Anti-aliasing filter removal

[Elliotte Rusty Harold]

Has anyone had the Anti-aliasing filter removed from their DSLR? If so, what did you think of the results?

[arash_hazeghi]

you cannot remove the filter yourself, there are companies that can remove the filter from some camera models but the camera will becomes sensitive to IR because the ICF is hermetically attached to the AA filter. So exposure will change dramatically and you will lose your meter. Will need to use external IR filters on the lens. Premium Canon cameras like the 5D2/1D series have very light AA filter so the extra detail you resolve is marginal and insignificant. Nikon has decided to make a D800E with the effect of the AA filter canceled optically (it still has a physical filter) so for that camera it must have produced a measurable difference... Although looking at early samples it is really hard to tell the difference, it seems like you can visually recover most of the extra detail with sharpening-not worth the hassle IMO

[Alan Stankevitz]

There is a company maxmax.com that offers the "Hot Rod" replacement that does not change the refractive index of the camera which means that aperture settings remain the same and autofocus is just as accurate. This would in fact increase the resolution of the camera, but in doing so moiré patterns will appear. This might be a rather common occurrence if you plan to photograph the feather details of birds. I'm not sure it is worth the effort if I had to use Photoshop to fix the moiré patterns in post-processing.

I understand Nikon is offering software to "fix" moiré patterns that will occur with the D800E. In doing so however, I'm sure resolution will take a hit.

Here is a link with sample images:

http://www.maxmax.com/hot_rod_visible.htm

Alan
www.iwishicouldfly.com

[ericbowles]

Lifepixel.com also offers AA filter removal.

AA filter removal is standard with IR conversions. I've had one image that had moire - and it was very difficult to remove. I would choose the D800E in a second if it were not for concern about moire with bird feathers. I'm not sure that the increased resolution is worth giving up the AA filter.