NCB11 filter

[Litonotus]

NCB11 filter is - as many of you know - a built-in filter in advanced microscopes; it gives neutral colour balance. is it used in 'traditional' photography? I suppose it is, but under a different name which I don't know, do you know it?

[g4lab]

I believe this may be a Neodymium Color Balance filter.

Neodymium glass is used in General Electric "Reveal" trademarked tungsten lamps and other similar lamps.

If you look at the visible light spectrum of neodymium glass it is quite complicated. But it seems to net out to a beneficial effect when using color films. Or so I have read, I never used one myself.

They are also used for wavelength calibration of UV VIS spectrophotometers along with holmium glass filters.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neodymium

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Didymium
http://www.olympusmicro.com/primer/phot ... lters.html

The didymium color filter is mentioned about two thirds of the way down.


But since the thing that Charles mentions below references it by name I think he has nailed it. It does sound like an 80A or so which is just a blue balancing filter(daylight).

[Charles Krebs]

From a Nikon manual:



Sounds like the equivalent of a 80A Wratten (photographic) filter.

3200 degreeK-> 5500 degreeK

[Litonotus]

thank you very much (:

[Charles Krebs]

Gene posted at about the same time as I did earlier, and his answer got me second-guessing as well! I wouldn't put it past those tricky microscope manufacturers to use some spiffy specialized light balancing filter!

But looking a little more closely at some Nikon manuals showed the following:


So it does appear to signify Neutral Color Balance filter.

And guess what the decamired value difference between "daylight" and slightly brighter than normal halogen bulb is?.... -> 11 ... hmmm!

If that is in fact the case (a decamired value of 11) it would make it just a little less "strong" than an 80A. The closest common photographic filter equivalent would then be an 80B.

My guess is that's what it is... Nikon doesn't generally pull numbers (like the "11" designation) out of thin air.

[g4lab]

Charles you might need to tell them what decamired is.

[Litonotus]

Thank you I asked because we are looking for a NCB11 substitute to use it in less advanced microscopes.

What I noticed is that NCB 11 is grey and looks very much like a polarizing filter.