WHY?
With all the recent discussion of the Leica M8's unexpected IR sensitivity, I thought I'd test how the RD-1 handled such a situation. We know that the RD-1 is actually quite sensitive to IR, enough so that we can get hand-holdable shutter speeds with an IR filter attached. So one would expect to see unusual IR effects if we throw the right parameters at it.

So, this is just a quick and dirty test: (1) A rack of various suits and shirts that appear black, at least according to human visual perception. (2) A single light source (Dynalite monolite, for those who need to know) pointing directly at the rack. (3) A bunch of digital cameras.

Other details for those who insist: (1) RAW files all converted in Capture One Pro (2) Color Temperature set at 5350 degrees, or something like that. (3) ISO 200, f/11, except the point and shoot which was ISO 100, f/8. But really the exposure and even the white balance isn't actually all the critical here. What we're really interested in is the appearance of the various "black" items relative to each other. So don't bug me about whether I'm over- or under- exposed, etc.

RESULTS
The results speak for themselves, and are pretty much as expected. The rack looks consistent in the D2x pic. The shirts are varying degrees of black->magenta in the D1x, RD-1, and Sony P&S shots. This isn't surprising based on what we already know of the various cameras' IR shooting capabilities. Heck, on the Sony P&S it's touted as a feature ("Nightshot(TM)").

Note also that it's not just a color cast. Some of the black items stay pretty black, and the black stands are black in each case.

In normal everyday shooting this IR sensitivity has never been a problem. Though I suppose if I shot weddings and dealt with varying black fabrics a lot under IR intensive light this effect could be bad. Or maybe I'll notice it everywhere now and start vitriolic rants on various forums (not that there's anything wrong with that).

I'm *assuming* that the Leica M8 is doing the same thing, but just much worse? Or maybe it's not much worse, and really only affects special cases like this test case. If I had an M8, I'd test it. Feel free to send one my way...

IR Reference Shot
Oh yeah, at the bottom there is an IR-only shot for reference so you can see how the various fabrics respond to IR. (For those who insist on knowing: RD-1, 50 'lux, B+W #093, C1Pro, desaturated and levels adjusted in PS. Neglected to focus properly, but that doesn't really matter here).



D2x




D1x




RD-1




Sony VSC-1




RD-1 with IR filter
So we can see how different materials respond differently to IR light. Not surprising that this would affect the "black" if the sensor is seeing this.