Hoya Red Intensifier for night shoots

[glowinthedark]

Hi Guys

 

I've read about a special Hoya filter, intended to be used for portrait or general landscape (especially in fall) photography: The "Hoya RA54 Red Enhancer (Intensifier)"

 

he original article that gave me that idea can be found here: http://www.lonelyspeck.com/hoya-intensifier-review-an-affordable-light-pollution-filter-for-astrophotography/

 

Now, I did some own comparison, to get an idea how well it works. First I compared the filter's properties with the emission line of a sodium light source; these nasty orange light you will anywhere in cities. Usually you can be miles away and still have a significant amount of orange glow in your picture.

The transmission properties of that particular filter seems promising. At 590nm wavelength (the emission maximum of a sodium lo pressure light source), we only have roughly 40% transmission while other wavelengths are only slightly affected. But what does it mean...? Well, that enables you to selectively cancel out a certain colour, in that case the annoying light of that sodium light source. Since it still has 40% transmission, you will not remove all of it, but for 30-60 € (depending of the diameter you need) it improves you pictures quite a lot.

 

Take a look at these pictures, showing a 250000-people city in central Europe (a heavy example of light pollution indeed):

 

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All pictures were taken with a RX10, white balance set to cloudy (just to avoid the camera having any influence to the result), 8 seconds/ f2.8

 

I know, these are quite challenging conditions, with the city directly in front of you. If you use it in more typical scenarios, that filter should really do a good job removing the vast majority of orange-ish light form your night shoot. 

[mttdxb]

I use the same 67mm filter on the Rokinon 12mm F2 for most of my star trail or milky way shots. The UAE, were I take most of the pics, are one of the most light polluted countries in the world and we have a huge number of sodium based light sources as all highways are fully lit up during the night. The filter is definitely worth every cent. I believe Norman from lonelyspeck also recently launched a special square light pollution filter. Tempted to try that one on the 70-200GM for deep sky pics.

[TravelForPictures]

Thanks so much for this review!

 

I ordered one and like mttdxb, I will be mostly using it on my Rokinon 12mm F2.  Bought some ring adapters to use on other lenses as well.

[mttdxb]

not directly related to the filter, but very helpful when traveling and looking for non polluted areas

 

https://www.lightpollutionmap.info/

[TravelForPictures]

not directly related to the filter, but very helpful when traveling and looking for non polluted areas

 

https://www.lightpollutionmap.info/

Thanks for this!!

[kenneth]

The light pollution map is fascinating, and people seem so obsessed with light these days. I live on the edge of a major city, Leeds UK, in what could loosely be classed as a village but people have so much house area illumination, if they want to live in the equivalent of permanent daylight why don't they stay in inner cities? what is wrong with darkness?