We finished up the IR conversion project over Columbus Day weekend.  As we had discovered during the first time we took one of these cameras apart, the best way to get at the filter was not from the front, but from the back. 

This approach eliminated the need to mess with the lens assembly.  The CCD is held in place by three screws and a few dabs of adhesive.  Once the CCD was freed, the IR filter may be removed by prying.

We made and inserted six of the IR pass-through films into the cell The combined thickness of the films approximated the thickness of  removed glass filter.  It was not clear how this would affect the quality of the image, but it was a reasonable "best guess."

Reassembling of the camera was simple as we only took about only what was necessary to get at the CCD sensor and to remove the IR filter.  Still, we took care and reconnected all of the cables in the reverse order as per our notes.  We also checked everything twice before the power-on test.  Once we had positive confirmation, we replaced the front and back covers and tightened everything down.  Time for a more thorough image test.

The image test was not as successful as we had hoped.  It appears that we did something to throw off the autofocus sensor.  The IR pass-through filter definitely worked.  The closeup shots were quite sharp, but all of the normal and distance shots were out of focus :-(

We learned a lot from this DIY project, but are not sure if this project is worth another go.  There are just too many things to go wrong with the filter replacement with such a compact camera.  However, we do have three more S100s in our collection...so we may give it one more shot if we have nothing on our project list come the next "rainy day."   [Permalink] - Canon S100 IR Conversion