find that this isn't necessary.
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Regards,

Marco Nero.
http://www.pbase.com/nero_design

Thanks Marco for your detailed instructions. I already have the filter adapter as well as a 58mm r72 720nm IR filter (Opteka, not hoya), and I've tried again based on your instructions. However, no luck with producing similiar results as yours... very interesting.

Here's a shot of the IR filter held in front of my camera (with WB adjusted as you've suggested):





As you can see, the filter side is totally black with no visible image whatsoever.

Here's a shot in P mode with the filter on:





Pure black, no visible image.

Here it is at iso 12,800 (!!!):





At least it's visible, but image quality is totally out of the window.

Can you think of any possible reasons for these results?

Cheers,
Nick

Depeche77 said:

Thanks Marco for your detailed instructions. I already have the filter adapter as well as a 58mm r72 720nm IR filter (Opteka, not hoya), and I've tried again based on your instructions. However, no luck with producing similiar results as yours... very interesting.

Here's a shot of the IR filter held in front of my camera (with WB adjusted as you've suggested):





As you can see, the filter side is totally black with no visible image whatsoever.

Here's a shot in P mode with the filter on:





Pure black, no visible image.

Here it is at iso 12,800 (!!!):





At least it's visible, but image quality is totally out of the window.

Can you think of any possible reasons for these results?

Cheers,
Nick

Click to expand...

Your results are unusual. But changing the WB will do that. It will give you a different color spectrum based on what you set it on.

If you have sunlight, you should still be able to capture the shot with a tripod but I would suggest using a high ISO similar to my own settings to start with.

First thing you need to do is to make sure you can capture a fairly sharp image using IR filters. Try setting your focus on "infinity".

Here's an example of my earliest test with the IR filter on a CLOUDY and RAINY day when I rested the camera on a window in the city. It was just to see if the IR would work.



I would suggest only shooting on sunlit days and use higher ISO like 3200. Be sure your Noise Reduction at Higher ISO settings is on. Not sure if that makes a difference to you but mine was on by default.

Here's what my image looked like (and this was probably the sharpest of them all) when it came straight out of the camera:



And this is what it looked like with some auto correction in Photoshop: And from memory, all I did was hit "Auto Contrast".



1/10s f/2.8 at 15.1mm iso3200

Remember though that my image would normally look PINK if I had not altered the WB in-camera. It looks more Grey because I deliberately set my WB on some green grass nearby earlier. Different tones and shades of green in the grass will result in different final color tones in your image.

I can't explain your violet hues or the camera's lack of ability to lock onto subjects although with so little light coming through the lens you might expect the focus to be somewhat slower. Try 'spot-metering' to enhance your image brightness. Let me know how you go.

--
Regards,

Marco Nero.
http://www.pbase.com/nero_design

Thanks Marco ... actually the last shot tells you all you need to know re size!! Too big for somew people but spot on for me
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Tom Bell
Dartmoor
Devon

http://flickr.com/photos/tombell1