A Little Morning Experiment

As I was taking my first of four doses of medications this morning, I was scrolling through Facebook to see if anything was new with my friends.  As usual, I saw nothing from my friends but I did come across an image from a guy in one of my photography groups that caught my eye.  

This image that caught my eye was shot in infrared.  There is nothing unusual about an infrared image...  I shoot them often with a camera I had converted to infrared...  but this photo on Facebook was captured using a cellphone which is very unusual.

He wrote that he shot this image using his iPhone with an R72 filter and it was an image of kids walking to school.  What I found interesting and what immediately caught my eye was the fact that using an R72 filter will normally require very long shutter speeds which would blur kids walking to school.  Cameras typically would block infrared light (more on that below).  This image in infrared, however, was sharp.  This meant that his iPhone was very sensitive in IR light which really is a bit unusual for any camera that has not been converted to this spectrum of light.  

Now I had to test my Samsung S21+ to see if it was also very sensitive in the IR spectrum.  Why I felt the need to do this?  I don't know.  Just because, I suppose. 

These R72 filters are so dark that you can't see through them with your naked eye.  The R72 filter is blocking most of the visible light and only allowing infrared light at the 720nm frequency through.  When I put one of these filters on my normal cameras, I have to slow the shutter speed down to the range of 4 seconds upwards to around 30 seconds depending on the camera and depending on how bright it is outside.  Any movement while the shutter is open for this long will result in significant motion blurring.  Anyone walking in the frame would move across the frame while the shutter is open.  

So I dug out my little clip on filter mount for my cellphone and mounted the Hoya R72 filter on the cellphone.  The first thing I noticed was that I was indeed plainly seeing an image of what my cellphone was seeing and I was still indoors and not in the sunlight.  Then I adjusted my settings to get a decent image.  I also had to re-familiarize myself with my cellphone settings because I never shoot photos with my cellphone.  

I find it incredibly awkward and difficult to shoot even a single photo on my cellphone.  Actually, I find it incredibly awkward and difficult to do anything on a cellphone.  Even with my cellphone in a case, I find them to be too thin, too slippery, too fiddly, and generally too small.  And, I am someone with well above average fine motor control of my fingers...  after all, I'm a classical pianist.  Managing and navigating a cellphone is incredibly awkward and difficult for me.  Just give me a real camera or a real computer.  

As far as cellphones for photography use...  I despise the quality of images captured by cellphones.  Anyone who can't see a clear difference between a cellphone and a real camera must be partially blind.  I refuse to accept "cellphone image quality" from any of my cameras including my compact point-and-shoot cameras.  So, in short, I don't and I won't ever use my cellphone for photography unless I am conducting some sort of experiment.  Today's experiment was to see if my cellphone can "see" in infrared.  In particular, I wanted to see if my Samsung S21+ could see in infrared at the 720nm frequency of light. 

As expected, the image quality absolutely sucks but my cellphone is indeed able to see in infrared frequencies.  One would think this is a good thing but it really is not.  You see, infrared light focuses at a different point than visible light so if a camera can see both ranges of light, you get a recorded image that is sort of a double-exposure ghosted image. When I put this R72 filter on my cellphone, I was blocking all visible light from entering into the cellphone.  I was mostly seeing only light at the 720nm frequency.  I say "mostly" because I did easily spot light leaks too.  Geez...  I really hate cellphones.

Anyway, my experiment this morning resulted in these three images below.  This is what our backyard looks like at a frequency of 720nm.  I should also point out that if we had more vegetation (spring is still trying to spring to life here so most trees are mostly bare at the moment) then we would see more white leave in these images.  The very white trees in these images are actually conifers.      

So, this was an interesting experiment.  I was able to handhold my cellphone and shoot some sharp images in infrared light.  I wouldn't say it was simple...  handling my cellphone is always awkward for me...  but it was an interesting experiment.  

Honestly, this just makes me want to pick up and use my 830nm infrared-converted Panasonic G3 camera all the more while also reminding me of why I hate doing anything on my cellphone.