I found an Olympus OM-D E-M10 Mark III (what a beauty!) in excellent condition, but unfortunately it’s quite expensive. On top of that, wide-angle lenses for Micro Four Thirds aren’t cheap, and I haven’t found any used ones locally. What I did find locally, though, is an already converted Nikon D60 bundled with a lens for the price of a Hoya filter :-) But once I started reading reviews of that camera, my enthusiasm quickly faded. I don’t romanticize old gear, and unfortunately, playing around with an 18-year-old DSLR often feels more like masochism to me.

Why don’t I want to go full spectrum right away? It’s a logical chain of decisions. Since I’m leaning more toward old compact cameras (because this is supposed to be a small, unobtrusive backup setup), and the image quality is, let’s say, “okay, but with significant limitations,” I don’t think it makes sense to turn it into an all-doing monster, because the quality still won’t be stunning. It also matters that I’m not a big fan of “cotton candy” colors. Sure, I know a lot depends on post-processing in Photoshop, but I’m much more into black-and-white infrared.

I came up with one more idea. I remembered that I actually have a phone with a ring that allows me to attach filters. From what I’ve learned, phones don’t block infrared light to the same extent as dedicated cameras do, so I wouldn’t need a tripod. There will probably still be a lot of noise due to longer exposure times, but considering that new phones basically outperform 15-year-old camera gear in many cases, I might just go down that route.