Hi Tony,
I just recently modded a 350D I picked up cheap (it was actually $50 and faulty, but I managed to get it going). I just removing the IR filter and didn't replace it with the suggested glass, being either clear or an IR/UV filter. One thing this causes is an inability for the camera to correctly auto focus when using a lens or looking through the view finder, but as I'm doing all my focusing on the laptop directly from the CCD it didn't worry me. Another issue with not replacing the original filter with an IR/UV filter is that it can lead to star bloat and possibly other things, but I've read that the LDAS type Light Pollution filters will provide all the IR/UV filtering required in addition to the in town lights so it should fix the problem. My LDAS filter is still on backorder so I can't confirm that yet.
As I only got the camera working last Friday (modded it before I fixed it
) I've only managed to do a very simple comparison between my standard 400D and the modded 350D on a camera tripod, it looks promising so far.
This is the link I used to show me how to mod the 350D.
http://astro.ai-software.com/article.../mod_350D.html
Regards,
Markus
p.s. For those who are on a budget and like to tinker you might find these pages useful and interesting as well. Think it will be my next project
http://ghonis2.ho8.com/rebelmod450d16c.html
http://www.aznightsky.com/Coldbox.htm