To try everything Brilliant has to offer-free-for a full 30 days, visit brilliant.org/cuivlazygeek . You’ll also get 20% off an annual premium subscription. My Patreon: www.patreon.com/cuivlazygeek Get the SVBony SV220: amzn.to/3vqwWdI Camera used in the test: ZWO ASI585 MC Pro, bit.ly/3Iwo6y8 (Agena) or bit.ly/4cp1Ofn (High Point Scientific) Amazon affiliate: amzn.to/3hTB5Ne Agena affiliate: bit.ly/3Om0hNG High Point Scientific affiliate: bit.ly/3lReu8R All-Star Telescope affiliate: bit.ly/3SCgVbV Astroshop.eu Affiliate: tinyurl.com/2vafkax8
best way to remove halos from filters is to manually screw the said filter to the front of the reducer or comma corrector ... at least in my experience ... what that actually does is magnifies the halos the further you have the filter from the sensor 😅 .... as it gets magnified, the less bright it becomes ... law of squares ... so if it becomes larger than the whole frame, it's density will be undetectable 😊 have fun with svbony! I am 😂
Yes, that works as any reflections will be too large - that would degrade the SNR for the whole image a little bit though, so something to keep in mind!
I recently bought a 2" version of one of these for $159 and tried it out last night in my Bortle 6 sky. Worked quite nicely. Decided to use my Bresser 102/460 with a generic x.8 reducer/corrector giving me an f/3.6 refractor for EAA for 30 minutes worth of 15 second exposures. Horsehead not visible here. Aimed at North American Nebula. No chromatic aberration. Pinpoint stars. Lots of rolling nebulosity. Really nice. Also tested it on M81 and M13. Again, to chromatic aberration. But, took longer than usual to get picture since it was only allowing a small percentage of broad spectrum light through.
How do you find the Bresser 102/460? I have owned it now for about 6 months (as a total beginner) and am finding it OK. Big problems with chromatic aberration though, but I guess that is to be expected with a cheaper achromat!! I also own the 2" SV220 but have yet to try it out. Do you think it is a worthwhile investment for the Bresser scope?
@@rickdurham264 posted, "Do you think it is a worthwhile investment for the Bresser scope?" Yes. No. Depends. It is a very fast f/4.5. With a x0.8 reducer it becomes f/3.6 which is very, very fast due to the short focal length. That means you can take a photo with one hour of exposures which would require 3.78 hours with an f/7 apochromatric scope. If you have trees all around your house limiting you sky and only do live stacking (I am too lazy to do post processing), that means a lot. With a reasonable 102mm aperture (for a 6 pound optical tube) you can see a lot in visual use, though I seldom use an eyepiece. For visual, I suppose I wound recommend a Newtonian. Even though the primary lens is fpl 51 ED glass, the fcal length is so short that the chromatic aberration is very bad and when used in photography produce horrible results. I have found that a 2" SvBony CLS filter ($53) eliminates chromatic aberration entirely, it does so by cutting off every frequency of light below 450 nm, which includes all blue color, and gives every thing a yellow tint. The 2" SV220 only lets in Hydrogen alpha an Oxygen III light. So, it blocks all chromatic aberration of the blue, red and orange type. So, when used with this optical tube, you get pin point stars of natural color and lots of nebulosity from emission nebula. The Bresser 102/450 and the SV220 filter are the best pair to use when you have limited sky and need very fast photography on emission nebulae and want to use a refractor. For other uses, I would recommend other scopes.
@AmatureAstronomer thanks for your detailed answer!!! I am pleased to hear I am not the only one to report on the bad CA with this tube. As you said though, it is a very fast scope and with my limited views here too, it makes for fast gathering of data. I will grab a CLS filter and see how I go!
I wonder whether agreements with different brands prevent astro stores from selling SVBONY products (competition prevention). Also, it wouldn't be surprising if the factories that supply these companies are also the same ones that supply SVBONY. For a filter OEM, having different companies selling their products under different brand names at different price points would be a good way to capture the entire market, from those who see value in spending a few hundred dollars more to not have a halo, for example, to someone who is most enticed by price and less concerned with halos. You do not want these brands in direct competition at literally the same store. One way to not have the cheaper, and lower profit margin, product cannibalize an already small market is to physically segment the market. People able to pay more by having an astro store stand behind a product might be more likely buyers for the higher profit margin product.
There is an SVBony Distributor in Indonesia, considering the only other astronomy brand here is celestron, SVBony stuff at least gets you most of the way to imaging (minus the mount)
Its honestly nice to confirm my suspicions about the SV220. I bought it as my first narrowband filter and have been surprised with its performance. I live under a Bortle 8/9 sky and it does well even when pointed toward the north sky where a nearby city's light dome reaches. Its surprisingly punchy for such an inexpensive filter, scored lucky!
I bought that filter one year ago and, even if my tests are only visual ones making a comparison on lights obtained with an L-extreme and a SV220, I fully agree with you.
Late last year I assembled a "poor man's" double setup (two evoguides and 2 qhy183c cameras), one with the optolong L-exteme and the other with the svbony duo band 1.25"filter. I liked the results, even though as you have found out, the svbony can show halos on bright stars. Ben from the Narrowband channel reviewed this filter and he talked about moving the filter further from the sensor, so to minimize light bouncing between the sensor and the filter, which is what seem to be the cause for halos. I've yet to try this, it's only now that thankfully we are having a bit of a break from clouds and rain here in Brisbane, Australia. Clear skies!
I got one also last year and I'm happy wirhbthe performance and also half price of LXtreme. Never regretted get ringgit and highly recommend it to newbie and intermediate astro images who are not purist :)
Great Review. In Germany it costs 180 Euro. Not as cheap as in US. I ordered one directly from svbony for 110 Euro including shipping. Perhaps I will test it with a spectrometer at my University.
