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.

Inspired by Furlexa I decided to finish dismantling my Gizmo (a friend of Furby) with a view to upgrading it to a Raspberry Pi, and maybe play around with a sound/voice interface. Not to work with Amazon, but rather because I never did get that Teddy Ruxpin I always wanted. *wistful sigh*

Gizmo (1999) and their friend Furby (1998) are basically the same creature, apart from the outer skin and eye appearance. So the process for disassembling is mostly the same.

Except, Gizmo has larger ears (the 'bones' having two holes). To support this there are ear casings on top of the carapace/shell, screwed together. So when taking the carapace apart there are the four screws found in a regular Furby, but also a fifth screw in the ear casings. After removing the screw the ear casings come away in two parts. You must remove the ear casings to get at the fourth/head screw.
( Carapace pictures )

There are also two rubber sheathed wires that act as arm supports screwed onto the carapace. But these don't do anything and aren't connected to anything, so you can leave them attached to the carapace as you remove it.

Otherwise the only difference I noticed was that my wires are different colours from any description I could find. Which is not as many as there should have been because many of the links are now dead. In the hopes of making this easier for other people here are some detailed pictured with wires labelled.

( Wiring pictures )

( Removing circuit board pictures )

References
(At least the ones that aren't yet dead links.)
Furlexa
Furby Autopsy
Anatomy of the Furby
Furby Brain Surgery
Furby Hacking

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5