Convert This Toy Camera for Full-spectrum and Infrared Photography

I'm going to show you the cheapest possible way for you to dip your curious little toes into the colorful waters of full-spectrum and infrared photography.

Our puny human eyes only see a tiny portion about the electromagnetic spectrum, which is what we call visible light. But there is an entire reality that we can't see, simply because our rods and cones aren't stimulated by those light wavelengths. You aren't even seeing the full rainbow!

But digital camera sensors "see" more of the electromagnetic spectrum. Specifics vary based on sensor model, but most are sensitive to a bit of the ultraviolet portion of the spectrum and a lot of the infrared spectrum.

Most people don't want their cameras to pick up those wavelengths, because the pictures don't look like what we see with our eyes. For that reason, camera manufacturers add filters to block infrared light.

By removing that infrared-blocking filter from your camera, you regain the ability to capture the full spectrum the sensor can detect. The resulting photos and videos are pretty neat. Sometimes they even reveal hidden detail that we can't normally perceive!

The key purchase here is the camera itself. This is a very cheap ($8.99 new, at the moment) camera designed for kids.

I don't know how they were able to make it for so little money, but it is a fully functional camera. The quality and resolution are bad, but what can you expect for this price? It even comes with a 32GB micro SD card!

Other than that, you'll only need a small Phillips screwdriver and maybe some glue.

That's everything you need to record full-spectrum videos and photos. If you also want to capture infrared videos and photos (which look more alien), then you'll also need an infrared pass filter.

• Camera
• Infrared pass filter

Start by taking the camera apart. The goal is to get to the nice, juicy innards inside where the sensor resides.

The video (at the top of this page) is the easiest way to see how this is done!

There are only six screws holding the two halves of the enclosure together: two near the lens and four in the area underneath the LCD screen.

Once you have the two halves apart, remove the two screws holding the sensor/lens assembly onto the yellow plastic housing.

If you want, you can disconnect the sensor's ribbon cable. That isn't necessary, but might make it easier to work with.

The sensor comes with a permanently attached housing, which has threads for the lens assembly to screw onto.

Inside that assembly is the infrared blocking filter and that is what you want to remove. It looks like a tiny translucent blue square.

You'll need to unscrew the lens assembly and take it apart to get the filter out.

Warning: the position of the lens assembly on the threads affects focus. That really shouldn't change, so you'll want to mark how much it was screwed in from the factory. That'll be helpful when putting it back together.

There will likely be some glue on the threads and it may take a little bit of force to rotate the assembly. Then you'll need to take off the front objective lens, which is a friction fit and may also require some force.

With the lens assembly completely apart, you can simply remove the filter (it should pop right out) and put it back together.

This part is super easy. Just perform the same steps as Step 1, but in reverse.

But you may want to test the camera before reassembly to make sure everything works properly and you're in focus. You can do that before putting the camera back together—just plug in the sensor ribbon cable.

After confirming that it is recording correctly, you can attach the sensor to the yellow plastic housing and then put the two halves back together with the six screws from before.

You just took out the infrared blocking filter. That let visible light through, but blocked the infrared light.

Now the camera will pick up visible light and infrared light—plus a little bit of ultraviolet light.

This will look pretty cool on its own, as there is quite a bit of infrared light that you don't normally see or capture in photos. Plants will look especially neat, as they reflect a ton of infrared light and will therefore look bright on camera (even if they look dark green to your eyes).

But you can further enhance this effect by blocking visible light so that the camera only detects infrared light. This is called infrared photography and it can reveal a whole world that is normally invisible to us. For example, some animals have interesting patterns that are only apparent in the infrared spectrum.

To capture that, you'll need a filter that is the opposite of the one you just removed. This is called an infrared pass filter, because it lets infrared light pass through while blocking visible light.

There are many different types available, but the one I used has a stated threshold of 685nm. That means it blocks light below that wavelength (most visible light) and allows light above that wavelength (all infrared and a tiny bit of visible light).

You'll want something with a threshold in the same neighborhood.

This camera isn't threaded for filters, so you'll either need to hold the filter in place or glue on (or 3D-print) an adapter.

It is worth noting that there are lots of counterfeit infrared filters out there, as well as filters that are simply mislabeled.

The easiest way to identify a counterfeit is if it is very cheap (less than $10) and looks like translucent red glass. Those aren't actually blocking the full visible light spectrum and are instead simply tinting the image red.

Think about it this way: the filter is supposed to block all (or at least most) of the visible light spectrum. So if it is allowing light through that you can see, it isn't working.

To your eyes, the filter should look black. Or it may look like a mirror, depending on the lighting conditions.

All of the photos I've shown here have been straight from the camera and didn't require any processing.

But some tweaking in your favorite photo editor can help you achieve certain looks.

Most infrared photographers rely on RAW files, which contain ALL of the sensor data captured by the camera. But this camera won't provide a RAW file and so you only have the compressed JPG and AVI video files to work with.

Still, you can do a little bit with those. There are lots of guides out there, but my advice is to focus on white balance and hue (or channel) swapping.

Most of the infrared light is going to end up on the red channel of the photo, which is why everything has a reddish tint. By adjusting white balance, you can make it more balanced.

In a similar vein, you can swap the red channel (or specific hues) with blue or green to give the image a new look. Play around with thresholds and curves to get some really fun effects!

This camera's video and photo quality is poor, so you probably won't get any stunning images unless you're going for a grungy lo-fi vibe.

For that reason, most of the fun is in exploring with the camera to see what things look like outside of the normal visible light spectrum. There is so much out there that you can't otherwise see!

Get out into nature to find interesting patterns and details that you never knew existed.

Have fun!