Is your Digital Camera - IR Sensitive ?

If you know that your digital camera is IR sensitive, please ignore this blog. If not then read on.

This was a chance discovery while I was playing with my webcam. I happen to see this violet light coming out of the IR-port of my laptop (see Pic 1). On close observation I couldn't find anything with my naked eyes. Later I realized that my webcam is able to capture the IR- rays from my laptop. Later I experimented with my Kodak Digital Camera, and the results were the same. As also for the TV Remote (Pic: 2 & 3).

A little search revealed that this has been a subject of research and there's a lot relating to this concept on the Web.

Just to give you an excerpt:

Unlike ordinary films, silicon-based CCDs and CMOS sensors turn out to be quite sensitive to the near infrared (NIR) in the 700-1200 nm (0.7-1.2µ) range — so much so, in fact, that some of the incoming NIR has to be filtered out in order to reduce IR contamination artifacts to acceptable levels in the visible light images most buyers aim to take. The usual solution is to fit digital camera sensors with special internal IR cut filters (IICFs). These sensor-mounted filters vary in their IR transmission spectra, but most consumer-grade digital cameras let enough NIR through to allow some IR photography. Despite a clear trend toward ever-lower IR sentivities in higher-end cameras, but it gets harder with every passing year.

To further your knowledge on Infrared Digital Photography:
http://dpfwiw.com/ir.htm

IR captured on the Digital Camera

(Pics 1, 2 & 3)