I love FA77/1.8

The FA77 is small, light, and amazing quality!! The color is nice, it's sharp, and the bokeh is very good. I just love it!

A few shots from Hokkaido

Oh, the trip was 6 months ago... just start again to post some photos from the trip... I am so lazy. No excuse for myself :(

All photos by K20D,

with DA14/2.8

with FA77/1.8

with FA43/1.9

with DA14/2.8

Some more IR photos with istD

Further to the test before, here's are more try-out of IR photos with istD. With the better IR sensitive, I am able to shot at a lower ISO level (ISO800 in this test), and I am satisfy with the results.

I am in the process to get the correct focus at close-up photos with my Vivitar Series 1 105mm f.2,5 macro lens. Hope I can get some interesting macro / close-up IR photos later.

IR photos on Pentax istD

Learnt that the CCD in the istDs lets more IR light to lass through it's IR-filter, I took our my old istD, charge the battery and do a few test shot just outside my bedroom window.

As expected, the istD has the same exposure compensation factor - in my case of 850nm filter, it needs 13-stops. Although it sounds not a big difference to the 16-stops required by my K20D, it's a big difference in actual operation. At ISO-1600, a 13-stops compensation under the winter sunlight means a ISO1600, f/8, 2s; but with 16-stops compensation means ISO1600, f/8, 16s - a quite noticeable operation difference.

On the other hand, I can't find any bandings in these istD test photos. Sounds good, but it's not conclusive yet and more test will be needed.

Some more on IR photos

I posted some IR photos to my facebook page, and one of my friend was enticed and begin searching for more info about IR photography, and he find THIS PAGE (in Chinese).

According to this Taiwan guy, he gets good result with his istDS + 720nm IR filter; and he use his DS solely for the purpose of IR photos. He is bold enough to remove the internal IR pass filter inside his DS on his own, and replace it with an 720nm IR filter....

One of the major problem with IR photos (on digital) is the ultra low sensitive and hence long exposure time even under bright sunlight. This is because the internal IR filter was used to filter most of the IR light reaching the CCD / CMOS, and left only a very small portion for exposure. If you remove the internal IR pass filter, you can get a 'normal' exposure time. (The 720nm IR filter, as the guy replaced it for the original internal IR pass filter, merely filter off visible light spectrum and make sure the photo is not 'ordinary'.

The guy also said that we need to block the VF during exposure. Maybe that's the reason I get bandings / flares in my IR photos. More test is needed. I am also planning to try using my istD for IR. Or maybe I can get a 720nm filter too...

PS. I am a clumsy DIY man, and surely I cannot manage the complicated DIY job. ;(

Banding in IR photos

More tryout with IR photos, and I find that the K20D is not very suitable for this purpose. The huge 16-stop exposure compensation is one reason (and that's because the strong IR-cut filter in front of the CMOS); but the main problem is random banding appears on the picture.

The banding in the following image is not the worse one. At worst, the whole picture is not visible. However, the picture sometimes appears clean without banding..... Since it appears randomly, you cannot avoid it.

Also try the IR filter on my friend's istDs, banding is still there, but not that serious. The exposure compensation factor with IR filter for istDs is 13-stops, much better than on K20D. Maybe I should test my istD with IR.....

Infra Red photos

Ever since I started photography many years ago, I was always fascinated by the surreal effect of IR photos. I never tried IR photo thou because of the unexpected effect of IR photos would be very hard to manage with films.

With digital, I though it would be easier to try IR photos, and I just get a cheapy Made-in-China IR filter to try this new area of photography.

I was wrong about "digital-is-easy" thing.

On almost all digital camera, there is a infra-red filter in front of the sensor (CMOS or CCD) because the IR gets into sensor will create unexpected color pollution to the photos. Leica M8 had made this mistake and been complained of pink-tinted white color. The IR pass filter used on the K20D is quite effective, combining with the IR filter, the ND factor is a whopping 16-stops!! I have to resort to a min ISO-1600 under bright sunlight scene.

The logistic is also quite clumsy, and reminded me of dark-room works in the old days. Here's what need to be done:

1) Use a tripod. (even at ISO1600 and bright sunlight, it takes 30s and f/8 to make a correct exposure)
2) Frame your picture WITHOUT the IR filter (the IR filter is totally dark and you can't see anything in viewfinder after you put it on)
3) Focus WITHOUT IR filter
4) Put on the IR filter
5) Use manual on the camera, and set the aperture/shutter according to previous exposure tests.
6) Shift the focus to the IR focus mark on lens, if any. Too bad most lens today doesn't not have the IR focusing mark, so I need to GUESS. Gee......
7) When back home, tune the curve and level of the pic. Change to monochrome or change WB...

All in all, it's very fun. Obviously, the end-result is not good enough. But I enjoy it.