We demonstrate the image conversion from mid-IR to near-IR (NIR) exploiting high-contrast optical switching in vanadium oxide thin-film layers. The intensity distribution of a mid-IR beam is converted to NIR wavelengths exploiting the strong reflectivity changes induced by optical pumping in the mid-IR. We show an experimental setup in which the radiation of a Tm-doped fiber laser at $1940\mu \mathrm{m}$ and a carbon dioxide at $10.6\mu \mathrm{m}$ has been converted to both $850\mathrm{nm}$ and $1064\mathrm{nm}$ . The resolution was $35\mu \mathrm{m}$ and was reached by using an inexpensive CCD camera. The sensitivity of the device increases linearly with sample temperature. We measured a threshold of $144\mathrm{mW}∕{\mathrm{cm}}^2$ , with a sample temperature of $62°\mathrm{C}$ .