Crazy idea. (strobist) does it exist? can it be done?

[jonnydonut]

Oh this idea just came to me, and it excites me soo much.

Say I mod a camera and remove the IR blocker. I've investigated this throughly and will do it to my old canon 300D in the next month or so. (You can still get correct autofocus and correct colors easily, by combining visible and IR and it removes harsh shadows.) Amazing.

So here's my question... IR light is invisible, but the sensor picks it up. So what if I bought a strobe or flash that fired only IR light!! I could essentially have an invisible flash.

Think of the possibilities...
wildlife, no-flash wedding chapels, crappy lit highschool stadiums, just endless, endless possibilies. Am I way way out there, or does a flash/strobe like this exist?

[bondarnes]

The only one that I am aware of is fairly weak and is designed to trigger an optical slave without giving any exposure to the subject. That being said you should be able to put an IR filter on any strobe to convert it to IR only.

[jonnydonut]

hmm, and I know you can do that basically with just unexposed film.... do the make IR gels?

Don, when I get this mod up, you might have to come by and experiment this theory with me.. if you want. I ironcally just moved and happen to live next door to Shannon Drawe, so he can come play too. (Denton photo club in the mix)

[dminton]

Been done... you're two years too late


http://www.sportsshooter.com/news/1570

[dbphotos]

I am thinking of having a D100 converted and I know you can choose B&W IR only or Color IR. I know the end results will be different, but what have you done and how do you like it?

[jonnydonut]

here's a link I found very useful.
http://ghonis2.ho8.com/rebelmodnew.html
dbphotos- there are more pages out there, I've read through them, but I can post some pics I get after my mod.

David thanks for the link, that's awesome and I'm glad to know it can be done! I wouldn't say "too late".. not trying to patent anything here, just brainstorming.