[Leica] IR photography with cheap cameras

[lrzeitlin at aol.com (lrzeitlin at aol.com)]

 The recent posts on the IR capabilities of the Leica M8 prompted me to try 
it with my carry camera, an Olympus EPL-1. It works. Here is an IR picture 
taken out of my window today of my snowy back yard. The picture was taken 
through a Lee high density red plastic filter offering less than 6% 
transmission in the visible portion of the spectrum. It was impossible to 
focus so I used the Oly body cap fixed focus 15mm f8.0 lens and trusted to 
luck to point the camera. The actual image as seen on the computer was a 
very deep red, almost black. Brightened and desaturated, this is what I got. 
It has been a very long time since I shot actual infra red film but I can 
see that fooling around with cheap digital cameras can produce promising 
results. It looks pretty ordinary but if there was a lot of foliage and 
clouds in blue skies it would be more impressive.
http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/Larry+Z/IR+Photo.jpg.html
Just a note. To see if your camera is capable of imaging IR, just point a TV 
remote control into the lens and press a TV control button. If you see a 
bright flashing light coming from the front of the control, your camera can 
sense IR light.
Larry Z