Modify camera to see far-infrared (thermal)?

[fhpuqrgrpgvirzhpujbj]

I had an old camera laying around, I removed the infrared blocker so it would see (near) infrared light, is there any way I can modify it to see far infrared light (thermal)?

[.Markus]

I had an old camera laying around, I removed the infrared blocker so it would see (near) infrared light, is there any way I can modify it to see far infrared light (thermal)?

No, short reason being that the sensor needs to be 'colder' than the radiation from the object that is being used to 'see' it.

In practice, that means the sensor needs to be cooled well below freezing and therefore also withstand such temperatures.

[fhpuqrgrpgvirzhpujbj]

No, short reason being that the sensor needs to be 'colder' than the radiation from the object that is being used to 'see' it.

In practice, that means the sensor needs to be cooled well below freezing and therefore also withstand such temperatures.

Do you mean it needs to be colder then the object it is being used to see? Otherwise I don't follow.

[.Markus]

Do you mean it needs to be colder then the object it is being used to see? Otherwise I don't follow.

In effect yes. it's quite complicated to explain in layman's terms.

In order to take an image of something by means of the 'light' it emits, the sensor has to be 'colder' than the radiation from the object that is being used to 'see' it.

This can be the object itself glowing or it can be light produced by glowing objects such as the sun or a lamp.

For conventional photography this is no real problem because even the light from a candle flame is at nearly 2000 Kelvin whereas room temperature is only around 300 Kelvin.

When we get down to thermal imaging, where we want to 'see' objects at around room temperature using their own heat radiation the problem is very real. In general, the sensor has to be cooled to well below freezing... (Y)

[witalit]

@.Markus - Great explanation I totally understood that!