A growing number of digital photographers realise their cameras can be pressed into service to render images of light outside the visible range. The CCD of many cameras is quite sensitive to near-infrared (NIR) so as to give a useful response for pure IR photography. An opaque IR filter, for example Wratten 89B or 87, blocks out unwanted, visible light to make the CCD record only NIR. This is the digital equivalent of using an IR-sensitive film. In practice things work a little differently, because a CCD will not record NIR in only one of its colour channels (red), but more often than not also in blue or green as well. This means you will NOT get the typical high-contrast, grainy "IR"-look, more likely a muddy facsimile of the real thing. Clever image tweaking in Photoshop helps put the matter on a right track, or you can venture into a more exciting "digital IR"-domain. Pursuing either alternative, D100 provides the image files you need provided a +1 EV correction is dialled into its metering system.

Since CCD sensors also are picking up ultraviolet (UV) radiation, it was tempting to try to apply the camera for UV photography as well. Luckily for me, my manual-focus UV-Nikkor 105 mm lens has been modified with a CPU-chip (Rolland Elliott coming to the rescue) and thus works fine on the D100. Metering in the UV required a +1.7 EV correction, so the D100 is not entirely content with working in this spectral range. I did get respectable UV images with D100, see below, but there are some technical inconsistencies which I shall address in my forthcoming digital UV/IR article (soon to be posted on my site).

Despite its quirks, I found the Nikon D100 an enticing newcomer to the digital area. Hadn't I recently bought my D1H body, a D100 could very well have sneaked into my posession. I would recommend it for anyone interested in a high-quality digital alternative.