SD14 is UV sensitive!

Well, I finally did a quick controlled UV test of my cameras on hand an I was surprised by some of the results. First what surprised me was my light source was not as strong a UV emitting as I thought would be. So I needed long exposures. Next test I will use a UV light I have.

I used a Pentacon 6 Zeiss 80mm lens for all cameras, as it will mount to all my cameras and I fixed the aperture at f4 to try and avoid focus shift error with the normal spec to UV change. But was unsuccessful in the focus shift, as you can see the dandelions are out of focus. Dandelions are used as they have the classic bull's eye center darkness to signal bees, if you don't see the bull's eye, then your not seeing in UV.

I have a Venus Baadar II UV filter on which allows only 330nm to 390nm, with no IR.

The SD14 was about the best for UV response about 2 stops better than my Full spectrum Olympus E510. The Kodak SLR/n was also UV sensitive at ISO 160, 30 sec shutter, but noisy. Above ISO 160 the images are just too noisy. The E510 did well at ISO 1600 with shutter speeds 15 sec and 30 sec. These were comparable to the SD14 at ISO 400 and 30seconds. The Panasonic GM5 blocks all UV, nothing went through and the Nikon DF also has a fairly strong UV filter on the sensor Needing ISO over 6400 with max shutter speed 30sec. My Olympus E3 seems to had a weaker UV filter showing well at ISO 1600 and 30 second shutter.

So next test I will need to fix the white balance as this really affects the out camera image and with better initial white balance the Sigma would look better.

Below is the out of camera SD14 ISO 400, 30sec

below is the out of camera SD14 ISO 100, 30sec:

Below is the ISO100, 30sec with quick Monochrome adjustment in Sigma Pro 6.5: