X-Ray Camera?

Hi, I'm looking around on ebay for cameras (started out looking at the Pentax 645) and I ran into some x-

ray film. This reminded me of a picture of a flower i saw in my doctors office that was done some how as

an x-ray. i was wondering if this is possible to do with a special sized camera (besides those huge

machines), or could you use the film in a 35mm camera. Thank you. Dillon

It is doubtful that the flower pic was an x-ray of any sort. Probably an infrared photo, see here for some info:

 

http://www.photo.net/learn/optics/edscott/spectsel

 

And no, you can't use x-ray film in a regular film camera. You need an radioactive source to expose it, and you won't want to carry that around with you.

i have studied IR/UV photography and have heard that one can do UV (ultraviolet)

photography esp. with tmax 400 quite well, it produces much contrast. i had check into X ray

imaging and no source other than a doctors machine produces enough to make an exposure,

not even the sun under hour + exposuress at full sun.

 

i have only seen x-ray film in sheet form and 6x8" is small considering medical objects to be

imaged on it.

http://www.mjt.org/exhibits/alRichards/1.html

Sorry, guess it didn't work as a clickable link. Here's the photographers home page.

 

http://www-personal.umich.edu/~agrxray/index.html

You cannot use a lens to image X-Rays - they pass through glass without significant refraction. The wavelength of X-Rays is an order or two of magnitude shorter than ultraviolight. There were some X-Ray pictures of flowers and other common objects published a few years back. They were created in the usual way - a (nearly) point source of X-Rays casting "shadows" on X-Ray film.

 

Perhaps you're thinking of those ads in the back of comic books for "X-Ray Glasses"?

It can be done with a zone plate, Edward. Not clear why anyone would want to do that, but its possible.

Zane,

 

X-Rays are created by bombarding metals with high-energy electrons, causing inner electrons in the metal atoms to change energy states. Radioactivity is caused by nuclear decay, which is vastly more energetic than transitions in the electron shell.

Dan,

 

What's a zone plate? Remember, I went to school before computers, and dentists still used film. (Do they work like those comic book glasses?)

There is no such thing as an x-ray camera. When they x-ray you, they simply pass focused x-ray beams through your body. The rays penetrate your body and are recorded on a sheet of film placed underneath the part being x-rayed. Actually, most any film would do, but x-ray film is specially sensitized for x-rays, and is coated on

BOTH sides. I've used regular x-ray film to take ordinary pictures in a regular camera.

Edward, I've seen zone plates described as cousins of pinholes. Physically, a zone plate is a plate with concentric rings marked on it, alternately opaque and transparent. Works by diffraction, and thats why a zone plate can be used to focus xrays. Google will find more and better information about them for you.

 

Dentists still use what you're familiar with. And the radiographs of small fishes that I use to see some of their bones are made the same way. Lay the specimen flat on the Xray film in its protective cover (the stuff is also sensitive to visible light), zap it. High speed xray film, which is coated on both sides, is much harder to read through a microscope than high res.

This photographer does use x-rays. Her work is very beautiful.

http://www.judithkmcmillan.com/

Zone plates are used for X-Ray microscopy, and do indeed work by diffraction. The effective focal length is proportional to the wavelength of the X-radiation, and is very short at best*. This does not appear to have any application to photography of macro subjects. Standard "shadowgraphs" are still the best technique.

 

* Soft X-Rays are used for microscopy, and for exposing resists for integrated circuits, with a wavelength on the order of 2nm. X-Rays are as short as 0.01nm (cosmic radiation). Medical X-Rays are somewhere in between.

X-ray film would have to have some visible light sensitivity or else it would not be packaged in light tight containers. I'm not sure which visible wawelengths it's most sensitive too.

BTW, if you're really interested in x-rays, try a Google search on homemade x-ray machines. A number of home experimenters have used old radio tubes to make cold cathode x-ray sources. I say this because some of them have posted some really cool pictures. I don't recommend anyone try to repeat their experiments.