I found this on a local auction site. Would love to have got it but the price went higher than i was willing to pay, given it was being sold as faulty. Was released in 96 from what google tells me, you can definately tell the mavica fd series cameras were based off the same basic design.
Converted my FD83 to full spectrum today and took a few pictures as i did it, incase it was of interest to others. Keep in mind this is how i did it, not necessarily the correct way to do it.
The original HOT mirror was 3.18mm thick and 8.35mm x 8.85mm in size. This was an odd size and thickness and i don't really have any glass cutting/grinding experience (for pieces this small anyway) so had a look online to see what i could find. Sellers on Aliexpress will custom cut optical glass for you but it got rather expensive. The size of the glass looked to be a little flexible as there is room in the HOT mirror holder to go slightly larger and probably smaller too. I found some 3mm thick quartz glass precut to 8mm x 8mm in size. 10 pieces shipped was only a few dollars, so wasn't going to loose much if it didn't work out. It did work out OK in the end but 9mm x 8mm would have been nicer.
The general process to do this conversion on the FD83 is as follows...
Remove all screws on the outside to the camera and split it apart.
Carefully unplug the cable between the front and back halves of the camera.
Unplug the image sensor cable and peel back 2 bits of tape that were in the way.
Unscrew image sensor (2 screws) and remove it from camera.
Remove the cover holding the HOT mirror. There are 2 small clips on each side.
Remove HOT mirror. There is a rubber piece between the image sensor and the HOT mirror. This may come out with the cover or may stay on the image sensor. The HOT mirror will also be stuck to this rubber piece but its easy enough to peel off.
Center replacement glass on rubber piece. The rubber is slightly sticky and will hold onto the glass. Put the cover back over the glass/rubber and carefully turn upside down to keep it aligned.
While holding the cover upside down, clip the cover back onto image sensor.
Repeat steps 1 to 4 in reverse order.
And the results? Well.. with the IR filters i have you definitely don't need to use "night +" mode anymore and you can get away without using a tripod. With both the 720nm and 850nm filters the colour has changed a bit now but generally everything seems much brighter. Some of this may come down to the before and after phots being taken on different days with slightly different light levels/conditions.
Another couple of IR photos taken at a cemetry today while out testing a FD71. I am liking this 720nm filter. Definately need to use night + mode but hoping that wont be required after full specteum conversion. I want to get some colour filters and give IR trichromes a go, but im finding it a bit difficult to find 37mm ones that dont cost an absolute fortune.
Scored a FD71 recently from a local auction site. Was told it was in good condition but untested. When it arrived it stank of mold/mildew and had clearly been stored in damp conditions. It didnt power up but wasnt too big of a deal as it had 3 dead fuses. Swapped those out and it was good to go. Lens also had mold growth inside so had to split that apart and clean it out. Went out after work to give it a run, here are some photos of random things in the rather old part at a local cemetery. The exposure seems too low on many of them but interestingly its bright as hell on the cameras lcd.
Brought some cheap IR filters off Aliexpress that arrived today. Took a couple of shots of some random trees over the neighbours gate to see how well they work on an unmodified FD83. Fairly happy with the outcome. Had to use night + mode and it was fairly sunny. The pinker colour and brighter b&w photos were done with a 720nm filter and the other two with a 850nm filter. Will be doing a full spectrum conversion next to see how that improves things.