Opinions please - potentially dodgy IR conversion!

philthejuggler

philthejuggler

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Phil
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Hi all

I've had full Spectrum 450D for about 6 months and have used it (with a bunch of Zomei filters) to investigate my infrared preferences. I've decided I prefer the black and white IR images & want a more compact set-up.

I found an eBay seller with a very high positive feedback score that was selling converted Olympus 4/3 cameras. I spoke to the seller on the phone and ended up ordering through PayPal (not Gift & using a credit card) an 830nm Pen 3. The seller assured me he did a professional conversion using glass IR filters.

The camera arrived today and is in superb condition, but a quick look through a sensor loupe reveals literally hundreds of small dust spots that do not shift, even with a wet clean.

I guess I can take some shots tomorrow and check if they are field relevant, but I really wouldn't expect so much dust on a newly converted camera! The sensor of my full-spectrum 450D is utterly pristine!!

What are your thoughts please? I'm I being unreasonable in my expectations or does it sound like a dodgy conversion?

Thanks in advance!

Phil
 
Doesn't sound too good Phil does it? As you say, you need to take some images and see what they look like.

I had my EOS M converted a while ago, the young lad who did it worked from his bedroom!

Did a first class job though, no issues at all.
 
Mine (X-E1) was done by Protech and came back from them perfect.

I do find that my sensor picks up dust very very easily though. However it will clean off unlike yours (most of the time a blower does the trick) Dust that won't shift with a wet clean might not be dust.

Either way - my suggestion would be to raise it to your eBay seller as an issue and ask to return it. The last kind of feedback an eBay seller like that wants is that they do a crap job. Hopefully you'll get to return it and get your money back.
 
I wonder if the unshiftable dust is actually flux splatter from resoldering without covering the sensor/filter during that part of the conversion?

Lifepixel have instructions for a DIY conversion of the PEN-3 (which doesn't address the care required when using flux based solder) and perhaps the guy follows this path.

Bob
 
Thanks guys - I wanted to check that there wasn't some particular reason why you always get some dust on an IR conversion.

I'll request a refund. Feedback is irrelevant as I did the deal outside of eBay, but still within PayPal protection so all should be well.
 
Seller fine - issued refund in full - off to Protech I go!
 
It's most likely dust under the filter that got in during the conversion. This happened when Protech did my S5, but when they did my X-E1 it remained clean.
 
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