[Filter Test] AndreaU Mk-I, AndreaU Mk-II, BaaderU, Hoya U360 Stack on a 35/3.5

[Andrea B.]

This D610 just splattered oil all over the sensor. Where did that come from?? I've used this camera for years. I'm going forward with the test presentation even though it includes this mess. Sorry 'bout that!! As I get time I will try to clone out the stuff.

(Cleaned Up on 01 Dec)

 

GEAR:  D610-conversion + Soligor 35mm f/3.5 + Sunlight

Added Later  This Soligor 35/3.5 has M42 threads but is a T2 version which requires a 55.0 mm flange focal distance. Thus the Soligor is easily usable on a Nikon DSLR with an 8.5 mm adapter/extender.

 

FILTER:  Look and see what UV photos you like best. I'll tell you later what filter was used. We don't want any bias confirmation here, ha-ha !! The order in the title is not the order of presentation. Some of you will easily guess which UV-pass filter was used. But the purpose of the test is to evaluate what appeals to you - or not.

 

FOCUS NOTE:  Focus was on the ceramic number 53. Stucco/adobe walls are not straight. The gate is not hanging exactly straight. I did try to use the tripod bubble to level the camera. "-)

There was a little tripod shift at some point while shooting. I always refocus with each filter change, so no matter.

 

Vignetting:  I'm a little bit lazy? I know, I know......I really truly must fix this.

Added Later:  I "repaired" the vignetting in Visible 1B and in UV 4A.

 

Crops: I took off the bottom 3rd. All those boring rocks.

 

SUNLIGHT NOTE: Added Later

My UVA/UVB meter read 3.5 today while shooting. Interesting - because that is a typical measurement I used to get mid-Summer during UV photo sessions in New Jersey at sea level. Here I am at approximately 6800 feet in early winter. Altitude has its benefits it seems. 

 

VIEWING

Click once to bring up the slideshow, then use the arrows to slide through the photos.

After that, you can see the largest version of a photo by clicking it twice to bring it up in its own browser tab. Click a 3rd time to get the 1200 pixel width - assuming your browser is wide enough.

Added Later: The slideshow and 3-click enlargement might not work the same way on mobile.

 

VISIBLE 1

 

 

VISIBLE 2

 

 

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See this post below for some info about the Visible photos.

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Conversion:

For each UV-pass filter I created a white balance preset in Photo Ninja from a photo of white Spectralon. Then I made the usual small tweaks to the file using PN's exposure, illumination, highlights, black and shadow sliders. A Plain setting with saturation of 50 was used on the Color Enhancement page. 

 

ULTRAVIOLET 2A

 

 

ULTRAVIOLET 3A

A more saturated version of 3A is found in this post below.

 

 

ULTRAVIOLET 4A

 

 

ULTRAVIOLET 5A

 

 

And what would an Andrea B. filter test topic be without some raw composites, eh?? I extracted each raw comp in Raw Digger and then ran it through some tweaks in Photo Ninja so it wouldn't look quite so raw. No edits to the color however.

 

RAW UV 2B

 

 

RAW UV 3B

 

 

RAW UV 4B

 

 

RAW UV 5B

 

 

 

 

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See this post below to reveal the names of the UV-pass filters.

 

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And just for fun, here is a IR version of the scene.

INFRARED 6A

 

 

 

I will work on the clean ups, but first I have to go to the grocery store. We are out of ice cream.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Andrea B.]

The first 4 UV views in the first topic have "standardized" white balance. But really that is not required unless you want to post a botanical documentary photo in our flower section. 

 

Here is a non-standard UV view for Filter 2.

Kinda wild, isn't it?

I have a series with such colors which I've named Candyland.

ULTRAVIOLET 2C

 

 

This is the IR photo with a different color set.

I live in Candyland.

INFRARED 6C

 

 

After those two versions, our eyes are dancing for sure!!

 

 

P.S.  We did not put up that metal goat plaque. It was here when we got here. Although now that I look at it in these photos, I think they might be deer not goats?

 

 

 

 

[Cadmium]

Waiting for the UV and IR of the mountain lion.  Put some ice cream out for the kitty cat, meow.

[Andrea B.]

I wish !! Wouldn't that be fun?

It was a Bobcat though. Much smaller and less fearsome than a Mountain Lion which I hope NEVER to run into around here.

[Andy Perrin]

I like Ultraviolet 2 filter. My second pick would be Ultraviolet 5. 