I use Svbony 80mm triplet with the flattener, I'm very satisfied with the performance. Cost nearly half the price of a similar 80mm triplet from other brands. They also got a 120mm triplet and it's almost half the price of what other 120mm triplets and I heard only good things from people who bought it. I also got a doublet from them, which I really like, regardless of the CA - which is just inherent in a cheap doublet, but otherwise an excellent beginner scope for $300-400 dollars.
Cuiv you are the man!! Seriously, I was like 10 minutes away from buying the L-Extreme, and by pure chance I saw this video that I'd somehow missed when you uploaded it a couple of weeks back? You just saved me a lot of my hard earned money thanks Cuiv! Wes, Liverpool, England. ( Bortle 7-8 )
Excellent analysis which shows once again that there are products (if you look carefully) much cheaper than those in fashion and whose results are astonishing. I have been using it for several months and the halos only concern very, very bright stars. This gives a very artistic side without distorting the scientific and precise side of the photo. Cuiv, well done, and continue testing other SVBony filters like R,G,B,L, UHC...
Glad to see this was decent. I recently bought the ZWO 1.25" Duo band filter to avoid paying extra for Optolong. Maybe I should try the SVbony version when I go up to 2".
I used mine for first time in front of my Rokinon 135mm f/2 via step down rings. Worked great on Rosette + Cone wide field view with my Fuji XT4 APS mirrorless camera. Shooting 4min subframes at ISO500. So far I only took a Quick Look at one subframe. Will process all the frames during next week. Also shot some unfiltered short exposures to get the star colors. With the 48mm filter way out in front, it turns my lens into f/2.8 - still good. And it isn’t likely to cause any halos when that far from the sensor. Well anyway, they would be massively diffused if it did reflect some photons back.
Been using this filter since a year ago.... it haven’t disappointed me even a single time, have found that the size of the halo depends on the distance to the filter, farter from the sensor dimmer halo, not the ideal for OAG if you need to put the filter before OAG ... thanks @Cuiv for the review confirming my results...
I always look for an SVBony product first, if I am buying something, whether a scope, a filter, a piece of hardware. They have proven themselves time and again re quality/price ratio.
I’m becoming a big fan of svbony. I shot most of my images last year on an svbony scope & it performed beautifully. They’re coming out with more products, such as a filter drawer. Starting to come out with some nicer cameras (just rebranded touptek but still). They’re really beginning to be a pretty decent quality budget option which is very much needed as some companies have pushed further into the premium category.
SVBony SV220 is the one I've been using. It really works great on emission nebulae. Editing using Pixinsight and the narrowbandnormalization process is brilliant!
I have the Seestar and have been wanting to try a little better filter than what the S50 has. Didn't want to go crazy on price, so when your(this) video came along, i thought this is the one to try. Bought the 2 inch direct from Svbony, $117. This will be an interesting experiment.
I bought the 1.25” to use on my Dwarf. It gave me a stunning result on the rosette nebula but due to the terrible UK winter It’s had very little use so far.
Yeah. SVBony have some fantastic products. Recently I got visual 2" and 1.25" OIII filter (17nm) for like $25 each. I'll probably get this sv220 once nebula season is back
Hello . Would you consider adding a new Section to your Playlist and call it “Filters” ? This would be so helpful to be able to source out these vids quickly . Thanks for all your NOT lazy work .
I have an L- Pro and an L- Enhance filter, which seem to give reasonable results from my Bortle 5 location. I was actually considering this filter, but I will probably save up and buy one of the more expensive filters that eliminate the halos. I don't see much point in buying something like an L-Extreme if this filter can do the same job for almost half the price. Thanks for the review Cuiv.
@@CuivTheLazyGeek This is about your video on OAGs, just want to say thank you again for that, I finally managed to get mine set up tonight,and I can't believe the improvement in guiding already. There are a few issues, mainly a crescent shaped artifact (internal reflection?) That appears on the PHD2 screen and the mount may need some further tweaking, but yeah already a great improvement.
I'm a visual astronomer who is just starting to get into astrophotography, and I'm really enjoying these videos! I'm curious why you're doing all your astrophotography from the middle of light polluted Tokyo, but I really appreciate it, living in a bortle 7 area, myself.
Right after I buy the d1-d2 set you review this. And I was going to cuss at you for that, BUT... After seeing that huge, bright halo around Alnitak, I'm glad I got the askar d set. 👍👍
I’m away from Astro for a bit but I bought this filter at launch and it’s a great performer, from the tests I’ve seen it produces way less halos than the L-extreme
Perfect ! I had already bought it but have not had a chance to test it yet. I'm not concerned with the bright star halo so I got a deal at $123 USD, so I'm happy to hear your report ! Thank you Cuiv... ;-) Cheers from Utah !
Excellent.... I caught a Svbony sale earlier this year and bought the SV220. I will use it with my Astro-tech 60EDP Petzval and Skywatcher tracker. I'm still undicider as to an alternative to my ZWO183CM... guessing the 2600, but it's $1500.
Beat you too it! I got the SV220 to go with my 533MC-Pro and Askar FRA300 as my first Astro rig at the start of 2024. Think I paid $120?I have nothing to compare it with but I’ve liked the results so far. Yes I’ve noticed some halos but at my experience level they don’t bother me! I also got the SVBony Filter holder at same time and that seems far better value than the ZWO one as it comes with two draws as standard both with 1.25” adaptors and the magnets are strong
Hello Cuiv. I have this filter since several month. With my f6 Apo I never had any halos whatsoever.I will try with my f2 Samyang the next weeks. See how i performs with a faster optics. For the price the best you can buy. Thanks for the review.
The real question I have is: is this filter usable visually? I've heard of German observers using Baader CMOS optimized Hβ filters (5 nm bandpass) for visually observing the California Nebula and other HII regions, and they find it to be a far better experience than a more standard 10-12 nm bandpass for visual filters. I know for OIII filters you usually want to pass both lines transmitted, but on the other hand, the increased sky darkening may improve the experience.
