[gregbradley]

I have used Astrodons gen 1 and 2, Baaders and Astronomiks gen 1.

With the advent of the 16803 sized sensors scopes invariably have a flattener or corrector of some sort. This placed a lot more pressure on the filters. Most were experiencing some reflections from the filter to the corrector and back down to the camera again. This started a series of new generation filters which had antireflection coatings.

So before that they all had reflection issues to some degree.

So I can't comment on the Baaders in regards to reflections as I only had Gen 1 but they did have some minor reflections mostly in the green.

Baader promoted their filters to be parfocal and balanced so they got the same exposure but they weren't in practice.

Astrodons are including the narrowband filters. I find this very useful as I focus in luminance and set an exposure rolling knowing that the focus is the same or almost exactly the same for each filter.

You can't do that with Baaders.

I had a 7nm Ha Baader filter. It was often praised on the net but my copy was defective with bad salt and pepper artefacts sprinkled through the images.

I have had a few Astrodon Ha filters and they are superb. I currently use the 5nm Ha filter and love it. Don from Astrodon recommended the 5nm Ha and use the 3nm O111 as it works better in O111. 5nm Ha allows some of the nitrogen and H Beta to come through.

Astronomiks. I got a set of LRGB. They are very thin at around 1mm whereas the Baaders and Astrodons are about 3mm.

When I got them they were the 50mm square versions and my filter wheel was set to accept 3mm filters. They were not supplied with a spacer and Astronomik brought out spacers and made you pay for them. I found that very annoying as I ended up mounting my Astronomiks and used tape to hold them in and one got loose and got damaged as it tilted. So personally I have not used Astronomik since due to the poor marketing and irresponsibility towards their product. The filters themselves gave reasonable colours and they now have a gen 2. Mike S uses them and we all know he gets great results. They are cheaper as well. Not sure about their narrowband filters. They may not have 5nm filters.

Baaders tended to give a richer red. I prefer the colour from my Astrodons and do regard them as the best on the market. I don't know anything about Chroma except they are fairly new.

Yes Astrodon's are expensive but they are the best. You sure they are $6K?


Greg.