Sooooo Fujifilm's New Camera Sees Through Some Clothes

The new Fujifilm X-T1 IR is made for crime-scene photographers, as its infrared capabilities can unearth invisible clues.
Fujifilm hasn039t released an official image of the new XT1 IR yet but the company says the new infrared camera will be...
Ariel Zambelich/WIRED

The Fujifilm X-T1 might be our favorite camera of the past few years, and a spin-off version of the mirrorless shooter is about to add some eyebrow-raising tricks. Today, Fujifilm announced the new mirrorless X-T1 IR, which shares the same core specs and body style as the still-available X-T1.

But this new camera has one big difference: It might be able to see through clothing. Some clothing, at least.

That's because it's able to "see" infrared light, which is invisible to the human eye. Visible light falls within a wavelength of 390nm (violet) and 700nm (red). Beyond that 700nm ceiling, you enter the near-infrared range between 750nm and 950nm. According to Fujifilm, the X-T1 IR can capture light at wavelengths up to 1,000nm, dipping its toe into the mid-infrared range. It's also able to see long-wave ultraviolet light in the 380nm to 400nm range.

Infrared photography can create some very artful pictures. It captures trippy, dreamlike images of landscapes. In broad daylight and the thick of summer, trees and grass look like they're dusted with snow. At high noon, a light-blue sky takes on a dark-purple hue.

But one odd side effect of infrared photography is that, in some cases, it can see right through clothing. Not always, and the clothes have to be pretty thin in the first place.

No, this is not a camera built for pervs. It's a camera built for professionals. There are plenty of practical cases for infrared photography. Fujifilm says the X-T1 IR is geared toward crime-scene investigators, healthcare applications, and scientists. In the world of forensics, infrared photography can be used to analyze bloodstains, detect deep-tissue injuries, and see through scratched-out passages on documents.

Beyond the super-human vision, the X-T1 IR will be almost identical to the X-T1. The only real differences are to the sensor—the standard IR cut filter will be removed, and the sensor will have an anti-reflective coating. Other than that, they're identical. Both have a 16-megapixel APS-C sensor that produced beautiful images in the plain-old X-T1, screaming fast autofocus, Wi-Fi connectivity, a weatherproofed magnesium-alloy body, a killer OLED eye-level viewfinder, and a continuous-shooting mode that grabs up to eight images per second.

It's also priced similarly to the original X-T1 as well, albeit without a kit lens. Slated for an October release, the X-T1 IR will go for $1,700. Fujifilm hasn't released final product images for the infrared-capturing camera yet, but hopefully it'll be painted neon green to alert you to a deviant behind the controls.