Infrared Lens Database: Best Lenses for IR Photography

This is a database of lenses suitable for infrared photography. It contains 408 lenses across 35 lens mounts. When shooting infrared, some lenses will display hot spots in the center of the image. While some mild hot spots can be edited out of an image during editing, it is preferred to avoid shooting with lenses or at apertures that produce hot spots. Using lower-numbered ƒ-stops can reduce or eliminate hot spots with some lenses.

Lens Mounts

Full Frame

Medium Format

APS-C

Micro Four Thirds

Fixed Lens Cameras

Fujifilm

Ricoh

How Ratings Work

What the ratings mean. Hot spots usually appear as you increase the lens ƒ-number, so each rating depends on the lowest ƒ-stop where a hot spot shows and how severe it is, and the thresholds differ by sensor format.

Full Frame and Medium Format

Good: No hot spots, or one that starts at ƒ/11 or higher where diffraction impacts image sharpness.
Maybe: Contains a mild hot spot that starts at ƒ/5.6 or ƒ/8 and is correctable in editing.
Bad: A hot spot that starts at ƒ/4 or lower, or is hard to correct in editing.
Unknown: No data reported.

APS-C and Micro Four Thirds

Good: No hot spots, or one that starts at ƒ/8 or higher where diffraction impacts image sharpness.
Maybe: Contains a mild hot spot that starts between ƒ/4 and ƒ/5.6 and is correctable in editing.
Bad: A hot spot that starts at ƒ/4 or lower, or is hard to correct in editing.
Unknown: No data reported.

How reports are checked and rated

Notice: Infrared photography utilizes camera lenses designed for visible light, not infrared light, combined with various filters types from various manufacturers. Every rating comes from at least one real-world report, and a lens can behave differently with another camera conversion, filter, or wavelength, so a rating is not a guarantee.