Getting started with multispectral imaging presents many challenges. You may find yourself wondering which camera, lens, and filter combinations work best while finding that there isn't much information available online. If you're interested in putting together a multispectral imaging kit, read along for our complete UV & IR Forensic Photography Equipment Considerations Guide.

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When it comes to taking UV & IR images, your equipment can either save you hours of work or really slow down your overall workflow. Our goal at Kolari Vision is to educate professionals on how to put together a multispectral imaging setup that will complement their workflow while simplifying the approach to capturing ultraviolet and infrared images.

Commercial forensics photography packages are expensive and limited. The most prominent supplier is Fuji, but they have often offered packages that are not fully compatible with infrared and UV photography. For example, their IS-PRO fixed lens forensics camera was built around a lens with crippling IR artifacts. Their professional XT-1 multispectral camera kit was supplied with a UV bandpass filter that was incompatible with digital UV capture and a UV/IR blocking filter that did not capture accurate visible light.

Many professionals find that opting for commercial forensic photography packages often lack the capabilities and equipment required to easily take UV, visible light, and IR images with one camera.

The other approach is to use consumer cameras and third-party equipment and build your own multispectral imaging kit, which requires some specialized knowledge. We specialize in presenting equipment considerations around cameras, lenses, filters, and light sources to ensure accurate capture of the target wavelengths.

In this article, we will review using general-purpose lenses for UV and IR photography while discussing the limitations that need to be considered to successfully capture UV and IR. Most importantly, we will go over how to perform multispectral photography on a budget, as well as present a ready-to-go kit built from the ground up for this type of imaging.

UV optics: a complete guide

We all know that UV light can be used to kill bacteria, but most of us ignore why. The answer comes from the Planck-Einstein equation:

Energy equals two constants (Planck's and speed of light) divided by wavelength. We can directly understand from this equation that the shorter the wavelength the higher the energy. Ultraviolet being the shortest wavelength of the electromagnetic spectrum (second only to X-rays) its energy is high, higher than visible light, and much higher than IR lasers.

One other characteristic of Ultraviolet is that most of the materials absorb it, therefore finding good optical material to work with in the UV is not easy. In this guide you'll learn everything you need to know about UV optics.

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Ultraviolet definition:

Ultraviolet light refers to the electromagnetic spectrum between 10 and 400 nm. This spectrum is not visible to human eyes and can be further divided into several sub-spectrums:

What are UV optics?

UV optics are optical components that can more or less be used as visible optics, like lenses, prisms, filters, mirrors and so on.

Many common optical materials like N-BK7, H-K9L, and B270 have bad transmission in the UV. It is recommended to work with specific optical materials that have good optical properties in the UV spectrum. Below is a list of UV optical materials:

• UV grade Fused Silica
• Sapphire (near UV only)
• LiF (Lithium Fluoride), usable down to 110nm.
• BaF2 (Baryum Fluoride)
• CaF2 (Calcium Fluoride)
• MgF2 (Magnesium Fluoride)
• Some specific UV optical polymers

Each material has its own specificity but the deeper your needs in the UV (shorter wavelengths) the harder it is to find an adequate material. For EUV usually only reflective optics are available.

UV optics applications

UV optics are used wherever there is a need for UV light. We have seen in the introduction that UV light is widely used for disinfection purposes, it is also used to trigger fluorescence in microscopy, anti-forgery, or other applications. Due to its shorter wavelength, UV light can also be used for precise optical measurements and spectrometry.

Where to buy optical components for UV applications?

Due to the very short wavelengths, minor surface defects that can be neglected on visible or IR optics may have a damaging effect in the UV, with much more significant scattering. To avoid it, very good polishing of the surface should be achieved and material should avoid impurities which would absorb part of the UV light.

Therefore specific care should be given to optical elements that will be used for UV applications, so we recommend working only with precision optics suppliers that are experienced in handling UV optical components.

Don't hesitate to reach out to SINOPTIX for your UV optics needs.

Contact us to discuss your requirements of Custom Optical Mirrors. Our experienced sales team can help you identify the options that best suit your needs.