EX2F - Capable little Infrared tool - even HANDHELD!

Indeed, but many digital cameras don't like them.  Either the LCD shows next to nothing or the shutter speeds are too long to bother.

EX2F isn't bad at all for IR.

I do like your pragmatic approach to camera ownership.

I wonder if the camera is responding to this much IR does this mean the sensor IR filter is not doing a great job? Normally people have to remove this to do what you are doing. Edit: I wonder if the current fashion for removing anti-aliasing filters is matched by one to remove the IF fillter.

I wonder what an IR blocking filter would do to images.

SRT201 wrote:

Anyhow, for all it's little quirks it turns out to have yet another use! I really like this buggy little camera.

I doubt that IR is having an adverse effect on the normal color images.  They don't seem to suffer from strange flares or low contrast.

I have considered converting a camera to IR in the past but it isn't cheap and just like having your AA filter removed it can wreck the camera if not done by a REALLY good shop.

Well, the images are very strange and very grainy but many cameras won't focus at all with a deep IR (850nm) filter on the front. The EX2F does. The LCD image is very dim but can still be used to frame.

Can't say I will probably use this combo much at all but for some surreal imagery it's at least possible.

Greynerd wrote:

I do like your pragmatic approach to camera ownership.

Well, I haven't found a perfect camera yet.  I usually spend my first few weeks with a camera just experimenting with each of the features and taking hundreds of otherwise useless test shots.  Doing this is a great way to find bugs but just as well can shed light on interesting capabilities that aren't advertised.

More reasons to like an imperfect gadget.

True enough. I forgot to compliment you on the image which is excellent especially as you did not have to do anything drastic to the actual camera.

SRT201 wrote:

I doubt that IR is having an adverse effect on the normal color images. They don't seem to suffer from strange flares or low contrast.

I have considered converting a camera to IR in the past but it isn't cheap and just like having your AA filter removed it can wreck the camera if not done by a REALLY good shop.

Really just a test image. It certainly wasn't thought out at all

The key is finding some decent settings in Lightroom. For IR it isn't too difficult as the color noise that degrades EX2F jpeg's isn't an issue.

I wish the Samsung engineers had spent more time on the camera demosaicing & noise reduction. It's not very good at all. The normal color jpeg's could be so much better if they left a little more luminance noise and did a better job with the false color.

That's why mine is always in Raw+ mode.

One reviewer said that when you use Raw it turns into an entirely different camera.

If you look at Techradar's Noise and Dynamic range charts the difference between Raw and Jpeg is amazing. It is strange when this camera does not really seem to have been built for the purist enthusiast.

They should make it a law that noise suppression can be switched of in all cameras. I far prefer luminance noise to the dreadful orange peel I get in my 18mp Panasonic TZ40 and pretty much any silly mega pixel small sensor. Imagine what the Raw from these would look like which is why they do not have it when pixels soar.

SRT201 wrote:

Really just a test image. It certainly wasn't thought out at all

The key is finding some decent settings in Lightroom. For IR it isn't too difficult as the color noise that degrades EX2F jpeg's isn't an issue.

I wish the Samsung engineers had spent more time on the camera demosaicing & noise reduction. It's not very good at all. The normal color jpeg's could be so much better if they left a little more luminance noise and did a better job with the false color.

That's why mine is always in Raw+ mode.

One reviewer said that when you use Raw it turns into an entirely different camera.

If you look at Techradar's Noise and Dynamic range charts the difference between Raw and Jpeg is amazing. It is strange when this camera does not really seem to have been built for the purist enthusiast.

They should make it a law that noise suppression can be switched of in all cameras. I far prefer luminance noise to the dreadful orange peel I get in my 18mp Panasonic TZ40 and pretty much any silly mega pixel small sensor. Imagine what the Raw from these would look like which is why they do not have it when pixels soar.

SRT201 wrote:

Really just a test image. It certainly wasn't thought out at all

The key is finding some decent settings in Lightroom. For IR it isn't too difficult as the color noise that degrades EX2F jpeg's isn't an issue.

I wish the Samsung engineers had spent more time on the camera demosaicing & noise reduction. It's not very good at all. The normal color jpeg's could be so much better if they left a little more luminance noise and did a better job with the false color.

That's why mine is always in Raw+ mode.

Disabled or at least controlled. The EX2F is indeed a different camera in RAW. I wish Samsung had paid Olympus or Pentax to do the Jpeg engine. The Samsung engine is rather bad and unfortunately that becomes the perception of the camera for most.
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I wonder if the camera is responding to this much IR does this mean the sensor IR filter is not doing a great job? Normally people have to remove this to do what you are doing. Edit: I wonder if the current fashion for removing anti-aliasing filters is matched by one to remove the IF fillter.

The filter is certainly not doing a great job if you compare its effectiveness to that of filters in nearly all current cameras. I have used the EX1 in exactly the same way with comparable exposures.

The following test shot made in the same way would compare with an exposure of the same scene in visible light at ISO80 - F1.8 - 1/6300. In other words a difference of only 9.3 stops.

All current cameras that I know have far more effective IR blocking filters and so there must be significant image degradation in the EX1/EX2F from IR.

Charlie

Not as much as you may think. I have full spectrum NX100 and provided I'm not shooting foilage I can usually set the white balance so the shot looks almost normal (black clothes are always a problem though). 9 stops would be more than enough for most situations (I would look out for black clothes looking dark purple though). In fact in the early days of digital most cameras had far less of and IR filter and were fine for the most part.