Busy hands | Disquiet mind

The Olympus Pen E-P1 is 16 years old this year. So is my personal one. A first gen micro-four-thirds camera, it's specs don't compete nowadays, but I've always loved holding and using this camera. There is something really satisfying about it. Especially paired with a pancake lens. When I upgraded to a newer, fancier camera, I just couldn't part with the E-P1. I've had the vague intention of converting it to become a full-spectrum camera for almost as long as I've had it. Ever since reading about how that is a thing that actually exists, and that it's an easier process with the mirrorless cameras, because you don't need to recalibrate the focus afterwards. Guess what. I've finally gotten around to doing it.

Front photo of an Olympus Pen E-P1
Photo by chebe

Firstly, what is a full spectrum camera? Basically, digital cameras are sensitive to more wavelengths on the electromagnetic spectrum than human eyes are. This makes their images look wrong, so the manufacturers put a filter (the hot mirror) in the cameras to remove the unwanted ultraviolet and infrared 'noise'. (Early mobile phone cameras didn't have this, back when you could use them to see if the LED on your remote controls lit up when you pressed a button.) But you can get some very interesting photos without this limitation.

And it seems a lot of people agree with me, because multiple businesses have started up to provide these conversions, and filters. Which makes things a whole lot easier for me. Now I can just buy the correct specific replacement glass for my camera from places like;

Kolari internal filters for DIY
Life Pixel internal filters for DIY

There is however a bit of a problem with the age of my camera. It has fallen out of the memory of the internet. I can no longer find the guides I had seen before. I did find Life Pixels E-P3 conversion tutorial, but the E-P3 is not exactly the same as the E-P1. I dug through some old forum links, and found Digital-Photography.pls E-P1/E-P2 conversion on The Way Back Machine. It has some good pointers, and high resolution images, but also a lot of 'like usual', 'like last time', and 'check my previous tutorials' (which also don't explain). Nonetheless, armed with both tutorials, I dived in, figured it out, and recorded the whole thing. What follows are (found footage) stills of my adventure. To make it easier for whomever follows. At their own peril.

Required tools

- Phillips head screwdriver, mine was size 1.4x40mm,
- Thin tweezers,
- Air blower,
- Soldering iron,
- Anti-static and safety precautions.

If changing the hot mirror, you'll need;
- the replacement glass,
- glass cleaning cloth.

Preparation

Remove the lens, battery, sd card, and hot shoe protector.

Case Disassembly

( Details )

Body Disassembly

( Details )

Hot Mirror Assembly Disassembly

( Details )

Re-assembly

Do everything in reverse.

Result

If everything goes well the camera will look just like it did before. Except for when you look at the hot mirror without a lens in place. With the original hot mirror you see the light filtering appearing as colour, typically red. With the clear glass that colour is gone.

( Before and After )

Many hours after removing that first screw I was relieved to have my camera still working, and displaying very interesting colours. Green plants are orange. A sunny day is light orange. An overcast sky is reddish-orange. A snow filled sky is very pink. The evening sky is much brighter. And that's just with natural light. Candles burn purple-red. Does it really matter if I have two washers/spacers left over and no idea where they came from? *cough*

The next step for me is to get some external filters to see what else the world holds for my camera. And possibly some external (safe) UV/IR light sources, for more forensic explorations.

So picture it. (Or simply remember it.) A pandemic has struck, and lockdown implemented. You are now cut off from all your activities, socialising, friends, as they take place an hour's bus ride (or flight) away. The internet is your only connection. You have a desktop computer, but no webcam. And webcams are sold-out everywhere. What do/did you do?

I was quite lucky, in many ways, but specifically here in that a year before the pandemic I had upgraded to a rather fancy digital micro-four-thirds camera. And it just so happened to be one of the few that the camera manufacturer had enabled with not just HDMI output, but clean HDMI output. They posted an article detailing how to steam video with some Olympus cameras. Following the guide I got a HDMI capture device. (Or rather two; I got on a waiting list for the expensive kind, and ordered a UK£10 version from ebay.) And a HDMI-to-micro-HDMI cable.

And for a few video chats my friends had to look at me in 4K. At least for a couple of hours, until the battery died. See the camera can be charged over USB, but not while actually in use. And the manufacturer does not sell a mains adapter for my model of camera. So I ended up buying the first webcam that came into stock.

Several months go by and I have acquired a 3D printer. I am browsing the internet for things I can do with a 3D printer and I find an article on camera tools which has some cool things, but as I browse the wider 3D printed camera stuff category I come across the concept of printing dummy batteries, to be able to use any size battery with your camera. I even found one for my exact battery, in the Olympus OM-D BLS-50 Dummy Battery. The instructions on assembly are on the original model. But my experience was not as smooth as that.

( Process )

This project has made me see the full potential of 3D printing. We're not just making our own pet projects. We can build things to add functionality that is not available at any price to the things we already own. And propagate it to the entire world. Okay, I get it now.