UV photography (1 Viewer)

I'm thinking about taking photographs of buterflies in the field in the UV range of the spectrum. I am NOT a camera expert, and wondered whether anyone has any experience of this, and could advise me. I currently have no suitable equipment.

This is a highly specialised field of photography, I have not encountered this in practice outside of a laboratory, personally.

However there are several good sources on the internet including http://savazzi.freehostia.com/photography/uv.htm. This reference does give practical advice unlike many others.

I suppose the key assumption is that you are attempting to record images consisting either totally or with a high percentage of UV light as opposed to the illumination of a target with UV light that causes it to fluoresce at longer frequencies.

You may find practical help by contacting local colleges and universities who may have technical thesis or other practical assistance in this field.

Thank you for your advice. I'm not sure about contacting the Universities around here as they will probably be closd for the Summer holiday at the time when the study would be conducted. I want to photograph butterflies as they see each other, to be able to distinguish species which look virtually the same to us. I'll check out the link which you suggested.
Thank again
Jen

Check out lifepixel.com. They do IR and UV comversions of DSLRs. I'm not sure about your budget, or if you might have a DSLR which you wouldn't mind converting, but it's worth checking out:

http://shop.lifepixel.com/3-Convert-your-digital-camera-to-ultraviolet-UV-only-c15/