@@CuivTheLazyGeek I'm more interested in its visual performance as a O-III filter. I may pick one up for astrophotographic purposes, but I'll certainly use it with an eyepiece to see what happens.
Thanks, Cuiv for the excellent video. I will buy an OSC camera in the next 60 days, so this was a very timely video. However, I'm picky about halos so I'll likely get one of the more expensive filters but this is still a wonderful filter for the price.
I have the Altair 4nm ones that costs more than 3 times as much. Sure, narrower and no halos, but dang... Svbony has some great offers. Loving my Svbony Sv550 122mm refractor.
I loved the casual fun way you did this video you were expecting junk when it wasn't to bad halos aside of course so it wouldn't be a filter for me, but if you're not bothered by those then yeah I can still see the appeal & at less cost than other brands to.
Best price/performance dual narrowband filter available. Have it for quite a long time now and it is clearly a best buy. If you mind about halos be ready to spend at least twice the price. Highly recommend. 😊
Great video Cuiv, I too have this 2” dual narrowband filter, semt to me from Svbony to review on my channel, if these clouds ever go away, will be very interesting to test it with my QHY268c
I am relieved to read that SVBONY have a nice dual-band filter for OSCs. I don't remember, did you test their NB filters in the past (especially with spectroscope)? I am eyeing the recent 678MM camerra for my refractor as a possible nebula hunter...
Thanks for the review Cuiv, I've just bought one and looking forward to next clear night. Any idea if SVBony are likely to produce a similar Sii/Oiii filter?
cuiv are you placing the filter in your filter draw? for this scope being f3.5 and the website says its for f5 and slower we should put it as far away from the sensor as possible - end of reducer ideally (other people had better results like that)
That's a good point! Filter drawer because front of reducer is horrible to change filters! The F5 limitation is likely because of the band passes. At the reducer I would expect no halos because the halo would effectively be larger than the whole frame, at a cost of a little bit of SNR!
Impressive for the price. I’ll give them that. But the halo, even at such a small amount of integration, is exceedingly prominent. I’d much, much, much rather one of the good options like an NBZ, and as a bonus there some good coverage from standard to fast optics.
I think the largest redshift is with Ha for the crab nebula, that's around 3nm! For the rest it shouldn't be an issue, but I do want to test out wider vs narrower bandpasses on M1 at some point!
Hey Cuiv! I enjoy your videos and I understand you are a astrophotographer, I am a visual amateur astronomer and live in a climate that is very damp. Are filters for astrophotographers the same as for visual users?
The filters for visual and photo are very different! Visual filters tend to favor wavelengths our eyes are sensitive to (so OIII and Hbeta filters for instance). This is a restriction we can ignore for astrophotography! There are a lot of other reasons as well
Technical question I haven't DWARF II with its original UHC filter, which works ok but after your review of SVBONY SV220 I'm wondering how big there will be improvement between original DWARF II UHC filter and SVBONY SV220 and should I get this one or perhaps you recommend something even better. Unfortunately I live in Perth which is called city of light so light pollution is my greatest enemy. Looking forward to hearing from you soon Thanks
Hey Cuiv did you know Svbony are featuring this video on their page for this product now? You should get them to send you some more gear as compensation 😉
Does this halo get bad with more integration? Maybe not possible to check on Alnitak now as it gets lower and lower but would you try it on western veil nebula this summer? It also has a bright star in it and could give you another option to check halos in summer as well 😅
Ok big brain, maybe you can provide some insight on an issue I am having with this amazing filter and nina? AF works great with uv/ir cut filters, perfect curves and everything. But when I do a af routine with the 220 at 6 second exposures it fails every time and the results are weird. After the first adjustment and it unfocused the stars it looks correct but nina is registering the hfr at 1.8, with the stars very out of focus, after that I get a hard zigzag in the graph for the rest of the routine until it fails. Any idea? Btw, love everything you do!
Thanks for the informativ video. It helps me. But I have a question. To you have experience with the optolong L-Ultimate. I read that by this are no halos. Ok this filter much more expensive. But your opinion where very interesting.
Is it possible to use Calcium K solar filters and/or Hydrogen Alpha solar filters on smart telescopes, such as the Seestar S50, if a suitable adapter was used to attach it?
Just wondering 💭 If I get a black and white camera for more detail, what are all the filters needed for deep sky with planetary targets? I’m looking to get a filter wheel for my 8 inch edge HD and was wondering how many filters would I need.
Love your 'attitude' over the filter not 'failing'!! I don't mind halos at all... as long as it's not on ALL the stars! You may be 'lazy'... but I'm CHEAP! lol
I haven't encountered a truly bad product by SVBony yet, their guide scopes are no worse than anyone else's all the doodads and bells and whistles work fine, good quality builds, good packaging. The filters I have bought from them work fine. I have the ZWO Duo which is adequate for my purposes but have always wondered what the F3.9 would do with a narrower band pass. The Askar C sulfur&oxygen piqued my interest but only because the ZWO duo already matches the Askar HA/OIII band passes. The Lextreme way out of the ballpark $ wise for me, but having just checked on Amazon this product for me sits at about $300 Cad or so taxes in. still heavy but....whats astrophotography if not spending great whallops of cash at every given opportunity right? 😄 Thanks Cuiv
I have used this filter for roughly ome year now and i enjoyed it except from the halos. That is the reason why i consider a new ha oiii filter. I was thinking about the altair 4nm but it is very expensive. Is the askar D1 just as good?
It should be very close to the Altair 6nm dual band filters but Altair likely has no halos. I haven't tested directly so I can't really compare. I'm not a big fan of tri-band filters in general (see my overall video on narrowband filters)!
Wow! Nice video! I think this filter can be really useful in bortle 7 - 8. I already received it 😊 What do you think about Antlia Quad Band anti light pollution filter? In description of this filter written, that it can eliminate light pollution from LED. I want to use this filter on galaxies in my bortle 7 area. Thanks you for you video!
