We test the S9500 with a Hoya R72 filter for its suitability for infrared photography without modification.
The FujiFilm S9500 is an attractive proposition: 28 to 300mm focal length range (35mm equivalent), 9MP resolution and a good package design.
The S9500 is not a very low noise camera (see the noise test articles for day and night shooting elsewhere), so I was curious to see how it would go for IR. For these tests I used a Hoya R72 filter and tripod mounted the S9500, shooting under a range of lighting conditions over several weeks.
One of the first test shots, you can see that this camera suffers from a central glow in IR. This is most apparant at some focal lengths and is most strong in the blue channel. So it can be worked around if you are doing a mono conversion from the red or green channels. Exposure here was 3.7 seconds @f2.8 and 80ISO.
The following are a couple of processed shots taken with the S9500
Exposure 4 seconds @ f2.8 and 80ISO
Exposure 4 seconds @ f4.9 and 80ISO
The following images show the individual channels at two ISO settings, 80 and 1600.
80ISO – 3.1 seconds at f3.8
Red unprocessed
Red processed
Green unprocessed
Green processed
Blue unprocessed
Blue processed
1600ISO – 1/7 second @ f3.8
Red unprocessed
Red processed
Green unprocessed
Green processed
Blue unprocessed
Blue processed
The following are 100% crops from the center of the above images, so you can judge real noise levels
80ISO
RAW
Red
Green
Blue
1600ISO
RAW
Red
Green
Blue
Since the S9500 is what I would call a high noise camera, I really consider the S9500 as only suitable for IR shooting at the low ISO settings. Values of 80, 100 and 200ISO, in my opinion, offer good image quality with acceptable noise. Above 200ISO the noise becomes much more noticable. Unmodified, that’s the way I see it. Modified, this might be a very good camera, though the tendency to a central glow, especially at the mid wide angle focal lengths between 35 and 50mm, are a concern.
All that said, the S9500 can produce some great IR shots unmodified, if the slower ISO settings are used and thus a tripod.