My thoughts on infrared digital photography.
I realize that it is possible with some cameras (easier with some than with others) to shoot in infrared using an infrared filter and that the filter route is certainly the least expensive (apart from pseudo infrared in Photoshop) way to attain IR type imagery.
I do not, however, like the idea of 15-20 second exposures. This requires a tripod, virtually eliminates images of humans and animals and also severely limits landscape photography when the wind is moving foliage. You would be using the exposure times that photographers needed buring the 1800's.
I purchased an older Canon D60 DSLR and had it converted to full time infrared. The camera works very well but, this is not the route I would take if I were starting out in I.R. photography; knowing now what I have learned from my DSLR IR experience.
If I had it to do over again; I would not opt for a full-time IR converted DSLR. Instead, I would buy a good point and shoot camera on eBay, which has already been professionally converted to infrared.
The reason I would choose a P&S is that I could easily carry this camera everywhere in my photo vest. The D60 is a relatively large camera which I have often left at home because of excess weight. As an example, I traveled to Alaska this Summer and carried, in addition to a load of fishing tackle, Canon 30D and 40D cameras. My main lenses for this trip were the 17-55mm f/2.8 IS and the 70-200mm f/4L IS.
I left my D60 at home because of the stringent airline weight restrictions. If I had a good P&S I.R. camera, that would have come along with me. Alaska would have been a great place to shoot IR images.
By the way, it is lucky that I didn't substitute the I.R. converted D60 for either the 30D or 40D because I fell climbing a slippery slope on the first day of the trip and broke my 40D. if I didn't have the 30D; I would have missed out on "normal" photography of my trip.
BTW, another downside of converting an "older" Canon DSLR camera is that the D60 will not accept EFs lenses, only EF lenses. That rules out using my great 17-55mm f/2.8 IS lens for iR photography. I would have also needed to carry an EF mid-range zoom to Alaska to use on my D60...
eBay, U.K. search in photography>digital cameras using infrared as search parameter:
http://photography.shop.ebay.co.uk/...mfsb=&_trksid=m270.l1313&_odkw=&_osacat=31388
eBay search in photography>digital cameras using IR as parameter:
http://photography.shop.ebay.co.uk/...rksid=m270.l1313&_odkw=infrared&_osacat=31388
I don't know the implications of importing a used camera from the U.S. to the U.K. but, eBay USA has a large selection of full-time IR P&S and DSLR cameras.
http://photography.shop.ebay.com/it...mfsb=&_trksid=m270.l1313&_odkw=&_osacat=31388