Conversion of Pana FZ20

[Velectron]

Thanks to a previous tip-off by thl that the Pana FZ5 do not need replacement glass for accurate focus, I had converted my FZ20 for IR photography. The procedure is even simpler than for the Sony F707 - just need to take off the IR block filter and everything is done. Sweet.

The caveat -> autofocus does not work at 1-1.5x zoom when focusing at infinity. Need to switch to manual focus. In some circumstances (esp. at 1x zoom), MF also does not work. So wide-angle shots are likely to be near-impossible unless a replacement glass is put in. Tele shots work just fine.

I am still fine-tuning the camera setting and PP workflow. Some test shots are below. Pls pardon the less than optimal contrast in the photos.


1. Rock Pigeon



2. I don't know what this bird is...any body knows?



3. Going in for the kill!



4. Saw these few tortoises following the big one in front and find it quite cute. I suspect the tortoises' shells are white because of algae growing on them, which reflects IR.



5. Naughty boys disturbing some pigeons at Chinese Gardens

[Velectron]

6. These few days were overcast and couldn't see the blue sky. So settled for one "landscape" test shot below my flat when the clouds cleared during one of the mornings.




7. A test shot in NUS



8. An old shot by Sony F707 of the same place. I feel that the colours are more vibrant with the Sony cam here. Perhaps part of the differences lie in the cloudy skies, and less than optimal camera setting and PP workflow. Or perhaps it is due to the different sensor.

[night86mare]

You got put IR filter or?

Looks very desaturated to me leh. All these are out of cam pictures or?

[Wired]

nice pictures...

Velectron, any idea if fujifilm s9500 can be converted or modified to IR?

[Velectron]

Originally Posted by night86mare You got put IR filter or? Looks very desaturated to me leh. All these are out of cam pictures or?

Haha....didn't put IR filter how to take IR pictures?

Yes, I agree with you that they are a bit desaturated, lacking quite a bit of punch. These were taken using default settings, i.e. contrast, saturation at default. After increasing the saturation setting in-camera, the pictures look a bit better but still couldn't approach the quality of F707. All pictures above are already PP-ed.

I am still playing with the settings of the camera to see how it can be improved.

[Velectron]

Originally Posted by Wired nice pictures... Velectron, any idea if fujifilm s9500 can be converted or modified to IR?

Hi Wired,

Not very sure leh cause I dun have experience with that camera. Sorry ah

Unless you happen to have the service manual of that camera (with disassembling diagrams inside)...then maybe can get some clue from there.

[Wired]

ok thanks compadre.

[night86mare]

Originally Posted by Velectron Haha....didn't put IR filter how to take IR pictures? Yes, I agree with you that they are a bit desaturated, lacking quite a bit of punch. These were taken using default settings, i.e. contrast, saturation at default. After increasing the saturation setting in-camera, the pictures look a bit better but still couldn't approach the quality of F707. All pictures above are already PP-ed. I am still playing with the settings of the camera to see how it can be improved.

Chey, because you said something about only removing in-cam IR blocking thing or what.. =D

Using R72 too?

Yeah, very desaturated. I'm not so sure what other people's IR output photos look like, because my Sony one can only give BLOOD RED photos.. =D

[Velectron]

Ok ok...misunderstanding lah

Yup using R72 as well.

But somehow the raw photos are not as brown as the ones by my F707, so I guess that could be the reason for the desaturated look. The histogram usually shows a peak around the center but doesn't extend much to either side...trying to figure out how to broaden the width of the peak so that the bright and dark details are captured. So far, overexposing at +1ev helps to shift the histogram to the right to get me some bright details, but dark details are lost as a result.

[Velectron]

After tweaking with PS a bit more, this seems a little better.

[night86mare]

Yeah, it looks better. But still not drama enough. Could be the sky though. Looks immensely cold though, the feel, that is. And got black dot in the sky!

[Velectron]

Originally Posted by night86mare And got black dot in the sky!

Oh...thats a crow migrating south!

[thl]

I got the same unsaturated sky. But one thing I found out is that on a poor sun lighting (eg overcast) you can also achieve reasonably white leaves.

[Velectron]

thl, thanks for the info. Now at least I know this is more of the camera's problem than anything else. However your sky in http://forums.clubsnap.org/showthread.php?t=238479 look not too bad leh.

Just wondering, when you shoot with your modded FZ5, does the histogram shows a rather narrow and high band? Seems to me that somehow, the sensitivity of the camera towards the bright and dark end is pretty low. At most can shift the band using over/under-expose but doesn't seem to be able to "broaden" the band.

[thl]

Originally Posted by Velectron thl, thanks for the info. Now at least I know this is more of the camera's problem than anything else. However your sky in http://forums.clubsnap.org/showthread.php?t=238479 look not too bad leh. Just wondering, when you shoot with your modded FZ5, does the histogram shows a rather narrow and high band? Seems to me that somehow, the sensitivity of the camera towards the bright and dark end is pretty low. At most can shift the band using over/under-expose but doesn't seem to be able to "broaden" the band.

The sky that day is very good. If taken with DSLR, it will be dark blue and not the medium blue. My histogram also shows a high concentration in the middle band which looks like a bell curve.

Agree that the sensor is not senstive to the extreme brightness and darkness. That is also why under most condition (overcast/bright sunlight) you do not get very dark/bright sky and can get white leaves easily. I usually level and curve to stretch the histogram during pp.

Also now I have used PhotoExpress method of channel swap to get blue sky.
Red100 to blue100
Blue100 to Red100
Green100 to Red50,Blue50

[adamadam]

Is that a pelican?

[Velectron]

Originally Posted by thl Agree that the sensor is not senstive to the extreme brightness and darkness. That is also why under most condition (overcast/bright sunlight) you do not get very dark/bright sky and can get white leaves easily. I usually level and curve to stretch the histogram during pp. Also now I have used PhotoExpress method of channel swap to get blue sky. Red100 to blue100 Blue100 to Red100 Green100 to Red50,Blue50

Thanks for the info bro.