DSI Filters

[Ric]

Hi all, I have a question regarding the filters that come with the DSI II Pro.
Can alternative RGB and IR blocking filters be used with this camera and is there any improvement in the imaging quality.
Obviously other factors such focussing also come into play as well but I would be interested to hear from other DSI users that may have switched filters and what are their opinions.

Cheers

[[1ponders] (Paul)]

I'm not a filter expert by a long shot, but I'll give it a stab .

I don't see why you couldn't use what ever filters you want to use Ric. Many imagers use Astronomik LRGB filter. I don't know, but I would bet they are better quality and transmittance than the standard meade ones. Do you have a chart showing the meade transmittance?

Baader produce a pretty good UV/IR filter.

What you may want to look at is getting a manual filter wheel that takes 1.25" filters, and use that instead of the straight meade one that leaves the filters open to get dewed up/ dusty or damaged.

[Lee]

Since the chip only sees in black and white, what hits the chip is purely a function of the filters (and the scope!) - I think better filters will give better results, although how big an incremental step is unknown.... I think it would be a small step on its own somehow, as apparently the Meade filters aren't too bad at all.....

Originally Posted by Ric

Hi all, I have a question regarding the filters that come with the DSI II Pro.
Can alternative RGB and IR blocking filters be used with this camera and is there any improvement in the imaging quality.
Obviously other factors such focussing also come into play as well but I would be interested to hear from other DSI users that may have switched filters and what are their opinions.

Cheers

[Ric]

Thanks Paul and Lee for your replies.
I'll hunt down some comparison transmittance chart and do some research on the differences.

Thanks for the help

[Ric]

As a follow up, I been initially looking into the cutoffs of the IR filters.
The Baader IR has a cutoff at 975nm and the Meade is at 959nm.
As Lee suggested there is not to much of a difference or at least nothing that I will be able to detect.

Cheers