Sony Digital Camera for Infra Red Photography

[stranglers4]

Hi there,

I am a painitng conservator and I have been looking for a camera to take infra red photographs of oil paintings in order to look at details hidden underneath paint layers. In certain instances even some pigments can be identifed with this facility and it would therefore prove very useful to me as a picture restorer.

A friend recommended a Sony DSC - F828, but also pointed out that it was now discontinued from the Sony product range and would only be available second hand on Ebay. I don't know how much of this is true, but she also mentioned that the Infra red facility was so good on this camera that in the past Sony had build in a special filter to reduce the effectiveness of the camera to stop unscrupulous people using the facility for inappropriate purposes, (if you know what I'm referring to here then we are on the right track), but she also mentioned that this could probably be removed at a Sony workshop in order to regain the full effectiveness of the camera for the purpose of revealing the full extent of underpainting and underdrawing in oil paintings.

Can anyone help me with this issue ?

Also if anyone knows of a digital camera that takes false colour photographs as well then I would be interested in that too.

Best regards

Brian McLaughlin

[Blencogo · Accepted solution]

Hi Brian,

Amazon Marketplace has 7 used DSC-F828s for sale: -

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/offer-listing/B0000C9VZR/ref=dp_olp_0?ie=UTF8&redirect=true&condition=all

Generally speaking, the newer the digital camera, the better the IR filter in front of the sensor and the longer the exposure required to take an IR image.

To have this filter removed and replaced by a visible light filter is the only professional solution but is extremely expensive.  However, a reasonable result can be obtained using an IR (Visible Light) Filter on the lens and using a tripod (as you will need 5 - 10 second exposures).

You may find this discussion interesting: -

https://www.sony.co.uk/discussions/message/647261#647261