Canon 5d Mark II infrared test

It seems the 5d Mark II is slightly less infrared sensitive than the Mark I, but with suitably long exposures I was still able to get some IR magic. Usually I convert IR to monochrome, but for some reason I was really digging on the hues the filter was producing, so I desaturated them a bit and went with it.

Results are below… note that these pics seem to have a hotspot near the center. I believe this was due to a smudge on the back of the lens. I didn’t notice the hotspot until I downloaded, and went searching for the cause. Nice greasy smudge, near dead center on the rear glass. Can anyone confirm this can cause a hotspot in long exposures?

No idea how I managed that one… I am so careful. Alas. Anyway, I’ll retest, sans-smudge, soon. The trees look excessively fuzzy because it was windy, and these were 6-15 second exposures.

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a bit of Laurel Falls

Big post of Infrareds

This is the color as it comes out of the camera, after I set a custom white balance so they aren’t pure red

These are various sepia tones

infrared obelisk

Canon 5d
50mm F1.8
Hoya r72 ir filter

I’m thrilled to report the Canon 5d is infrared capable

I’ve been wondering if the 5d was able to take IR photos, and found at least one website that said it was. I decided to give it a try, and ordered a Hoya r72 filter for my 50mm F1.8 lens (since it has the widest aperture). It came yesterday and I took it out at lunchtime to test it. Not only does it work, but the results are better than I was getting with my Canon G5. Here’s an example shot:







The only downside as compared to the G5 is that you had the option to look through the viewfinder when setting up the shot, and it also tried to auto expose so you’d get a faint but visible image in the viewfinder. With the 5d, when you look in the viewfinder, you are looking through the lens, and so having an opaque black filter mounted makes it very difficult to focus and align the shots. For the shot above, I ended up removing the filter, setting the aim and focus, and then carefully putting the filter back on to shoot. But, it came out well enough to make it worth the extra trouble, so I’m not complaining. :)