Camera Excitment and Drama

The Sony camera I had before had infrared spotlights build into it to allow it to see in total darkness. Although my new Fujifilm camera can see infrared light, it doesn't have an infrared-only lighting system built in, so I want to construct one. I went to Radio Snack today to pick up a 16mW IR LED and some resistors to make it go. I hooked it up to a pair of batteries, and it works. It's totally invisible to the naked eye, but seen through my camera, it's visible, and can dimly illuminate something about 5 feet away. That's not powerful enough, but I see online LEDs that go up to at least 60mW, and three of four of those would probably do trick nicely. I'm also interested in adding a filter to my flash so it only flashes in IR.

In other news, however, the bachelorette party I shot the other night must have been too much for the poor camera, because now I'm getting "FOCUS ERROR" warnings when I turn it on, and it won't focus anymore. I've contacted the dealer, and will try to stave off suicidal depression long enough to get it fixed.