@@CuivTheLazyGeek yes however I would betray confidence announcing it here. ZWO filters and Antlia are Optolong too. Antlia is Optolongs "premium" brand BTW. In fact there's only one large coating company in China, and that's Optolong.
Could you do a tutorial on how to eliminate halos around stars? I think you could take a photo without filters, and then select the stars and paste them onto the starless photo made with the filter
Ahh, the video I've been waiting for! I do wonder though, how consistent they perform from sample to sample? Hopefully my sample is about as good as yours here. I've only used it once, so far, and no complaints thus far.
I'm curious..you said you really don't care about the halo in your image...why don't you care? It looked like it ruined your image. It's huge! Is this something you can clean up in post processing?
To me it doesn't ruin my image at all, no more than Newtonian spikes do - I don't understand why people think it ruins images, that's why I don't really care
“A white lie” 😂😂😂 you kill me man!!! Love the review. That halo is pretty intense but the results and price might be worth it… In your opinion, do you think Svbony or Optilong are more consistent with their quality? (Referring to the “filter lottery”)
@@CuivTheLazyGeek Fair enough. I didn’t really expect you to “choose” unless there was a very open and public difference. Also, just to clarify, my joking bit about white lie was a broad spectrum vs narrowband reference. In case anyone reads it and took offense. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
It does depend on your equipment (not for RASA for instance) but otherwise I agree the Antlia are a very solid proposition ! The 4nm Altair are also quite interesting!
@@CuivTheLazyGeek That is interesting. It would be good to see a video that explains how different systems work with different filters. I am considering looking for a new rig that will give me more reach than my Redcat (not sure it will be a RASA!) and would like to understand the filter implications better.
If you use a UV/IR cut filter up by the sensor and the sv220 in a filter drawer it will eliminate the halos. I have the same telescope and I don’t get halos. 👍
@@CuivTheLazyGeek I halo problems when I first started and just by trial and error started putting my SvBony 1.25” UV/Ir cut filter by the sensor and my other filter in the filter drawers and it surprised me. If you put a CLS filter in the Drawer it got rid of my chromatic aberration in my doublet telescopes. Pretty neat trick. Love your content 👍, I have been watching you for years and you have been a mentor for me so thanks.
So! You get to the point where you say "Of course we have to check for halos around bright stars!" But you don't explain what causes the halos! Is it the off band cut-off leakage? or some other aberation? How does it compare to other, more expensive filters?
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best way to remove halos from filters is to manually screw the said filter to the front of the reducer or comma corrector ... at least in my experience ...
what that actually does is magnifies the halos the further you have the filter from the sensor 😅 .... as it gets magnified, the less bright it becomes ... law of squares ... so if it becomes larger than the whole frame, it's density will be undetectable 😊
have fun with svbony! I am 😂
Yes, that works as any reflections will be too large - that would degrade the SNR for the whole image a little bit though, so something to keep in mind!
Good to see the review of SV220. I have been using that filter for months now and it helps a lot in my bortal 9 zone in UAE.
Glad you're enjoying it!!
I recently bought a 2" version of one of these for $159 and tried it out last night in my Bortle 6 sky. Worked quite nicely. Decided to use my Bresser 102/460 with a generic x.8 reducer/corrector giving me an f/3.6 refractor for EAA for 30 minutes worth of 15 second exposures. Horsehead not visible here. Aimed at North American Nebula. No chromatic aberration. Pinpoint stars. Lots of rolling nebulosity. Really nice.
Also tested it on M81 and M13. Again, to chromatic aberration. But, took longer than usual to get picture since it was only allowing a small percentage of broad spectrum light through.
How do you find the Bresser 102/460? I have owned it now for about 6 months (as a total beginner) and am finding it OK. Big problems with chromatic aberration though, but I guess that is to be expected with a cheaper achromat!!
I also own the 2" SV220 but have yet to try it out. Do you think it is a worthwhile investment for the Bresser scope?
Happy to hear of those results!
@@rickdurham264 posted, "Do you think it is a worthwhile investment for the Bresser scope?"
Yes. No. Depends.
It is a very fast f/4.5. With a x0.8 reducer it becomes f/3.6 which is very, very fast due to the short focal length. That means you can take a photo with one hour of exposures which would require 3.78 hours with an f/7 apochromatric scope. If you have trees all around your house limiting you sky and only do live stacking (I am too lazy to do post processing), that means a lot.
With a reasonable 102mm aperture (for a 6 pound optical tube) you can see a lot in visual use, though I seldom use an eyepiece. For visual, I suppose I wound recommend a Newtonian.
Even though the primary lens is fpl 51 ED glass, the fcal length is so short that the chromatic aberration is very bad and when used in photography produce horrible results. I have found that a 2" SvBony CLS filter ($53) eliminates chromatic aberration entirely, it does so by cutting off every frequency of light below 450 nm, which includes all blue color, and gives every thing a yellow tint.
The 2" SV220 only lets in Hydrogen alpha an Oxygen III light. So, it blocks all chromatic aberration of the blue, red and orange type. So, when used with this optical tube, you get pin point stars of natural color and lots of nebulosity from emission nebula.
The Bresser 102/450 and the SV220 filter are the best pair to use when you have limited sky and need very fast photography on emission nebulae and want to use a refractor.
For other uses, I would recommend other scopes.
@AmatureAstronomer thanks for your detailed answer!!! I am pleased to hear I am not the only one to report on the bad CA with this tube. As you said though, it is a very fast scope and with my limited views here too, it makes for fast gathering of data. I will grab a CLS filter and see how I go!
its about time the mainstream astro stores start stocking svbony products
I agree! Maybe the margins aren't high enough, or Svbony prefers the way they sell? No idea...
@@CuivTheLazyGeek i found all their stuff on amazon, cheap and if something goes wrong you chat customer service. I prefer it if I can find it there.
