3 ms·

Seems possible it could be for ITAR compliance.

• myself248 4y ago
  No. "Infrared" isn't a very descriptive term, since it means "the entire electromagnetic spectrum with energies below the human visual range". Near-infrared is very close to the visible range and is sensed just fine by normal CCD/CMOS imagers, and they have to be specifically filtered to ignore it, otherwise it swamps the visible-color portion of the image. By removing the infrared filter, you lose color fidelity but gain sensitivity. Thermal infrared takes a vastly different sensor, which is fiendishly difficult to manufacture, which is why thermal cameras are so expensive. Thermal sensors with certain performance characteristics may fall under ITAR, but you'd know if you had one of those.