Powerful Little Magnet Transforms Camera to Infrared! 

This is one of the coolest photography hacks I've ever learned about! Makes it probably the best cheap infrared camera you can get.

Something you might find cool - if you take the raw files and open them in Darktable (free software), you can choose passthrough as the demosaicing method (but color balance them first, Darktable is flexible enough to do so), which simply displays the amount of light captured for every individual photocell on the sensor. Since all the different bayer color filters transmit the same in this sort of deep IR, you can then get image characteristics that are only seen on cameras like the Leica Monochrom. It makes the digital "grain" way finer. I use it with my full spectrum Sony a6000 and even iso 3200 is perfectly usable.

love this so much - and the results are great! if i didn’t already have a converted pocket camera, i’d be all over this. infrared is so much fun, everyone should try it

After watching your video a couple of months ago I bought one of these and was really pleased with the results as I have been wanting to try infra red for a while. I actually like the ergonomics of the camera too but the interface is terrible. Thank you for the video.

To get the classic IR white foliage look manually set the manual white balance option by pointing the camera at green grass or green leaves to set it.

Great trick, and it works well with my F828. The most difficult part for me is magnet management. I'm always picking them off my car door, my keys, and all kinds of other stuff. I just purchased some smaller magnets with holes in the center. That way I can tie a cord around them and attach it to my camera strap.

Interesting information. I shall ponder it. Thanks!

This is so cool!

Very cool, thanks for sharing :)

Super cool tip on the IR

I just discovered your channel and im so glad I did! I picked one of these up a couple months ago as a throw in with some other cameras i bought from my favorite thrift shop! I didnt really look at it when I was buying all the cameras, because i was distracted by the newer cameras I was focused on, but I opened this camera's bag and saw "Zeiss" and they said I could have it for free since I was already buying a few other cameras that day, so I thought "WHY NOT?!"... BUT then I brought it home and forgot about it all together... But tonight, I was rearranging my recording studio and found a mystery camera bag and was surprised to see this camera in the bag. Not only did I discover the camera but I was lucky enough to find it also came with three batteries, and external charger, a CF card, a Sony memory stick, an additional screw on 2x zoom lens, and a few different lens filters. I just Googled it for the heck of it and discovered these cameras have a great reputation and then I found your two videos about this camera and I couldnt be more excited to play with it. I have an old Canon Rebel DSLR that I had been considering converting to infrared - but after finding this video, you just saved me a lot of time and effort! And it looks like this Sony will even be superior to the old Canon in basically every way anyway (cool lens and ergonomics, and slightly higher resolution)! So, Ive got the first battery on the charger right now and I'm hoping some of the batteries will take a charge... AND that I have at least one magnet lying around that is powerful enough to flip the infrared mechanism 🤞. Excited for tomorrow! Wish me luck and thanks so much! You earned a new subscriber 😊

Great tip, thank you!

This is awesome!! I just did this with my F707!

I think I now have to by a Sony F - camera. From central Canada I’m really enjoying your RU-vid channel. I’m a Olympus MFT shooter first with a couple old Minolta cameras for occasional fun film stuff.

.... just stumbled across your channel James and I'm very happy I did , excuse me for a moment I've got some videos to catch up on, will get back to you !

Wow, I had no idea. I’m so glad I hung onto my 828!

I love my 828 (and 717s), but the two articulating parts can start to get loose in time. Apparently there are seven screws inside that need to be tightened, but I didn't want to disassemble it, and instead used a cable tie to keep the two parts together and not wobble around. It's been like that for many years.

sooo awesome!

Awesome video, I'm so excited to try this! Troubleshooting question in case anyone else is having the same problem: I used the magnet hack with the magnet linked here and my screen went totally dark. It looks like the gray shutter inside the lens is stuck in place and can’t move out of the way. Maybe I did something to the magnet that controls the shutter? Let me know if anyone has any advice, thank you!

Gotta try this, I have both of these cameras.

Fantastic video and great channel! I ordered a Sony 828 on eBay yesterday and it will arrive soon. Can’t wait! Thank you so much. Now I wonder about the filter. Should I get one and if so which one would be good for starting? Could you please explain the differences in the results you get without a filter and with a 720nm or 850nm filter? Fotga also has a six-in-one filter which allows to chose from a wider range of the spectrum. Do you have any thoughts about this? I would love to hear them. Thanks again.

This just blew my mind

wow!!!! Thanks!!

There are several cameras that don't have (strong) IR-filters, so they can be used for IR photography with a light filter (which blocks visible light). E.G. Panasonic FZ200, Ricoh GR III and even the iPhone cameras.

Hello, informative video. I cant find the link to where to get the magnet you bought? Could you please tell me what sd pevific kind of magnet snd where i can buy it? Thank for the info.

I learned about this years ago from someone else on YT. I also have a 717. There was even a YT showing the 'X-Ray' effect with certain fabrics.....

