1 Introduction

Over the last ten years or so, the advent of large format near-infrared (NIR) detectors has made images at wavelengths longer than 1$\mu$m relatively easy to obtain. New infrared cameras based on these detectors make it straightforward to study statistically significant samples of galaxies in the NIR (see e.g. de Jong & van der Kruit 1994). The NIR wavelengths constitute the spectral region best adapted to studies of the quiescent stellar component of galaxies, since they trace mass better than do optical bands, being less contaminated by the low M/L products of recent episodes of star formation. The NIR spectral region is also relatively free of effects of dust, as extinction at 1.65 $\mu$m is more than seven times lower than in the B band (e.g., Landini et al. 1984). On the negative side, the sky brightness can be as much as ten magnitudes brighter than in the visible; thus more sophisticated and time-consuming observing and data reduction techniques are required.

Since 1993 we have used NIR arrays extensively to obtain images in the H bandpass of galaxies. The observing samples were selected by choosing members of the Virgo, Coma and A1367 clusters. In addition, we selected a significant population of galaxies in the portion of the "Great Wall'' which lies in the bridge between Coma and A1367. These latter objects can be considered isolated and will be used as a control sample for environmental studies.

Our previous papers concentrated on spiral galaxies. About 160 such objects observed with the Calar Alto 2.2 m telescope were reported in Gavazzi et al. (1996c; Paper I); another 300, observed similarly with the TIRGO 1.5 m telescope, are given in Gavazzi et al. (1996b; Paper II); and another 102 Virgo galaxies are reported in Boselli et al. (1997; B97). More Calar Alto observations of 170 galaxies in the Virgo cluster are given in Boselli et al. (2000, Paper IV). In this paper, we present 1.65$\mu$m (H-band) surface brightness measurements, obtained in 1997 at TIRGO equipped with the Arcetri NIR camera ARNICA, of 558 galaxies which are primarily of early-type (E-S0-S0a). We also provide several repeated measurements of late-type objects with previously unreliable photometry. Section 2 of the present paper describes the current sample, and the observations are outlined in Sect. 3. Image analysis strategies are discussed in Sect. 4. Preliminary results are given in Sect. 5 and summarized in Sect. 6. Profile decompositions using combinations of exponential profiles and de Vaucouleurs laws of the present data and of those obtained similarly (Papers I, II, IV and B97) will be given in a forthcoming paper (Paper V of this series, Gavazzi et al. 1999a).