20 Jul 09 Infrared Photography with Sony's Night-shot mode

This is really cool. Today I learned I could use my Sony f717 camera to take those neat Infrared photos with a floppy disk as an IR filter.

I knew the camera could take such photos, as I've seen plenty of examples on the Sony forums over at DPReview. What I didn't know is that I could experiment with this mode without having to shell out for an R72 filter first.

All you need is one of those old five and a quarter inch floppy disks from that box of diskettes you've been clinging to in your closet. Rip one apart today. One that's labelled DOS 4.01 would be a really good choice. Get the round disk out of it. Then put your camera into nightshot mode (not night-framing). Go outside and hold the floppy best as you can over the front of the lens flat. Then find some nice puffy clouds and trees to take a picture of. It doesn't get any easier than this.

Give this a try folks! It's positively addictive. Now, I wonder if I can do this with my Nikon D70?

About the author: Rick Blythe runs Camera-News.com, a site about digital cameras and photography.