I wonder whether agreements with different brands prevent astro stores from selling SVBONY products (competition prevention). Also, it wouldn't be surprising if the factories that supply these companies are also the same ones that supply SVBONY. For a filter OEM, having different companies selling their products under different brand names at different price points would be a good way to capture the entire market, from those who see value in spending a few hundred dollars more to not have a halo, for example, to someone who is most enticed by price and less concerned with halos. You do not want these brands in direct competition at literally the same store. One way to not have the cheaper, and lower profit margin, product cannibalize an already small market is to physically segment the market. People able to pay more by having an astro store stand behind a product might be more likely buyers for the higher profit margin product.
@@georges.5612 idk. I pretty much bought all my Astro stuff from Amazon on good sales too.
There is an SVBony Distributor in Indonesia, considering the only other astronomy brand here is celestron, SVBony stuff at least gets you most of the way to imaging (minus the mount)
Its honestly nice to confirm my suspicions about the SV220. I bought it as my first narrowband filter and have been surprised with its performance. I live under a Bortle 8/9 sky and it does well even when pointed toward the north sky where a nearby city's light dome reaches. Its surprisingly punchy for such an inexpensive filter, scored lucky!
Great to hear!
I bought that filter one year ago and, even if my tests are only visual ones making a comparison on lights obtained with an L-extreme and a SV220, I fully agree with you.
Late last year I assembled a "poor man's" double setup (two evoguides and 2 qhy183c cameras), one with the optolong L-exteme and the other with the svbony duo band 1.25"filter. I liked the results, even though as you have found out, the svbony can show halos on bright stars. Ben from the Narrowband channel reviewed this filter and he talked about moving the filter further from the sensor, so to minimize light bouncing between the sensor and the filter, which is what seem to be the cause for halos. I've yet to try this, it's only now that thankfully we are having a bit of a break from clouds and rain here in Brisbane, Australia. Clear skies!
Ben's approach would work, at the cost of some SNR loss across the whole image!
I bought mine last year. I'm very happy with the results
Great to hear!
I got one also last year and I'm happy wirhbthe performance and also half price of LXtreme. Never regretted get ringgit and highly recommend it to newbie and intermediate astro images who are not purist :)
Haha! Awesome! I've had this filter for a while and have been happy with it. Fun to see that it performed so well in your test!
Awesome! Enjoy it!
Wow! You got home fast from your eclipse tour. I only got back on Thursday and I'm only in Ontario. And back to videos instantly too!
Great Review. In Germany it costs 180 Euro. Not as cheap as in US. I ordered one directly from svbony for 110 Euro including shipping. Perhaps I will test it with a spectrometer at my University.
I use Svbony 80mm triplet with the flattener, I'm very satisfied with the performance. Cost nearly half the price of a similar 80mm triplet from other brands. They also got a 120mm triplet and it's almost half the price of what other 120mm triplets and I heard only good things from people who bought it. I also got a doublet from them, which I really like, regardless of the CA - which is just inherent in a cheap doublet, but otherwise an excellent beginner scope for $300-400 dollars.
Cuiv you are the man!! Seriously, I was like 10 minutes away from buying the L-Extreme, and by pure chance I saw this video that I'd somehow missed when you uploaded it a couple of weeks back? You just saved me a lot of my hard earned money thanks Cuiv!
Wes, Liverpool, England. ( Bortle 7-8 )
Woohoo, glad it was helpful!
Excellent analysis which shows once again that there are products (if you look carefully) much cheaper than those in fashion and whose results are astonishing. I have been using it for several months and the halos only concern very, very bright stars. This gives a very artistic side without distorting the scientific and precise side of the photo. Cuiv, well done, and continue testing other SVBony filters like R,G,B,L, UHC...
Thank you!
Glad to see this was decent. I recently bought the ZWO 1.25" Duo band filter to avoid paying extra for Optolong. Maybe I should try the SVbony version when I go up to 2".
I used mine for first time in front of my Rokinon 135mm f/2 via step down rings. Worked great on Rosette + Cone wide field view with my Fuji XT4 APS mirrorless camera. Shooting 4min subframes at ISO500. So far I only took a Quick Look at one subframe. Will process all the frames during next week. Also shot some unfiltered short exposures to get the star colors. With the 48mm filter way out in front, it turns my lens into f/2.8 - still good. And it isn’t likely to cause any halos when that far from the sensor. Well anyway, they would be massively diffused if it did reflect some photons back.
Been using this filter since a year ago.... it haven’t disappointed me even a single time, have found that the size of the halo depends on the distance to the filter, farter from the sensor dimmer halo, not the ideal for OAG if you need to put the filter before OAG ... thanks @Cuiv for the review confirming my results...
Cheers Felipe, glad you're enjoying the filter!
I always look for an SVBony product first, if I am buying something, whether a scope, a filter, a piece of hardware. They have proven themselves time and again re quality/price ratio.
I'm really glad to see a brand pushing prices down! I hope they stay that way!
I’m becoming a big fan of svbony. I shot most of my images last year on an svbony scope & it performed beautifully. They’re coming out with more products, such as a filter drawer. Starting to come out with some nicer cameras (just rebranded touptek but still). They’re really beginning to be a pretty decent quality budget option which is very much needed as some companies have pushed further into the premium category.
It's really good to see a company really try to keep things affordable in the hobby!
SVBony SV220 is the one I've been using. It really works great on emission nebulae. Editing using Pixinsight and the narrowbandnormalization process is brilliant!
Yes! It's great that way!
I have the Seestar and have been wanting to try a little better filter than what the S50 has. Didn't want to go crazy on price, so when your(this) video came along, i thought this is the one to try. Bought the 2 inch direct from Svbony, $117. This will be an interesting experiment.
Congrats on your purchase! Enjoy the experiment :-)
Thanks Cuiv!
I just ordered one through your Amazon link, and their showing 14 1.25" left in stock @ $110.
