Thank you for developing this wonderful tool and for being so generous with your time to help people learn. I had a few questions about equipment for UV photography. I have just purchased the Samsung NX1000 and Nikon Nikkor EL 80mm lens (as well as the helicoid, etc.) I still need to do the full-spectrum conversion and buy the UV filters. Since I don’t have access to a spectroradiometer to measure spectral sensitivity, I am trying to copy your camera setup so I don’t need to do that. Questions:
-I will probably pay someone to do the full-spectrum camera conversion. If they want to put a quartz filter in front of the sensor, is this a problem? For example, if a quartz filter is used, would I still be able to use your data on spectra sensitivities of the camera, or would the filter make it less accurate?
-In your paper, you mention that you can share CNC machining scripts for your filter holder/slider. Is this file available for download from your website? Also, will it work for my camera setup described above?
-With the lens attached to the Samsung body, the camera doesn’t seem to work in automatic mode (only manual mode). Just wondering if that’s also the case for you?
Thank you in advance for your help!
Hi Natalie,
It’s fine to add the quartz layer. Quartz is optically uniformly transparent in the camera’s sensitivity range (about 300-1000nm), so you can add the quartz if you want without affecting spectral sensitivities. There’s really no benefit to the quartz layer though, and it just adds another air-glass boundary, which will increase internal reflections (only marginally so in most cases though).
The CNC-based slider has proved really tricky for anyone else to make (the code is specific to my machine and bits, so it’s unlikely you’ll be able to find a machinist who can use it rather than just making one for you themselves).
Fully automatic mode won’t work because the camera has no way to change the aperture of the lens (there are no electronics in the lens). You can however use aperture priority mode, which will mean the camera can adjust the shutter-speed automatically. Indeed, using aperture priority and under-exposing the shot slightly with EV settings is how I generally use these cameras.
Cheers,
Jolyon