I’m new, so this is probably a very silly question - but after reading all about the special ‘magenta’ tints that some Nichia emitters are capable of, and how highly sought after they are because of it, this got me thinking - why not just add a magenta filter over the lens of the emitter if you want that effect? With filters, surely you can cheaply and easily modify whatever flashlight to have whatever tint you want without searching for rare and expensive emitters?
There must be some sort of disadvantages to doing that? But what are they?
The major disadvantage is efficiency. Some big amount of light is lost with the filter. Also the spectrum is very specific for each LED and a filter will behave differently depending on the LED. If you want high CRI with nice tint and good efficiency you have to use the proper LED for this task.
Filters decrease the output, while a more ”rosy” LED also has lower output than a greenish LED the difference is not as big.
They age : Lee minus green and Zircon minus green filters durability test
And they can be finicky to instal especially when the lens can’t be removed.
Working in the live entertainment business for years, I have used the Roscolux #2 “bastard amber” gel and many, many others on LED lights. Is it effective? Yes. Is it really accurate? probably not.