[Nate]

I like 4A and 5A, but 3A has me wondering with that cutoff before 400nm and that long of exposure. I'm going with 4A as the baader. You also might of sold me to a 092 IR filter, I jump from 590nm to 720nm with the ones I have, and something in between would be nice to have.

[Cadmium]

BW O92 (695nm) made of Schott RG695. Green line on lower graph.

 

 

[Doug A]

This is cool!  I like UV 2a and 5a best. 4a is very close. Don't care much for 3a. The candy land is nice and the IR rocks! 

@Andrea B. You do great comparisons.  Appreciate all the work put into this. Looking forward to the filter id reveal.  Now I might need a BW 092 or Schott RG695. 

 

 

Thanks for sharing,

Doug A

[Fandyus]

I like 2 the best. Overall the cleanest I think.

[Andrea B.]

VISIBLE 1A

Made with the Baader UV/IR-Cut stacked with a B+W BG38 to tame the square shoulders. I don't know the thickness of that BG38. But I would like to to experiment with a thinner BG38 to optimize exposure time for this stack. 

 

VISIBLE 1B

Made only with the Baader UV/IR-Cut.

 

Comments:

 

• The Baader UV/IR-Cut + BG38 version (first) was 2/3 stop slower than the Baader UV/IR-Cut only version (second).

 

• There are some color differences between the two Visible photos. This is most obvious in the pine trees.

 

• I would like to try this Visible experiment again together with better color correction profiling. After some good suggestions from members, I posted an initial experiment earlier this year about using BG38 with a Baader UV/IR-Cut.
  This link. I'm still working on refining this but have not had a chance to finish 
  the proposed experiments.

 

 

[Andy Perrin]

The 1B looks nicer to me, in fact, but that maybe be down to needing profiling, and perhaps a different thickness.

[Andrea B.]

I've gone back & forth on which one looks "best".

 

And it is not so easy to determine whether the colors on the monitor are a good match of the actual scene colors. My eyes, the camera, the monitor -- we all 3 "see" in different ways.

 

Side note on the Baader UV/IR-Cut + BG38:

I was able to make an in-camera white balance through that stack on the D610 + Soligor 35/3.5. I made that WB measurement at f/3.5 to maximize light.

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I posted a note in the first post about how the Sunlight in New Mexico at 6800 feet on November 30 was strong enough to match the Sunlight in New Jersey at 125 feet in Mid-Summer. Surprised me although I shoulda known. Hurray altitude !!!

[lukaszgryglicki]

I Like UV5 most.

 

[dabateman]

I am fairly certain I know what each set is. So that might offer bias.

But I think I like UV3 best, then UV5.

I don't like that 3 second exposure time for my favorite.  But whatever,  push the ISO two stops and use DXO to kill the noise.

[Doug A]

After intense study my guess:

2a - AndreaU mkll

3a - Hoya 360 stack

4a - Baader U

5a - AndreaU

 

Thanks,

Doug A

[Andrea B.]

I'm splitting off the discussion of optimal thickness into this topic: Optimal Thickness of S8612: Discussion

 

[Andrea B.]

The Big Reveal  

 

Note that in my series I was working at f/11 and ISO-100 on tripod. (I almost always shoot UV at f/11).  Anyway, almost all our converted cameras can handle ISO-400 without inducing hardly any noise. So after the exposure I actually used, I'm going to put the equivalent ISO-400 exposure which will illustrate faster exposure times. These days ISO-800 is usually fairly noise free with good light, so I'll add that exposure also.

 

YMMV, because, by sheer historical accident, I have come to live at a high altitude which provides quite a lot more UV in sunlight than some of you all might be getting. Also keep in mind that in the Northern Hemisphere we are having very late autumn/early winter, so for all the filters tested exposure times will improve in summer sunlight.

 

Take-away:  These exposure times must be judged relative to your own location and altitude and time-of-year.

 

Side Note:

Here is an equivalent exposure calculator: https://www.scantips.com/lights/exposurecalc.html

Or you can just dial exposures into your camera and count the clicks when changing from one exposure to the other. Sometimes I can do equivalent exposures by memory, but prefer to use the calculator when writing a topic so I don't make some goofy counting error.

