I used to be firmly in favour of aperture rings, but having used both the Fuji S7000 and the pentax *istDS I haven't found any problem without them. It's a very slightly different way of working, but just as efficient.

I use PS7, and if you look at the channels, there will only be any image in the red channel. So I select the red channel and then go Image>Mode>Greyscale and say yes to "Do you want to discard other channels?" after which you have the one channel in monochrome.

No point in using Channel Mixer, as all the information in the green and blue channels has been filtered out at the taking stage.

1) It depends on the amount of IR light and how sensitive the CCD is to it. With my Fuji S7000 the exposures run into many seconds and are not that good. With my Pentax *istDS hand holding is possible if the ISO is upped to 1600 or 3200. The results with the *istDS are excellent.

2) You can use a red filter of any sort, but that also allows red light through so the effect is not as strong. It is, however, perfectly valid as a technique. I suggest you try it and see what you think.

Canon DSLRs are not very good for these techniques as they have particularly efficient IR filters over the sensor - that is, they block the IR light from reaching the sensor. Ironically, some Canon film SLRs have infra-red film counters which is not conducive to using IR film! I wonder what Canon has against Infra-Red?

I've tried using the Fuji S7000 for this very reason, but the exposures are incredibly long, making a tripod essential, and the quality of results is nowhere near as good as the *istDS.

I wouldn't bother using the viewfinder device - might as well put up with the incovenience and use one of the techniques given in this thread. You'd be £115 better off!

Yes, the wire frame is a good idea. If I plan to take a few IR photos I'll try that.

As regards colour IR film, as far as I know it is still available. I've never tried it because I didn't like the pictorial effect. I do like BW IR images very much - they can be very spooky...But colour - I reckon it looks as good as messing around with the colours in Photoshop does - not very subtle and not really creative.

I realise that's just my opinion, and maybe someone else could take fantastic colour IR pictures, but it's not for me.

If I could be bothered to use a tripod, then Matt your suggestion would be perfect!

If it was a film camera, I'd have to......

I've now tried the *istDS with the Hoya R72 Infra-red filter, and the results are very good. The ISO needs raising - I used 3200 because grain/noise is not an issue if you want to mimic the effects of film.

The only problem is that with the filter fitted, the viewfinder is virtually black! In the very brightest light a very very faint image can almost be seen, but as a compositional aid its value is nil.

So, I used the widest angle setting, autofocus, a moderate aperture and aimed by guess. And it works.

A camera with EVF would be an advantage in these circumstances though!

Thanks, Terry, good idea. I've tried it and the *istDS looks promising. Now to get the filter!

I have always enjoyed IR images, and use either Kodak High Speed Infra-Red film or digitally use Channel Mixer as a starting point for pseudo-IR.

I would like to explore IR photography using the R72 IR filter, but I wonder if anyone knows exactly how sensitive the *istDS is to IR light? Some manufacturers filter out IR quite severely and some don't. I know it will work with my Fuji S7000, but I would prefer to use the Pentax.

Any advice before I spend the money on the IR filter?

You wind the film until the arrows line up, be it in mid-stroke or whatever, and then close the back. The mechanism will then sort out the rest.