Has anyone had decent results with the standard Q3 and IR photography? Using an IR filter? I hear the internal filter inside the camera blocks much of the IR spectrum so longer exposures may be required. There are internal hacks but I’m not about to do surgery on the camera with its higher price tags. I hear the Monochrom is the unit to get for best results but was wondering anyone else’s experience with a standard Q3 and shooting IR.
JCKnapp74 wrote:
Has anyone had decent results with the standard Q3 and IR photography? Using an IR filter? I hear the internal filter inside the camera blocks much of the IR spectrum so longer exposures may be required. There are internal hacks but I’m not about to do surgery on the camera with its higher price tags. I hear the Monochrom is the unit to get for best results but was wondering anyone else’s experience with a standard Q3 and shooting IR.
Rule of thumb is that the older the digital camera in general, the weaker the internal ICF filter (IR cutoff filter on top of the sensor plane) is and therefore the easier it is to get IR photo on the original unmodified camera (less exposure time for IR light needed due to weaker ICF and more IR light getting through the sensor per time unit). More modern digital cameras use stronger ICF filters to block the IR light since it washes out vibrant colors. It is very hard to use these with the IR filter technique to take IR photos since much longer exposure time and ISO setting is needed leading often to greyish instead of white foliage areas in B&W IR photos.
I am not using the Q series but I used IR photography both on my M-E 240 and M 246 monochrome cameras. The M 246 has the edge since its monochrome sensor allows about one stop faster exposure time. The sensor is covered with an ICF filter but not a very strong one. The color based M 240 is also able to take decent IR photos with unmodified camera sensor, but it requires longer exposure and/or higher ISO setting at the same used lens aperture. I suspect the regular Q3 has an even stronger ICF filter and therefore makes it harder to take IR photos.
I can comment on the Q2M: It has a crazy strong IR filter. At ISO3200, f/4, a 1.3 s exposure through an R72 filter gives a pitch black image. Under the same conditions, a full-spectrum mono-converted A7R4 gives a perfectly fine image with a 1/80 s exposure.
I doubt the Q3 is any different, but as always I am happy to be proven wrong.
theHUN wrote:
I can comment on the Q2M: It has a crazy strong IR filter. At ISO3200, f/4, a 1.3 s exposure through an R72 filter gives a pitch black image. Under the same conditions, a full-spectrum mono-converted A7R4 gives a perfectly fine image with a 1/80 s exposure.
I doubt the Q3 is any different, but as always I am happy to be proven wrong.
Seems Leica continued to use the same ICF (IR cutoff filter) filter for the Q2M as they did for the color based Q2. They only removed the Bayer pattern from the Q2 sensor but left the rest of the layers on top of the Q2 sensor the same. I agree that the same likely is done with the Q3 and Q3M.