 

Visible 1B:  Baader UV/IR Cut

old version, no longer manufactured by Baader Planetarium

(Euro)€108 ≈ (US)$122 for 2" diameter, new version

I'm including the Visible exposure so we can determine the number of stops difference between the equivalent Vis and UV photos.

f/11 for 1/250" @ ISO-100

f/11 for 1/1000" @ ISO-400

f/11 for 1/2000" @ ISO-800

 

UV-Pass Filter 2:  AndreaU

old version, no longer manufactured, absorptive, violet toe

+7.33 EV from Visible

f/11 for 1" @ ISO-100

f/11 for 1/4" @ ISO-400

f/11 for 1/8" @ ISO-800

 

UV-Pass Filter 3:  AndreaU MkII

absorptive, currently manufactured by UVR Optics/UVR Defense Tech

(US)$269 for 52 mm diameter

The current AU-MkII is not at all like the old one.

+9.00 EV from Visible

f/11 for 3" @ ISO-100

f/11 for 1/1.3" @ ISO-400

f/11 for 1/2.5" @ ISO-800

 

UV-Pass Filter 4:  BaaderU

dichroic, expensive, currently manufactured by Baader Planetarium

(Euro)€315 ≈ (US)$356 for 2" diameter

That the photo set 4 was made with the BaaderU should be no surprise due to the obvious vignetting from a 48 mm filter stepped onto a 52 mm lens front because I am always too lazy to prepare a better filter mount on wide-angle lenses. It's becoming embarrassing, so I really need to hop to it and fix this. Ergo, please remember that the vignetting is my fault.

+7.67 EV from Visible

f/11 for 1.3" @ ISO-100

f/11 for 1/3" @ ISO-400

f/11 for 1/6" @ ISO-800

 

UV-Pass Filter 5:  U-360 x 2.00 mm + S8612 x 2.0 mm

absorptive, see  Uviroptics/Ebay for availability

cost:  will check

Improved exposure times are most likely possible with optimized stack thicknesses.

+8.67 EV from Visible

f/11 for 2.5" @ ISO-100

f/11 for 1/1.6" @ ISO-400

f/11 for 1/3" @ ISO-800

 

IR-Pass Filter 6:  B+W 092

absorptive, currently manufactured by Schneider-Kreuznach

(US)$71.95 for 52 mm diameter at B&H

0 EV from Visible

f/11 for 1/250" @ ISO-100

f/11 for 1/1000" @ ISO-400

f/11 for 1/2000" @ ISO-800

 

[Andrea B.]

woo. that took a long time to write up! 

Hope this was useful. 

 

I'm going to go run a test on Visible UV/IR cut filtration now.

 

(Corrected exposure times for Visible photo 1B.)

[Andrea B.]

"DID EVERYBODY SEE THAT UV FALSE GREEN (or slightly cyanish green) IN THE FOLIAGE?", she shouted boldly.

UV false green is not rare in landscapes. 

 

An interesting experiment would be to photograph that pine foliage both close up and at a landscape distance like above.

See any differences in the false colour?

[Andy Perrin]

From this I learned that the old Andrea U made nice colors on this landscape scene, which didn't have much yellow, excepting sky. (I don't recall liking it as much on the 2016 flower test, though.) The false colors present in the scene make a difference to which filter I like, I guess.

[Andrea B.]

Thing is.....if you don't particularly like what false colors appear initially, they can be so easily tweaked. 

[Doug A]

So, the filter I wanted to buy (AU2) turns out to be my least favorite. Arghh. False color can be manipulated in post processing...but if there is very little to start with? Guess I'm back to the Hoya 360/Schott S8612. 

 

Thanks Andrea B. for saving me ,

Doug A

[Andrea B.]

perhaps increase saturation? I'll put up a revised version in a minute or two.

 

AndreaU MK-II: Conversion Version 2

Converted in Photo Ninja as above but with the Saturation Slider moved to 100. The false color is there. It just needed a slightly different setting. Pushing the saturation brings out the falloff of the 35mm Soligor which you can see in the sky. Falloff doesn't show up as much in other edge areas which are more complex.

 

 

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Doug, all of these UV-pass filters have their pros and cons. The thing is....whichever one you choose, then learn its quirks and learn how to get the best out of it. In a filter test like this I have to provide the same conversion and edits to each photo (as I did above) to illustrate differences. But when using any UV-pass filter for an actual project, I would make the conversion edits which best suited each filter and/or which best suited my photographic/artistic goal. 

Hope that helped!

[Andy Perrin]

Andrea, it's a pain to do it every time, though. We already have to white balance. Maybe there is a faster way with LUTs or something?

[Andrea B.]

Store everything in a preset?

 

Like when I had to go clone out all that blobbery on the sensor? I just did it *once* in DxO Photo Lab and stored it as a deblobbing preset. Then clicked on the photos to which I wanted to batch apply deblobbing and let the app do the work.

