DIY Sony A100 infra-red conversion

DanielMar wrote: _______________ Thanks for the great post! I followed the advice of a friend, and I was on the street to cut IR filter In glazing, I paid only R$ 10.00 was very nice and clean! I advise everyone to pay a professional, friend the glazier! The cut was really clean! Still studying and taking courage to dismantle the Alpha 100. Take this opportunity to ask if 32.8 x 23 mm is too big or to fit the CCD box. Or I'll have to reduce sanding the glass? Thank You Very Much! Daniel __________________________

"...Practice cutting 22x30mm rectangles out of glass before getting to the 30€ filter. Make sure you get the feel of it.
The hot mirror we will be replacing is actually 21,5x29mm but there is a lot of margin for error and if you cut too much, you can always sand off the extra glass..."

I haven't done the conversion but it seems that you still have some trimming to do. It looks like the frame that secures the filter to the sensor is a separate piece, so I think you could use that as a template to cut the IR filter.

Good luck, and let us know how it goes.

Hello everyone.

I managed to change the CCD filter and reassemble the camera.

Yes he photographs now in Infrared.

However ...

In trouble.

When mounting the cable indicated by a red circle, broke the "white" skin.

I stayed a long time with a magnifying glass, fixing this connector, put a dasiva tape on it and do not know how bad electrical contact that may be making the following problems:

1 - The camera does not recognize, and does not know, that has a lens placed in it. And does not control the diaphragm ...

2 - The autofocus also stopped, but the camera thinks that there is no lens, so ...

3 - Even in M Manual mode. Does not change the shutter speed.

Also marked with a blue circle another connector, which is not set as I would like.

Someone can tell me where to start looking for the solution of the problem?

Thank you so very much!

Now we need to find the setting of white ...

Thank you!

Daniel Marques.

Glad to see IR still getting kicked around a bit.

A hardware question, I have had an amazingly difficult time cleaning the sensor filter on my A100 with the R72 IR conversion. Has anyone found a good cleaning method that doesn't streak?

On my A900/A99/NEX cameras I use the Arctic Butterfly and sensor swaps with no issue, but for the life of me I cannot get the glass clean on the IR conversion!

skm.sa100 wrote: Please feel free to add any comments/suggestions/feedback you might have. I might need to get a new filter to see how best I can cut it. Can you do a clean cut for me?

I done quite a few conversions to cameras replacing the hot mirror with an assortment of alternative filters .
U.V block only , Infrared pass , hydrogen alpha etc .

I gave up trying to cut small stuff like this , especially when it's relatively thick , with a conventional glass cutter .

Never had any success getting a clean cut .

What I do is very , very simple and guaranteed to give a nice clean cut and where you want it to be !

I put masking tape on the filter to be cut , use the original filter as the template and mark it out with a biro .
On both sides .

To cut it I use a rotary cutting tool ( eg "Dremil") with a 1" diamond cutting wheel on it .
Paraffin is used as a lubricant to keep the disc and glass cool .
I think you call it Kerosene over there ? Same stuff used in old oil burning lamps .

I slowly do the four cuts on one side , just less than half way through , keep dipping the disc in the bowl of paraffin .

Turn it over and do the other half .

By cutting the other side to just less than half way , the offcut will fall off leaving a protruding rough edge .

This is then cleaned up with the disc , leaving a nice clean edge letting no light leaks get passed the new filter .


Diamond cutting discs and cordless rotary tools are available off ebay for much less than the I.R pass filter on it's own , and have plenty of other uses too .

skm.sa100 wrote: Neil, thanks for the reply. Would something like this work, would you know? Also, could this be used on a power tool used for drilling? I don't see why not but it would be good to have confirmation. Separately, there seems to be AF issues that need calibration. Is this as simple as turning the AF screws? What's the process for this? Would such a calibration vary with lenses? For example, if I calibrate with a 16-105 and decide to use a 70-210/f4, would that require any change? Thanks, Sashi

The discs you linked to are fine , but the same item can be got for a fifth of the price from here (ebay) , £1.17 in our money , not sure what that is in $ but less than the $10 .

The discs are used in a rotary tool that you have running at around 10-12,000 RPM . A drill ( for drilling a hole etc) spin at about 3000 RPM not fast enough , you could try on a bit of scrap filter first though .
One like this one is adjustable , so is a lot more versatile , the speed of the disc can be adjusted so it's fast enough to cut cleanly without juddering , but not too fast giving less control .


Your right that AF calibration is done by adjusting the 3 Allen headed screws under the camera . Put a bit of masking tape on the base , put an Allen key in each socket and mark on the masking tape the start point .
Marks need to be made with a protractor to make sure each one is moved exactly the same amount . Or one side of the shot will be in focus and the other side will be out .

Here's where the problem starts .
Visible light focuses at the same point regardless of focal length .
So if you set it so at 70mm F/L at 50' in focus , at 150mm at 50' and 200mm at 50' will also be in focus .
Now have a look at the markings on your 70-210mm f/4 beercan .
Under the distance window is a white line . When the lens is focused the white line is below the marking on the distance scale that the lens is focussed at .
Look to the right on the lens barrel , and printed in red are three markings . 210 , 100 and 70 .
That is the difference of adjustment needed at different focal lengths .

So if you set the A/F on the camera to be spot on at 50mm , then at 200mm it will be well out . Also the other way around , ie a 20mm lens is also out .

When I set A/F calibration I use a 50mm lens fully open . With that spot on , as the focal length gets shorter , and seeing as though you are normally shooting at f/8 , then depth of field tends to take care of the difference .

At longer than 50mm , as the focal length increases the A/F difference decreases .
Unless your using the beercan for portraits , wide open , you'll probable be o.k .
Any other lenses that are faster , used open , ie an 85mm @ f/1.4 , then you could focus manually and the move the focal point mark to the infrared mark on the lens .

How you set it up depends on what lens and subject you'll most likely be using it on .

Landscapes with a wide angle lens is typical and with a large DOF easy .