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I do not recall seeing this posted elsewhere on the forum but my apologises if someone else found this solution before I did.

Anyway I got myself a PS3 Eye (although this should apply to nearly any other camera) and set about removing the IR Filter Lens.  (Yes I knew about the focus issues but then that is easily resolved).

Put in the ambient light filter (floppy disk media) and everything worked as it should.

Sat there looking at the IR Lens on my desk and thought "there must be a way to remove the IR coating".  Tried a few obvious things such as lighter fluid, iso-propanol and even neat acetone would touch it.  Not as easy as I thought

Ok there must be a way to seperate that IR Coating from the glass lens, and this is how I achieved it.

1. Get yourself a piece of plain flat glass, doesn't need to be large as you are only using this as a working area for a 6mm dia lens.

2. Go out in to your garage and find your tin of 'T-CUT' , at least this is what it is called in the UK.  It's basically a car body Scratch removal / colour restorer etc if you are not sure what I mean then google "carplan t-cut".  I used the "Original" type but the metallic type probably works just as well, maybe better.  I wouldn't use any that have additional wax in though.  It's designed to take out small scratches out of the car paintwork and leaves no residue behind.

3. Pour a small blob of T-Cut on to the glass about the size of the lens

4. Place the lens (IR Coating face down) on to the paste and rotate the lens in a clock wise direction.

5. Now this is going to take you 15-20 mins of rotating that lens and you should renew the paste regularly.  The paste contains a very fine abrasive that will eventually wear through the coating and the coating will flake off.  You can actually see the coating particles in the paste as black specs.  Definetly renew the paste when you see the specs otherwise the coating can scratch the lens.

6. Check regularly the lens and once all the coating has gone then just clean the lens up and you can pop it back into the camera and auto focus should restore itself.

I hope this is helpfull to someone out there.

Nice work! Got a couple of questions

1) Does this work on the new camera as well?
2) Which side is the filter on?

Thanks

Found the answer, that is for the old version, the new version ha an internal ir-filer mounted in the lens

CyberVillain @ 26/12/2011 - 12h59 a dit:

Found the answer, that is for the old version, the new version ha an internal ir-filer mounted in the lens

Are you sure? Seems a bit odd for the older model since it's not really so hard to remove IR-filter from the old model. So I'm hoping that Tron could specify which version it was?

Sorry not been in here for a while.  

The cam was from a PS3 EyeToy I got (from an Argos sale in UK) is the older 'Good' type.  The one with the IR Filter closest to the PCB and not between the lens.

My apologise for the delay but hope that helps someone out.

Sorry, how to detect what type of cam I have and where is IR-filer in camera?

I found this article
http://www.peauproductions.com/blog/2009/04/17/the-two-types-of-ps3-eye-stock-lenses-pictures-of-each/

But my camera is good-bad. Main lens is spherical (good type), but closest to image sensor lens has violet flare (bad type).

Koss @ 17/03/2012 - 01h29 a dit:

Sorry, how to detect what type of cam I have and where is IR-filer in camera?

I found this article
http://www.peauproductions.com/blog/2009/04/17/the-two-types-of-ps3-eye-stock-lenses-pictures-of-each/

But my camera is good-bad. Main lens is spherical (good type), but closest to image sensor lens has violet flare (bad type).

The 'Violet flare' is the IR filter part that you need to remove.  Take another look at the photo's you pointed out at peauproductions and carefully examine the diameter of the lens closest to the image sensor.  The good one's are smaller than the bad ones.  Check you lens against he photo, if you have the smaller lense than you are good to go.  If you have  the larger lens than the IR filter is between the 2 lenses and you should not attempt it.

There is probably a much more easy way to remove the coating.
Due to the most IR coatings are made of MgF2, one may be lucky with cooking the Lens.
If sony saved the money to strenghten the coating with silver or something similar, the direct opposed MgF2 can be solved in cooking water.

But be careful with heating and cooling the glass. Its best, when the lens is heating up and cooling down together with the water and is not touching the walls of the cooking pot.

Greetings from germany.
Florian

So, is there a reliable method for removing this IR coating without any optical drawbacks? What about the new "bad" PS3 Eye?