Infrared Images with Micro 4/3rds Cameras

In late 2023, I made a decision to buy round for a micro 4/3rds mirrorless digital camera to transform to infrared. Mostly, I wished to have a digital camera that was appropriate with my OM System OM-1 equipment, because it had develop into my major digital camera physique. Carrying two methods whereas touring is a ache, particularly when one among them makes use of giant lenses. My full-spectrum infrared Nikon Z6 is superb, however the dimension of the physique and appropriate lenses makes it prohibitive to pack as a second system for my photography workshops. I wish to have a compact infrared digital camera for touring, ideally one which I can use with lenses which might be both already in my bag or that take up little house.

After purchasing round and consulting my colleagues, I settled on buying a second-hand Olympus OM-D E-M5 Mark 2 body. While not full of the options of the newer cameras, it nonetheless sports activities 16 megapixels, has wonderful IBIS, and face/eye detection AF. That’s greater than I would like for my type of infrared pictures. The E-M5 Mark 2 is solidly constructed, has straightforward to make use of controls, and IMO occurs to look lovely in silver. Another good thing about the E-M5 is that it makes use of the older contrast-detection AF system, which isn’t prone to the banding artifacts you could generally see with newer mirrorless cameras. I had the digital camera transformed to full-spectrum infrared by Kolari Vision.

The actual take a look at of an infrared digital camera system isn’t the physique, it’s the lenses. You can convert nearly any digital camera to infrared, but when the lenses you employ create hotspots, it’s futile. Hotspots are the bane of each infrared photographer, and mitigating them often requires capturing wide-open and trying to repair them in submit; one thing that isn’t at all times straightforward. A possible benefit of the small M4/3 sensor is that it produces 2x the obvious depth of discipline as in comparison with 35mm full-frame. That means, I can shoot an f/4 lens wide-open and have the identical DOF as utilizing f/8 on a FF physique. Many lenses begin to present hotspots at f/8 or greater, so this was one thing I used to be curious to see.