Robb S.

About 5 years ago I had my Nikon D5000 converted to full-spectrum infrared through LifePixel. It cost twice as much as I originally paid for the camera body itself ($300) and never, ever did the camera work correctly nor properly once I received it. The focus was always off no matter what I tried. Manual? Nope. Auto? Nope. Liveview? Nope. I don't think I ever got one clear shot in the so-called infrared conversion. Also, the camera was completely unable to take measurements to set the white balance, which was the recommended way to set up the comera correctly, according to LifePixel. Every time I attempted to take a measurement the camera told me it failed the process. I spent $300, and two years of complete frustration to receive back an infrared camera that could not be focused no matter the setting or lens used, totally unable to correctly calibrate the white balance, and thus, never took one decent nor even half-way amateur acceptable infrared photo. In order to get maybe 4 or 5 presentable shots from my investment I basically redrew the entire photo in Photoshop using the actual photo as nothing but a tracing / color by numbers base image. And so my camera sat collecting dust in a drawer. Until today. I now have another, much newer, but yet no longer used Nikon, due to upgrading again. I thought, hey, I wonder if I took the infrared sensor out of the D5000 if it might be compatible or usable in some way with my now old D3200. The instructions for getting to the sensor were NOT the nightmare of "high-voltage and risking of death" horror that LIfepixel makes it out to be. I've never disassembled a camera in my life and it took me like 15 minutes. Easy. And how does one risk high-voltage electrocution from a device that runs on a battery that you just take out before you work on it? D'uh.

Anyhow, imagine my joy when I got to the holy grail and found that I'd paid $300 for LifePixel to take and uneven, jaggedy piece of red glass, and superglue or epoxy it or whatever over top of my original camera sensor. I paid $300 bucks for superglue and glass. And as a nice kick in the rear it was a nightmare to remove it due to the adhesive. It was literally caulked into my camera. Luckily I knew I'd not be using the D5000 again so I had to use a razor blade, box cutter, phaser and a team of mules to pull the jaggedy red piece of glass from my camera. Near as I can tell that is all I got, all they did, and I spent a lot of money, a LOT of time and frustration, and ultimately abandoned a new photographic technique I was really excited to learn and hopefully master only to have that time wasted and excitement abandoned and crushed by this. LifePixel? They were more like my DeathPixel. But, if I ever get excited about and want to start learning the art of stained glass I have my first piece anyhow...