I was informed by some viewers of my YouTube channel that the Samsung TL500/EX-1 may be particularly sensative to infrared light. So much so, that you may be able to shoot handheld infrared photos with a filter on the camera. Since I couldn’t find much information about this out on the web, I decided to find out myself and post the results here.
Samsung TL500/EX-1 Infrared
If you haven’t already, read my review for the Samsung TL500 or EX-1 here. It’s a fantastic pocket point and shoot with advanced features and a great lens.
There’s a few threads out on the web about the Samsung EX-1’s younger sibling, the EX-2, being infrared sensitive. But no great examples I could find, and nothing about the EX-1. But I figured it was worth a shot. After reading the comments about this in my Samsung TL500 video, I grabbed an IR720 filter and the camera and ran to the front yard.
Holding the filter in front of the lens and taking pictures showed promising results. The camera was shooting at shutter speeds fast enough to hand hold in the daylight, and the images showed good IR reflections coming from foliage. But holding the filter up in front of the camera wasn’t the ideal solution.
Surprisingly for a relatively unknown 12 year old camera, there are still third-party filter adapters for the camera for sale. Ebay has a few at any given time for around $20, and AliExpress has several for $10 or less. Since I wasn’t in a rush, I went with the AliExpress option. After a month, it arrived safely to my home.
A quick walk around the neighborhood showed me that the camera can indeed take infrared images at shutter speeds you can hand hold. That is true for my 720nm filter and below. Once I put on the 850nm filter however, even in bright daylight and wide open at f1.8, the camera was at a second or slower shutter speeds. Still, for ultra dramatic black and white 850nm photos the Samsung TL500/EX-1 can perform beautifully as long as you bring a tripod.
Infrared sample images from Samsung EX-1
The following images were taken with the Samsung EX-1/TL500 and 850nm filter, with the black and white JPEG preset straight out of camera.
Conclusion
You can absolutely shoot infrared photos with the Samsung EX-1/TL500 handheld! And I encourage you to do so if you have the camera. These filters aren’t too expensive, and the adapter is cheap if you are willing to wait. The only caveat is that for filters stronger than 720nm you will need a tripod.
Thanks to those that tipped me off on this! I love little bits of knowledge like this.