Super cool. Try to do some IR Astro photography.

I've watched nearly all of the snappiness videos and usually just think that "that's cool, I'm glad I know more about that camera but I don't feel the need to buy one." Same with the original F828 video. Until now. This little IR hack really caught my attention, and I started looking for a cheap F707 or F717, and I found a few. But the F828 has that lovely mechanical zoom control, and a wider focal length, and can take Compact Flash cards.... So now I have an F828 on its way to me. Watching this video turned out to be an expensive endeavour! 😄

Thank you for the video. Note that the Sony DSC-V1 and DSC-V3 also have this feature. To be honest, I tried the magnet trick only on V3.

I've confirmed the F717 will work with the magnet trick, but it takes some fiddling around with settings, distances, focal length, manual focus, etc. to get a decent shot that is in focus. It's possible not all focal lengths will work well, but it's an ongoing experiment.

Thanks for this great tip-off, the f828 is now top of my shopping list. BTW How are you focussing in IR mode, is it necessary to pre-focus using visible light or does the camera focus well as is.

Have you tried doing Fashion with that mod in place? Edit: and after seeing the question on Filter Mechanisims below, try Frequency Shifting the IR up in to the Visible light portion of the spectrum, you'll be amazed the colour patterns present in nature that we can't see, but which bugs and birds use every day.

any idea if it‘s possible to shoot color infrared(similar to aerochrome) with this method?

What size is the lens thread so I can get the IR filter. Thank you in advance for the information 👍

Man getting my 707 going to do this has been a pain in the ass I recommend the f828 since it's not so outdated for memory cards lol. I want am f828 so bad but I'm poor :(.

Thanks for this great tip and reminder. I used to do this IR photography back in the early 2000 with the Sonys F series, but back then we didn't know about the magnet trick and so I disassembled the cameras and replaced the internal IR blocking filter with a flat piece of optical glass, so one could get all the ranges of f-stop and speed. I sold off all those cameras except a Sony P8 that is modded. Did some wonderful photos with that, including a couple that ended up in shows. I picked up a F717 and F828 recently off eBay and am enjoying this kind of IR photography again. Question: with the F717 I can't get it to focus properly in IR mode no matter what I do (manual focus etc) except at the far end of the zoom range. The F828 works fine. Any ideas? Thanks again.

Haha that is really cool.

So you don't have to keep the magnet attached - just a poke it on that spot will flick a switch that stays until you turn the camera off? Great shots btw. !!

Nice video! Thank you! I have just one question. Everybody say that in order to make this camera infrared you need to use magnet and filter. But when I use just magnet I think its still works. So I see these red or blue images. Or maybe I don’t understand smth?

Have you tried removing infrared filter from that sigma sd14 (apparently it just snaps off) or have I missed that completely?

what size is the 750nm filter that screws onto the end of the lens?

So when using he magnet do I still need to have the Infrared filter attached ?

I think I"ll try to convert a thrift store camera first. It must be cheaper but I don't know how the results will compare.

kindly help how to stop camera taking picture and record at same time

I tried this with the F717, but couldn’t get infinity focus. Any hints?

I wonder if it will work on the DSC-H50 since it also has a nightshot mode...

hi! can i use this hack with digital cameras?

It also works with the F707.

Where is the magnet contact for the 717?

Dang. Not 4 months ago I deepsixed my dsc-f707.

What happens if you use the magnet trick but don't put the filter in front on the lense to cut visible light?

Which lens exactly created the starbursts ?

Can you shoot without infrared filter?

How can I shoot with color with an IR blue Chrome Filter?

I've not had a infrared camera but all those shots always seem interesting.

Need to order the magnet for mine :) GREAT Video as always Thanks

I had decided I wasn't going to buy that camera......but now...

Is could be a hidden gem of a camera with the infrared. Are you using a infrared filter on the camera too?

Hello, i wonder if i can doet that in sony h50 ???

Just curious, if the magnet turns it into an infrared camera, why do you still need an IR filter on the lens? Asking out of ignorance of IR photography!

"Do it" , on sony h50

Just bought this for $35 on Ebay...hopefully the seller sends it hahah. Always wanted to shoot infrared, but broke.

Teste com outras cameras que. Tenham infravermelho , tipo camcorders e teste esse truque com o imã e poste um video de tudo isso e veja o que descobriu , se for possivel , claro!

Don't take this camera to the beach!! Hahaha

Is anyone else seeing a Glitchy video. Hard to see

is this dem magic cameras that see them ghosts and see through clothes?

Wow! It seems as if the companies don't want to make cool stuff anymore. Just soulless auto focus everything. Don't get me wrong, I love them but they just don't echo innovation as much as hardware innovations do. This is another reason why I keep the sdQuattro.

You can bet Sony did that intentionally, so you had to buy the next expensive model to have that feature! Just a small hardware change is all they needed... but didn't!