Astronomik CLS Clip-Filter Nikon XL

Clip Filter for Nikon full frame bodies

The filters are held in place save and secure with no stress to the high quality glass
The Clip-Filter are designed and optimized to be used with normal lenses and with telescopes as well.
Due to the very tight Nikon bajonett the clip-filters add a minimal obstruction at the edge of the field.

Compatibility:

• The Nikon XL-Clip Filter have been successfully tested with the D750, D800, D810 and the D850.
  For the D850, you can only use manual focus lenses or a T-adapter (with a telescope). With all lenses with electric contacts you will get an error message and the camera will not work.
  (Workaround for this: When using lenses with electric contacts on the D850 you can apply some tape over the lens contacts and the camera will work fine with the XL-Clip Filter installed.)
• Other bodies have not been tested yet.
• The Nikon XL-Clip will not work with cameras with APS-C sized sensors and not with the new mirrorless body. Clip-Filter for the APS-C sized models will be released in the near future.

A short guide selecting the right filter for you:
Lot´s of customers are overwhelmed by the vast number of filters offered by Astronomik. Due to that we give you a short guide how to select the right filter for your application below.

Our normal recommendation for the "First Filter" is the Astronomik CLS filter. The CLS blocks all unwanted artifical light pollution and natural airglow and gives you a dark background in your images. When using this filter you may expose much longer than without, so you will be able to pick much fainter structures and objects. The filter is designed in such a way that all objects are given in their natural colors. -They would look the same if your human eye would be much more sensitive!
Important: The standard CLS has no built-in IR-blocker. In case your camera has been modified for Astrophotography, please take the CLS-CCD which has a built-in IR-blocker!

The CLS is the fist choice for any applications like Night-scape photography and Time Lapse movies!

If you have to work under a heavy light polluted sky, the UHC is a good choice too: It´s transmission curve is very tight. It gives you the light from the Hß, OIII, H-alpha and SII lines in one single exposure. The reduction of light pollution is much stronger than the CLS/CLS-CCD, but the filter will work for gas nebulas only! Any galaxies and open or globular clusters are filtered out! You will get "false colors" with the UHC, no natural colors like the CLS/CLS-CCD.

If you want to die deeper into Astrophotography with your Sony, you should think about a set of emission line filters centered on OIII, H-alpha and SII. All three are available either with 12nm or 6nm bandwidth. With these filters you can do ultra-deep images even under the worst sky you can imagine plus the full moon high up in the sky! Imaging possibilties are nearly unlimited with these filters!
The emission line filters isolate the light from a very tight range of wavelengths. So you don´t get any color information! if you want to create color images (false color like images from the HST), you will need all three filters to mix the three channels into a final color image.
However the H-alpha filter is a great using it alone: Data can be processed to splendid greyscale images!

If you own a modified camera, you should consider the OWB filter: OWB is short for "Original white Balance", and that´s what the filter does: It gives you back the normal color reproduction from a un-modified camera. When using the OWB you may use your modified camera for normal daylight-photography again, without the need for color-correting each image afterwards!

The Astronomik CLS is a budget filter for visual observation, Black & White photography and CCD photographs of nebulae, galaxies and star clusters with astronomical instruments of any size.

The Astronomik CLS blocks the light of the spectral lines of mercury and sodium-vapor lamps and lets the largest part of the visible light and H-alpha emissions pass. All the important emission lines, as well as the spectral region that the very well dark adapted eye can see, can pass through the filter.

Main use

The filters are optimized for use with aperture ratios from 1:3 to 1:15. Transmission losses and chromatic distortions, which are problems with other filters, only appear with Astronomik filters when extremely bright aperture ratios of 1:2 and more are used. The CLS filter is suitable for use with telescopes of all aperture sizes.

Suitability

• Visual observation (dark skies): Good, to reduce light pollution by mercury-vapour lamps (streetlight)
• Visual observation (urban skies): Good, an UHC-E or UHC filter is more suitable
• Film photography: Very good, colour balance is near perfect
• CCD photography: Good, when used with an additional IR-block-filter
• DSLR photography (original): Good, colour balance shifted but contrast enhanced
• DSLR photography (astro modified): Very good, colour balance is near perfect
• DSLR photography (MC modified): Good, when used with an additional IR-block-filter
• Webcam / Video (Planets): Unsuitable
• Webcam / Video (Deep Sky): Very good, if light pollution is a big problem

Technical Data

• 92% transmission at 486nm (H-beta)
• 92% transmission at 496nm (OIII)
• 92% transmission at 501nm (OIII)
• 97% transmission at 656nm (H alpha)
• pass from 450 to 540nm and beyond 650nm
• Parfocal with other Astronomik filters
• Glass thickness: 1mm
• Completely resistant against high humidity, scratches and aging effects
• Diffraction limited, the filter will not reduce the optical performance of your telescope!
• Astronomik filters are delivered in a high-quality, long lasting, filter box
• Since 2008 we do ship filters with a completely new design. Any kind of halo or strange reflection is a matter of past