Checking Your Digi Cameras IR Sensitivity

To be perfectly honest, there are thousands of posts on how to check if your digital camera can see infrared light, also known as invisible light, on the internet, so my apologies to those of you who already know how to check if your particular digi camera is suitable.

To see if your DSLR or digital compact can pick up infrared, firstly get yourself positioned in a darkened room and hold your TV's remote control in front of your digital camera, press any of the buttons which send a signal to your TV (but still keeping the remote pointing at the front of your camera and with your lens facing the remote).

Continue to press the shutter button on your digital camera and take a photo of your remote control (buttons on the remote still held down) - take a look at the captured image and you should be able to see a bright white spot, in which case, this confirms that your digital camera can see IR, invisible light.

This simple test only lets you know whether your camera can see IR light, it does not let you know how much of the invisible light spectrum is actually visible to your particular digital SLR or compact and to further test your camera, you will need an infra-red or opaque filter.

Another alternative is to search Google for your particular make and model of camera to see if it is possible to use for digital infrared photography.

In my own personal experience, most semi-professional DSLR's can see invisible light whereas the more advanced pro digital SLR's cannot because of their own internal IR blocking filter.

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Jane Newman.co.uk