For a bit of fun (and also to use for astro photography) I thought that I'd have a go at doing an IR conversion on an E-PL5. Why the E-PL5? Mainly because it's cheap, capable, compatible with all my lenses and telescope adapters and also because there is a rather nice guide to follow:
Life Pixel – Olympus E-PL5 DIY Digital Infrared Conversion Tutorial - LifePixel Digital Infrared Photography IR Conversion
I bought the E-PL5 from London Camera Exchange for £150 body only complete with original box, manuals, charger and a spare battery thrown in.
For my conversion I am removing the "hot mirror filter" which consists of the IR filter and also I believe the anti-aliasing filter. I decided the retain the dust reduction filter to provide some protection for the sensor. I am not replacing the IR filter with a visible light cut filter, so technically this is a full-spectrum plus IR conversion. The tear-down went reasonably well and the removal and reassembly was trick y, but without any significant incident!
The back removed
Lots of bits
The IR filter and gasket
No-one was more surprised than me when it started up first time and I got an image on the screen! I took some test photos with my 12-40 Pro lens and can confirm that AF seems to be working well (it is a little slower to lock on), so overall a good result. Below are a few test images that I took to confirm that everyth ing was working OK. All images are OoC jpgs with no additional processing except for white balance changes as indicated.
Auto White-Balance
With custom White-Balance
With Hoya R72 (visible light cut) filter Daylight White-Balance
With Hoya R72 (visible light cut) filter Custom White-Balance
Apart from the terrible test photos (it's a rubbish overcast day) I'm really please with the end result. I just need to wait for a nice clear sky to give it a proper testing.
Source: Olympus E-PL5 Infrared conversion
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