Thanks for your support!!
I bought the 1.25” to use on my Dwarf. It gave me a stunning result on the rosette nebula but due to the terrible UK winter It’s had very little use so far.
That's a great idea for the Dwarf 2!
@@CuivTheLazyGeek I was surprised as SVBony recommend it for use on f6 and above scopes.
Yeah.
SVBony have some fantastic products. Recently I got visual 2" and 1.25" OIII filter (17nm) for like $25 each.
I'll probably get this sv220 once nebula season is back
It's impressive how they've expanded their range!
Hello . Would you consider adding a new Section to your Playlist and call it “Filters” ? This would be so helpful to be able to source out these vids quickly . Thanks for all your NOT lazy work .
That's a great idea, I'll look into it!
I have an L- Pro and an L- Enhance filter, which seem to give reasonable results from my Bortle 5 location. I was actually considering this filter, but I will probably save up and buy one of the more expensive filters that eliminate the halos. I don't see much point in buying something like an L-Extreme if this filter can do the same job for almost half the price. Thanks for the review Cuiv.
From Bortle 5 L-eNhance would do a great job already indeed! And yes, I also don't see a reason to get the L-eXtreme with this one available....
@@CuivTheLazyGeek This is about your video on OAGs, just want to say thank you again for that, I finally managed to get mine set up tonight,and I can't believe the improvement in guiding already. There are a few issues, mainly a crescent shaped artifact (internal reflection?) That appears on the PHD2 screen and the mount may need some further tweaking, but yeah already a great improvement.
I'm a visual astronomer who is just starting to get into astrophotography, and I'm really enjoying these videos! I'm curious why you're doing all your astrophotography from the middle of light polluted Tokyo, but I really appreciate it, living in a bortle 7 area, myself.
Right after I buy the d1-d2 set you review this. And I was going to cuss at you for that, BUT... After seeing that huge, bright halo around Alnitak, I'm glad I got the askar d set. 👍👍
The D1/D2 are excellent for the price as well!
Gòod review. I have one of these and I'm happy with the performance. The halo's are fairly tight on my setup so usually easy to remove..👍🏻
Thanks for sharing! Keep enjoying it!
I’m away from Astro for a bit but I bought this filter at launch and it’s a great performer, from the tests I’ve seen it produces way less halos than the L-extreme
Perfect ! I had already bought it but have not had a chance to test it yet. I'm not concerned with the bright star halo so I got a deal at $123 USD, so I'm happy to hear your report ! Thank you Cuiv... ;-) Cheers from Utah !
Hope you enjoy it!
Excellent.... I caught a Svbony sale earlier this year and bought the SV220. I will use it with my Astro-tech 60EDP Petzval and Skywatcher tracker. I'm still undicider as to an alternative to my ZWO183CM... guessing the 2600, but it's $1500.
Good luck on choosing the camera!
Beat you too it! I got the SV220 to go with my 533MC-Pro and Askar FRA300 as my first Astro rig at the start of 2024. Think I paid $120?I have nothing to compare it with but I’ve liked the results so far. Yes I’ve noticed some halos but at my experience level they don’t bother me! I also got the SVBony Filter holder at same time and that seems far better value than the ZWO one as it comes with two draws as standard both with 1.25” adaptors and the magnets are strong
Congrats, this is a great rig you got!! Also yeah the ZWO filter drawer magnets are indeed quite weak... I don't understand why they don't fix that!
Funny I ordered it last week. Can't wait to test it.
Enjoy it!
I have this filter and I think it does an incredible job
Excellent to hear!
I bought one because of your video, it works great. Thanks Cuiv
Glad you like it! It's a really good deal! Cheers!
Hello Cuiv. I have this filter since several month. With my f6 Apo I never had any halos whatsoever.I will try with my f2 Samyang the next weeks. See how i performs with a faster optics. For the price the best you can buy. Thanks for the review.
The real question I have is: is this filter usable visually?
I've heard of German observers using Baader CMOS optimized Hβ filters (5 nm bandpass) for visually observing the California Nebula and other HII regions, and they find it to be a far better experience than a more standard 10-12 nm bandpass for visual filters.
I know for OIII filters you usually want to pass both lines transmitted, but on the other hand, the increased sky darkening may improve the experience.
Visually no - too narrow, and focuses too much int he red. H-Beta is much better for visual, as our eyes are much more sensitive to the blue!
@@CuivTheLazyGeek I'm more interested in its visual performance as a O-III filter. I may pick one up for astrophotographic purposes, but I'll certainly use it with an eyepiece to see what happens.
Those are awesome! I bought one and then got two more. I always recommend them.
Glad you like them!
Haven't watched this video yet, but I'll say before, I LOVE my SV220. Curious to see this videos conclusion!
It's positive (spoiler alert :p)
Thanks, Cuiv for the excellent video. I will buy an OSC camera in the next 60 days, so this was a very timely video. However, I'm picky about halos so I'll likely get one of the more expensive filters but this is still a wonderful filter for the price.
Glad I can help! I think right now for halo free experiences the Altair and Askar filter sets are quite good!
Love the final analysis...shrug....Get it .....(then you toss the filter) LMAO
Hehehe
I have the Altair 4nm ones that costs more than 3 times as much. Sure, narrower and no halos, but dang... Svbony has some great offers. Loving my Svbony Sv550 122mm refractor.
Yeah, it's really impressive what they're able to achieve at such low prices! Maybe I should review their refractors too!
@@CuivTheLazyGeek You should! I hope they'll play ball and send you a copy.
I loved the casual fun way you did this video you were expecting junk when it wasn't to bad halos aside of course so it wouldn't be a filter for me, but if you're not bothered by those then yeah I can still see the appeal & at less cost than other brands to.
Yep really cheap for what it is
Best price/performance dual narrowband filter available. Have it for quite a long time now and it is clearly a best buy. If you mind about halos be ready to spend at least twice the price. Highly recommend. 😊
Great to hear!
