I need a Digital Infra Red Camera immediately. need Ability to see pictures with the camera without taking the camera home to download pictures. need Ability to down load important pictures to a computer. will only be used to find hot spots on horses. I heard last year the prices were $5,000. Have they come down in price?

-- Jeannie Hamilton (jeanniehamilton@netzero.net), June 12, 2000

Answers

I'm not sure exactly what wavelengths you're looking for, but most digicams don't have built-in IR or Hot Mirror filters so they respond pretty well to near IR. For instance, I have a Toshiba Pdr-M5 and I can easily see and capture the IR emitted from the IR LED(s) on a television remote control when looking at the LCD display. That frequency range is what's called near IR, but the cameras may also be somewhat sensitive to far IR?

Have a look at: www.echeng.com there's a tutorial and a faq, as well as a bunch of links. The tutorial gives some somewhat conflicting information in that he says, "Contrary to popular thought, near infrared photography does not allow the recording of thermal radiation (heat).", but later goes on to say, "it's said that you can capture the near infrared emissions of a common iron." The two statements seem somewhat contradictory to me, but perhaps you can see some near infrared emissions produced in the same areas that are producing heat? I'm not sure, but it's worth a shot. I do know that some forensics experts recommend photographing injuries in assault cases(on living subjects, obviously...) with IR film as well as regular film so there must be some advantages?

I'm not sure if you really need the far-infrared type sensing equipment, you might find that the same areas that heat up produce enough near infrared to show up on a digicam with a good visible light blocking filter like a wratten #87. You'd really have to rent, borrow, or test drive a digicam and try it out with the appropriate filter and see what happens. Perhaps try it both outdoors and indoors.[er, inbarns... :-)] For $500 to $1,000 vs. $5,000 it might just be worth the trouble to see for yourself. Not to mention that if it works out, you'll also have a shiny new digicam to play with... :-) Good luck, and let us all know if you try it and how it works.

-- Gerald M. Payne (gmp@francomm.com), June 12, 2000.