The EOS M6 is my infrared camera

I've been on a journey for a number of years and at an expense I don't really want to think about. My quest has been to find a camera and system for infrared that I'd be completely happy with. There are many people that shoot infrared and I see some amazing examples with different camera systems. While I feel like I have also taken some noteworthy images in the past, I have never been completely happy with the camera and/or lenses I was shooting with. I won't go into great detail about each system rather I'll least a short summary below.

Also note, in my early days I did not think I would be interested in color infrared, that has now changed.

1. I have had several EOS M cameras in infrared. A Canon EOS M (590nm), a Canon EOS M6 (830nm) and a Canon EOS M5 (720nm). So why did I sell each of these? I wanted better battery life and DR than the Canon EOS M offered. With the M6, I felt like I was pigeon-holed with shooting B&W and with the M5, I could never really learn to process the 720nm files very well. Also, for some reason I didn't like the little differences between the M5 and M6 (I am partial to the M6).

2. Next was Fuji. I've had an X-T20 (590nm), X-T30 (590nm) and most recently and X-T3 (full spectrum). I honestly thought the X-T3 was going to be it but I was never happy with the lenses. There were certain lenses that were supposed to perform well and they just didn't for me. Also, I kept battling hotspots with all of the zoom lenses I used.

3. Sony a6000 (470nm), a6500 (full spectrum). I started with the a6000 and accidentally purchased it at 470nm. I thought it was 590nm. Anyways, I had seen a little info about the 18-135mm and how it was good for IR. That was the ideal lens for me. Well, it turns out the lens is not good from an IQ standpoint. I honestly don't know why I decided to graduate to an a6500 but it was a waste.

4. Next, I shoot with a Nikon Z7 for regular color. I had read about how there are readout lines on images in infrared but I took the chance and failed. I immediately saw the readout lines and regretted my decision. Luckily, I was able to get it converted back to regular color but I wasted money to do two conversions just to find that out for myself.

5. So that brings me to about a month and a half ago when I got my M6 (full spectrum) and started shooting with it (again). Maybe it's my history with the EOS M system (I have shoot with it for many, many years) but it just works for me. The lenses do good in IR (15-45mm, 55-200mm, 22mm). I don't have to worry about hotspots as I have not seen any with these lenses.

I think what's always drawn me to the M system is the image quality for your money. The lenses are very affordable and because the optics in most are pretty basic, most work good for IR. There are even some Chinese lenses I am trying (Rockstar 10mm f8 fisheye, Astrohori 14mm f4.5 coming soon).

While sometimes the images may not be amazing when you pixel-peep them, I feel like as a system overall, it's the one that I have finally come home to.

Here are just a few images I've taken in the month and a half I've had my M6.

Welcome to the forum --- good to see you over here! Thanks for your interesting post, sharing your infrared journey and especially your spectacular images! Very inspiring - well done.

As you know from DPReview, I've gotten into infrared in the past year. I chose to get an M200 refurb, and had it modified to full-spectrum. That camera works very well --- I think 24 MP is a good sweet spot for IR since images tend to have slightly less sharpness than visible-light images. A 32 MP would be overkill for IR, I think, in the end I'm glad I went with a 24 MP less expensive camera.

Have you tried dual-spectrum IR chrome (blue + IR)? I've shot a lot with the Tiffen #47 blue filter, which blocks green and red but passes IR, and a BG3 filter. No need to do a red-blue channel swap or 180-degree global hue shift with those filters, you get blue skies and white, yellow, or orange foliage right out of the camera depending on how you white balance.

Welcome Harold, it's always good to hear of more IR experiences :)
BTW unlike DPR there is a IR specific section here dprevived.com/c/infra-reduv-photography/115/
I don't know the Canon M series well, but use full spectrum conversions in both micro four thirds (an old GF2) & FF e-mount (A7ii), both of which I use with both native & adapted lenses.
Full spectrum mirrorless is IMO by far the most flexible route for IR so I can see why you've gone for it!

I should have viewed your shots before replying, as I see you've already shared some of these in the IR section

Wow - those are really fantastic shots! It's quite rare that I see captures which make me curious about IR, but these certainly do. Excellent work.

I have not tried dual spectrum. I feel like I am going to let things settle down first before I experiment any further. Candidly, I am in possession of a Sony a7r and Tamron 28-200mm as I thought I was going to have another IR rig but I just did not get a warm and fuzzy feeling with the camera nor the lens. I think that was one of the reasons for my post as I was feeling down that I had spent even more money only to be disappointed.

Yes, while I have been shooting a lot of 590nm lately, I have both an IRChrome filter and the necessary filters to make the "Candy Pink" look. I just need to make it a point to expand my horizons a little more often.

Thank you, it can be a magical niche to explore.

I've not played with IR chrome, but have tried several other dual spectrum filters. They seem to give distinctly different results on my two FS bodies, I suspect this is mainly down to differing UV responses.
As well as the #47 (& similar #47B) and the BG3 I've tried U330 & U340. With the exception of the Tiffen filters all of these have been brought as simple unmounted 25mm discs - so reasonably affordable but limited on the lenses they can be used on. (I've mainly used them on the Olympus 17mm/2.8, but have also given them a quick try on an industar 10)

I think there's a lot of sense in getting to grips with longpass filters before dabbling in dual pass types, perhaps it's why I've only given them a brief try despite liking the initial results.

Oh yes, I'm with @LarryRexley that 24MP is enough for IR, but I also think it's enough for visual, unless cropping heavily with a good lens. When I finally get a camera that goes beyond 24MP (currently my max) it will be for other features, not simple sensor resolution.

This thread has inspired me to do more infrared. Since I shoot a lot of train videos, and I've shot all the local trains quite a lot, I thought it'd be a fun exercise to shoot a train video entirely in dual-band infrared.

So last night I was able to shoot five Tampa trains using the full-spectrum M200 and a Tiffen #47 blue filter. I shot them on my usual bicycle ride in about 2 hours.

youtu.be/ShdzZ3RZ_DQ

I did some testing to see which zoom lens gave the best dual-band IQ, and it turns out that the older EF-M 18-55mm f3.5-5.6 kit lens had the best image. Some of the primes are sharper, but I wanted a zoom for the flexibility of getting some telephoto shots as well as wides.

I'm happy with the IQ, but interestingly the obstacles to making my usual quality video were the limitations of the M200 entry-level camera:

• the lack of a microphone jack kept me from using my usual mikes, the wind noise was really objectionable and there was nothing I could do about it
• The 4k video is cropped on the M200, so I wasn't able to get as wide angle shots as I wanted (however I did like having the extra reach for some shots)
• the M200's 4k video is limited to 24 fps, I prefer to shoot at 30 fps
• rolling shutter is more noticeable in video on the M200 than the M6ii

I haven't used my M6 since I've purchased an M6 Mk II... but I'm intrigued about full spectrum IR conversion for my M6 now. Who did you use to do the conversion, if I may ask?

I had my M200 conversion done by Isaac Szabo, and was very happy with his service and the results. Very reasonable pricing and fast service.

www.isaacszabo.com/infrared.html

Same. He's done like 7 of my cameras. I'll keep going back to him.