Good video! . You forgot the Antlia in the list?. Anothrr question, do you calibrate your spectrometer from time to time?
Yes, I recalibrate my spectrophotometer before testing any filter to be sure (mercury argon and neon lamps)
Just suggested your video of a friend of mine!
Awesome thank you!
Great video Cuiv, I too have this 2” dual narrowband filter, semt to me from Svbony to review on my channel, if these clouds ever go away, will be very interesting to test it with my QHY268c
Cool! Enjoy the testing!
I am relieved to read that SVBONY have a nice dual-band filter for OSCs.
I don't remember, did you test their NB filters in the past (especially with spectroscope)? I am eyeing the recent 678MM camerra for my refractor as a possible nebula hunter...
I bought my 1.25" version off their store on Aliexpress for £60 delivered. It's much more expensive now though
Thanks for the review Cuiv, I've just bought one and looking forward to next clear night. Any idea if SVBony are likely to produce a similar Sii/Oiii filter?
I haven't heard of such a plan yet, but it would be really nice for sure!
cuiv are you placing the filter in your filter draw? for this scope being f3.5 and the website says its for f5 and slower we should put it as far away from the sensor as possible - end of reducer ideally (other people had better results like that)
That's a good point! Filter drawer because front of reducer is horrible to change filters! The F5 limitation is likely because of the band passes. At the reducer I would expect no halos because the halo would effectively be larger than the whole frame, at a cost of a little bit of SNR!
Impressive for the price. I’ll give them that. But the halo, even at such a small amount of integration, is exceedingly prominent. I’d much, much, much rather one of the good options like an NBZ, and as a bonus there some good coverage from standard to fast optics.
Completely understand :)
I purchased the 1.25 version of this a few months ago and have no halo issues at all.
THANK YOU! I hope mine is as good. I can say it's starved out my L-enhance. The subs look much better in my bortle 9.
Glad you're enjoying yours!
How can narrow band filters work? Doesn't red-shift move things around depending on target?
I think the largest redshift is with Ha for the crab nebula, that's around 3nm! For the rest it shouldn't be an issue, but I do want to test out wider vs narrower bandpasses on M1 at some point!
Hey Cuiv! I enjoy your videos and I understand you are a astrophotographer, I am a visual amateur astronomer and live in a climate that is very damp. Are filters for astrophotographers the same as for visual users?
The filters for visual and photo are very different! Visual filters tend to favor wavelengths our eyes are sensitive to (so OIII and Hbeta filters for instance). This is a restriction we can ignore for astrophotography! There are a lot of other reasons as well
Does the SV220 work well for focal lengths below 400mm?
Technical question
I haven't DWARF II with its original UHC filter, which works ok but after your review of SVBONY SV220
I'm wondering how big there will be improvement between original DWARF II UHC filter and SVBONY SV220 and should I get this one or perhaps you recommend something even better.
Unfortunately I live in Perth which is called city of light so light pollution is my greatest enemy.
Looking forward to hearing from you soon Thanks
Thanks for testing it...i still haven't used it. No time...
Hope you get the time soon!
Hey Cuiv did you know Svbony are featuring this video on their page for this product now? You should get them to send you some more gear as compensation 😉
Nice!! Hahaha yes I should!
can the Halo be more controlled with shorter exposures?
Does this halo get bad with more integration? Maybe not possible to check on Alnitak now as it gets lower and lower but would you try it on western veil nebula this summer? It also has a bright star in it and could give you another option to check halos in summer as well 😅
You'll just get better and better SNR on the halo - it won't increase in size, so I think it should basically be the worse of it already!
Ok big brain, maybe you can provide some insight on an issue I am having with this amazing filter and nina? AF works great with uv/ir cut filters, perfect curves and everything. But when I do a af routine with the 220 at 6 second exposures it fails every time and the results are weird. After the first adjustment and it unfocused the stars it looks correct but nina is registering the hfr at 1.8, with the stars very out of focus, after that I get a hard zigzag in the graph for the rest of the routine until it fails. Any idea? Btw, love everything you do!
Get 5 or 6of them, make holes in the front cap of the telescope to get one huge front filter. After that there may not be any halo😊
Thanks for the informativ video. It helps me. But I have a question. To you have experience with the optolong L-Ultimate. I read that by this are no halos. Ok this filter much more expensive. But your opinion where very interesting.
Is it possible to use Calcium K solar filters and/or Hydrogen Alpha solar filters on smart telescopes, such as the Seestar S50, if a suitable adapter was used to attach it?
Just wondering 💭
If I get a black and white camera for more detail, what are all the filters needed for deep sky with planetary targets? I’m looking to get a filter wheel for my 8 inch edge HD and was wondering how many filters would I need.
planetary as in Jupiter/Saturn? Or as planetary nebulae? If the former, probably LRGB and the atmo shift compensator prism
@@CuivTheLazyGeek
As in Jupiter and Saturn. I don’t know how to thank you enough for this, I really do appreciate it. Thank you Sir!!
Love your 'attitude' over the filter not 'failing'!! I don't mind halos at all... as long as it's not on ALL the stars! You may be 'lazy'... but I'm CHEAP! lol
Being cheap (and lazy) is the best combination haha
I haven't encountered a truly bad product by SVBony yet, their guide scopes are no worse than anyone else's all the doodads and bells and whistles work fine, good quality builds, good packaging. The filters I have bought from them work fine. I have the ZWO Duo which is adequate for my purposes but have always wondered what the F3.9 would do with a narrower band pass. The Askar C sulfur&oxygen piqued my interest but only because the ZWO duo already matches the Askar HA/OIII band passes. The Lextreme way out of the ballpark $ wise for me, but having just checked on Amazon this product for me sits at about $300 Cad or so taxes in. still heavy but....whats astrophotography if not spending great whallops of cash at every given opportunity right? 😄 Thanks Cuiv
I'm really impressed by SVBony!
