Anyone have experience with one of these? Supposedly they can be used w/o converting your camera to IR--isn't quite the same as converting, but might be fun just the same.

Is there anyone who can tell me why I should/shouldn't get one of these to fool around with?

IR photography really intrigues me, but I want to get my feet wet w/o spending $$ for the conversion and losing a regular camera at the same time.

Go for it...

This website agrees:
http://www.tedfelix.com/IR/index.html

Originally Posted by IR Site

The Hoya R72 is the perfect starter IR filter.

I have one (58mm) don't really use it much. It will work if your camera hasn't been converted because the hot-mirror in your camera doesn't completely block infrared, just most of it. As a result your exposures will be quite long to compensate. I've honestly not tried it on my 1D MK II yet.

Originally Posted by emorphien

I have one (58mm) don't really use it much. It will work if your camera hasn't been converted because the hot-mirror in your camera doesn't completely block infrared, just most of it. As a result your exposures will be quite long to compensate. I've honestly not tried it on my 1D MK II yet.

I thought you might be the kind of guy to have something like that. I don't think it's something I'd use a whole lot, but it might be fun. Did you get interesting/good results? Would you recommend it to a friend?

I'm thinking IR would be good for some interesting, contrasty b+w stuff.

It works pretty well, if you've got the money (they're not super cheap) then it might be worth playing with. Mine's a 58mm so I'm limited on what lenses I can use it on.

That's one of my issues--I can get it in 67mm for my 18-70 for like $80... but to be able to use it on my good lenses (where I'd really WANT to use it), it's like >$200 for 77mm threads!!!

I don't know why there's such a disparity over 10mm.

Good optical/flat glass isn't cheap.