Converting a Canon 300D to Infrared

I got my replacement hot mirror filter, IR-cut glass, from lifepixel.com and following their instructions for a 300D

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The disassembly is fairly straightforward, without any big problems – Just be careful which ribbon cable clips flip up rather than pull out and you should be fine.

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Removing the hot mirror glass from the plastic mount frame however was rather difficult. Cutting the adhesive was really hard and I managed to scratch and chip the glass, as well as snap two plastic lugs off the frame (superglue fixed these, and I don’t plan to reuse the glass).

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I needed to scrape a lot of adhesive out of the plastic frame before the new glass would fit in, as it was a very tight fit. Applying the silcone was rather trying as well – I ended up using a toothpick and trying to be really careful. In the end there were still smudges on the glass, but they don’t seem to affect the final images too much.

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Reassembly was tiring, as reconnecting some of the ribbon cables was really fiddly – especially when I popped one of the clips off of a connector (that was really hard to get back on). The first time I reassembled the camera, I obviously had a ribbon cable in wrong, as the shutter starting going as soon as the battery was in. By the third attempt it worked, although the colour LCD screen on the back looks fuzzy at times, and some parts of the menu can be hard to read – not that reviewing the images on the screen helps much (it is tiny, and all I use it for is the histogram which is perfectly readable).

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I am not sure I would advise doing this conversion yourself – I found it very frustrating at times, and I think getting lifepixel to do it for you would yield better quality images. I guess it depends how good quality images you want. If you dont mind risking ruining the camera (theyre only worth £120 on ebay at the time of writing) then go for it yourself (its a lot cheaper). If you are doing it on a more recent camera model then I definitely suggest you send it off to be done for you.

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The old hot mirror filter is interesting in itself – It is blue glass with a red coating on the lens facing side. It creates some wonderful coloured reflections