 

In Photo Ninja I would just add increased saturation to my existing AndreaU Mk-II basic conversion preset which already includes white balance, detail 15, a color correction profile and a couple of other things. Then anytime I pull an AU-MkII photo into PN, I would use that preset. Or in the thumbnail view, again select all photos which need the AU-MkII preset and let PN do the work.

 

Here is my Photo Ninja preset for the D610 + AU-2 + Soligor 35/3.5 + Sunlight.

PN creates this XMP file.

<x:xmpmeta xmlns:x="adobe:ns:meta/" x:xmptk="XMP Core 6.0.0">
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            xmlns:pn="http://ns.picturecode.com/photoninja/1.0/">
         <pn:RGGBConverter>True</pn:RGGBConverter>
         <pn:RGGBQuality>1</pn:RGGBQuality>
         <pn:RGGBDirection>0</pn:RGGBDirection>
         <pn:RGGBBalanceG>True</pn:RGGBBalanceG>
         <pn:RawCA>False</pn:RawCA>
         <pn:ColorCorrection>True</pn:ColorCorrection>
         <pn:WBRawWhite>87.4042 27.1216 25.1965</pn:WBRawWhite>
         <pn:WBMode>3</pn:WBMode>
         <pn:WBLightSource>100</pn:WBLightSource>
         <pn:WBLightSourceName>soligor_vis_sun</pn:WBLightSourceName>
         <pn:WBTemp>1274.291992</pn:WBTemp>
         <pn:WBTint>-49.798477</pn:WBTint>
         <pn:ColorRecovery>75</pn:ColorRecovery>
         <pn:PlainCA>False</pn:PlainCA>
         <pn:NoiseReduction>False</pn:NoiseReduction>
         <pn:Sharpening>False</pn:Sharpening>
         <pn:BlackAndWhite>False</pn:BlackAndWhite>
         <pn:ToneAndContrast>True</pn:ToneAndContrast>
         <pn:WhiteOffset>-0.000000</pn:WhiteOffset>
         <pn:BlackOffset>0.000000</pn:BlackOffset>
         <pn:ExposureMode>0</pn:ExposureMode>
         <pn:ExposureShadowMode>0</pn:ExposureShadowMode>
         <pn:ExposureCompPolicy>0</pn:ExposureCompPolicy>
         <pn:IllumStrength>0</pn:IllumStrength>
         <pn:ToneVersion>1</pn:ToneVersion>
         <pn:ToneCurveMode>0</pn:ToneCurveMode>
         <pn:GlobalContrast>1.450000</pn:GlobalContrast>
         <pn:ContrastToe>0.000000</pn:ContrastToe>
         <pn:ContrastShoulder>0.000000</pn:ContrastShoulder>
         <pn:LocalContrast>15</pn:LocalContrast>
         <pn:ColorEnhancement>True</pn:ColorEnhancement>
         <pn:ColorStyle>0</pn:ColorStyle>
         <pn:ColorIntensity>100</pn:ColorIntensity>
         <pn:ColorCMap_Count>7</pn:ColorCMap_Count>
         <pn:ColorCMap_0>50 50 28 1 0 0 0 0</pn:ColorCMap_0>
         <pn:ColorCMap_1>50 50 50 1 20 0 0 0</pn:ColorCMap_1>
         <pn:ColorCMap_2>50 50 85 1 0 0 0 50</pn:ColorCMap_2>
         <pn:ColorCMap_3>50 50 125 1 0 0 0 0</pn:ColorCMap_3>
         <pn:ColorCMap_4>50 50 185 1 0 0 0 50</pn:ColorCMap_4>
         <pn:ColorCMap_5>50 50 265 1 0 0 0 50</pn:ColorCMap_5>
         <pn:ColorCMap_6>50 50 325 1 0 0 0 0</pn:ColorCMap_6>
         <pn:Vignetting>True</pn:Vignetting>
         <pn:Resample>False</pn:Resample>
         <pn:VigMode>2</pn:VigMode>
         <pn:VigR1>0.710000</pn:VigR1>
         <pn:VigR2>0.830000</pn:VigR2>
         <pn:VigCornerFalloff>0.437500</pn:VigCornerFalloff>
         <pn:DistortionAndGeometry>False</pn:DistortionAndGeometry>
         <pn:Crop>False</pn:Crop>
         <pn:PresetType>RawImage</pn:PresetType>
         <pn:PresetName>au2_soligor_sun</pn:PresetName>
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