I have used this filter for roughly ome year now and i enjoyed it except from the halos. That is the reason why i consider a new ha oiii filter. I was thinking about the altair 4nm but it is very expensive. Is the askar D1 just as good?
How does this compare with the competitively priced dual-band and tri-band filters from Altair Astro?
It should be very close to the Altair 6nm dual band filters but Altair likely has no halos. I haven't tested directly so I can't really compare. I'm not a big fan of tri-band filters in general (see my overall video on narrowband filters)!
it also has OIII one but not duo.
Wow! Nice video! I think this filter can be really useful in bortle 7 - 8. I already received it 😊
What do you think about Antlia Quad Band anti light pollution filter? In description of this filter written, that it can eliminate light pollution from LED. I want to use this filter on galaxies in my bortle 7 area.
Thanks you for you video!
Do you know if this filter would work with the samyang 135mm f2?
F2 is probably too aggressive for the tight band passes of this filter, if you stop it to F4 or so it would be better
@@CuivTheLazyGeekCan't i put it on the front of the lens. Basically making it f2.8 but no bandpass shift issues? Also no halos
@@CaptainZuul Good idea! Try it out!
A halo comparison would be amazing :)
Svbony has new narrowband filters with 5nm for 350$.
For monochrome cameras, full set - this is incredible value...
Wow.. let's hope it's a trend!
Yes! I hope it's consistent quality indeed!
This is a budget dual band filter made by Optolong for the SVBONY label.
Do you have a source for that?
@@CuivTheLazyGeek yes however I would betray confidence announcing it here. ZWO filters and Antlia are Optolong too. Antlia is Optolongs "premium" brand BTW. In fact there's only one large coating company in China, and that's Optolong.
Could you do a tutorial on how to eliminate halos around stars? I think you could take a photo without filters, and then select the stars and paste them onto the starless photo made with the filter
I'll need to look into this
Thanks Cuiv.
Ahh, the video I've been waiting for! I do wonder though, how consistent they perform from sample to sample? Hopefully my sample is about as good as yours here. I've only used it once, so far, and no complaints thus far.
Exactly - was I just lucky? It's a possibility...
Just ordered one from UK Amazon who are offering a an additional 25% off too. Bargain.
I'm curious..you said you really don't care about the halo in your image...why don't you care? It looked like it ruined your image. It's huge! Is this something you can clean up in post processing?
To me it doesn't ruin my image at all, no more than Newtonian spikes do - I don't understand why people think it ruins images, that's why I don't really care
“A white lie”
😂😂😂 you kill me man!!!
Love the review. That halo is pretty intense but the results and price might be worth it…
In your opinion, do you think Svbony or Optilong are more consistent with their quality? (Referring to the “filter lottery”)
I can't say for sure! Optolong used to be pretty bad with filter lottery, but not sure how it is now!
@@CuivTheLazyGeek Fair enough. I didn’t really expect you to “choose” unless there was a very open and public difference.
Also, just to clarify, my joking bit about white lie was a broad spectrum vs narrowband reference. In case anyone reads it and took offense.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
What about a comparison between this and the ZWO Duo Band?
Specs are not even close. 15 and 35 NM vs 7. I thought about getting ZWO's until this one showed up. Glad I waited.
As John replied, they're not really in the same category - the SVBony is far, far better in light polluted areas
I think you convinced me to get one for my light polluted downtown Montréal!
Antlia ALP-T is still the best duo narrowband filter, totally halo-free and it’s 5nm band passes…
Can only agree. I have not used anything else and dont see the need to.
It does depend on your equipment (not for RASA for instance) but otherwise I agree the Antlia are a very solid proposition ! The 4nm Altair are also quite interesting!
@@CuivTheLazyGeek That is interesting. It would be good to see a video that explains how different systems work with different filters. I am considering looking for a new rig that will give me more reach than my Redcat (not sure it will be a RASA!) and would like to understand the filter implications better.
Interesting, my 1,25" UHC visual filter is about the same price 😂
Crazy right?!
If you use a UV/IR cut filter up by the sensor and the sv220 in a filter drawer it will eliminate the halos. I have the same telescope and I don’t get halos. 👍
It will illuminate or eliminate ? Not sure what you were going for here .
I see what you mean, basically have something else with good AR coatings that can cut reflections in the middle, interesting approach!
@@CuivTheLazyGeek I halo problems when I first started and just by trial and error started putting my SvBony 1.25” UV/Ir cut filter by the sensor and my other filter in the filter drawers and it surprised me. If you put a CLS filter in the Drawer it got rid of my chromatic aberration in my doublet telescopes. Pretty neat trick. Love your content 👍, I have been watching you for years and you have been a mentor for me so thanks.
@@scottrk4930 just saw that, auto correct let me down lol. Eliminates the halos.
Many astrophotography software programs can remove halos.
Hi Cuiv, where is the Halo Remover Plugins???? I got this filter and was expecting Halos...
I'm not aware of such a plugin yet, let me know if I'm wrong!
you are happily disappointed at the result from the filter lol
Exactly lol
NO WAY you uploaded this video 5 hours after i won it on ebay for £50 hahaha - and we have the same telescope :)
Congrats on getting it on ebay!
For the money what's not to like?
Exactly!
It would be interesting to better understand the causes of halos.
Basically reflections between camera and filter as I understand it, so the better the AR coating of the filter, the lesser the halo
I just got one from sv bonny for $126
Excellent!
Is that a 585 camera?
It's in the video description - a ZWO ASI585MC Pro.
I have another video with a review of it: ua-cam.com/video/zibS7JyKdw8/v-deo.html
So! You get to the point where you say "Of course we have to check for halos around bright stars!" But you don't explain what causes the halos! Is it the off band cut-off leakage? or some other aberation? How does it compare to other, more expensive filters?
Usually inter-filter reflections.