I'm very confused. Is there a LP filter that will be of any use use with LED lighting or not?

[MKHACHFE]

Hi all,

 

Living in a B6 zone and with the considerable light dome from central London pretty much negating any imaging North, I'm in the hunt for a LP filter to use with my DSLR and 70-300mm lens. 

 

I have been reading reviews and blogs for weeks now and am still confused.. 

Some people say nothing will help with LED lighting, others say an IDAS D2 will work and others say a CLS would help greatly. 

 

I'm absolutely nowhere nearer to figuring out what to buy. 

To be honest, the IDAS filters are out of my budget right now, but if they really are the only ones that will be of any use, then so be it.

Can anyone with the same setup as me shine any light on this matter?

 

Thanks in advance.

[bottletopburly]

I use idas D2 and my town streetlights are led and D2 works well and yes expensive but do come up secondhand occasionally.

[PeterCPC]

+1 for D2.

[vlaiv]

What are your intended targets?

If you are interested in shooting emission type nebulae / H2 regions and you don't mind color cast on stars, or you don't mind taking additional set of images just for star colors, best filter that won't break the bank would be UHC type filter. Otherwise go for D1 for general LPS filter / broadband targets (galaxies, clusters, reflection type nebulae ...).

[Jasonb]

Don't know if the size is right for you or not, but @bottletopburly mentioned that the idas D2 occasionally come up second-hand, and FLO have put one up on offer...

 

[TerryMcK]

I have the IDAS D2 too and it is the only one on the market to my knowledge that works with LEDs. No doubt other manufacturers will come up with similar spectrum blocking filters soon.

[andrew s]

 

Led lights vary and are broad band.

Regards Andrew 

[Whirlwind]

This all depends on what you are intending to image.  No filter is a miracle cure.  If you look at the pass band for the filter here:-

IDAS D2 Light Pollution Suppression Filter | First Light Optics

then you can see that it does filter out to an extent the LED light but not all of it.  Inn particular the 550nm - 650nm band there is still quite a bit of light pollution that is let in.  If we ignore the bayer matrix impacts for ease explanation you then have to consider the targets you might be observing.  If you are imaging in a heavily light polluted area and reducing a high background will reduce the background but may still be much brighter than the faintest of objects.  On the other hand if you imaging bright galaxies, globular clusters etc then it may well be OK.  Faint objects are likely to still be washed out.  This is why you get different views because people like to image different things.  

If you want to image faint nebulae then you would want to focus on the multi-narrowband filters as these will cut out the light pollution as much as possible whilst allowing you to maximise the signal from the nebulae.  

On the other hand if you are planet/moon imager then you don't have to worry about light pollution at all because they will (barring the outer reaches of the solar system) will always be brighter than the background light pollution (assuming you aren't imaging under a light column). 

[david_taurus83]

The D2 only comes in 2" at the moment so can't use with a DSLR and lens unless you use a stop down ring at the front.

 

 

[philhilo]

On 10/12/2020 at 12:40, david_taurus83 said:

The D2 only comes in 2" at the moment so can't use with a DSLR and lens unless you use a stop down ring at the front.

 

 

I have the clip in Canon D2, not cheap but effective in a bortle 8+ area when imaging broad band targets.  Although the LEDs are broadband, I think there is an overall reduction in light pollution as the streetlight designs are more focused, the house fronts and gardens in the streets with LEDs are noticeably darker. 

[david_taurus83]

10 minutes ago, philhilo said:

I have the clip in Canon D2, not cheap but effective in a bortle 8+ area when imaging broad band targets.  Although the LEDs are broadband, I think there is an overall reduction in light pollution as the streetlight designs are more focused, the house fronts and gardens in the streets with LEDs are noticeably darker. 

I tried in vain to get the clip in for my 6D. Ordered off 2 vendors before FLO finally confirmed it was discontinued 😥

Have an L Pro now as it looks similar bandpass to the D1. Probably not relevant to the LED question.

[philhilo]

Glad you got something sorted.

Edited December 22, 2020 by philhilo

[MKHACHFE]

I would like to sincerely apologise to everyone that took the time to reply to this thread.

I'm really not in the habit of posting a thread and abandoning it I just totally forgot about it.

So, please accept my apology and thank you very very much to those who replied. 

Have a great Xmas everyone.

[malc-c]

Come back sodium lighting  .... at least you could easily filter that out.  Any glow caused by modern LED stuff is a nightmare to try and filter given the wide and varied spectrum !!