Don Bruder wrote in message ...
Hmmm... maybe it's just me and my misinformation, but I've always been
under the impression that gels are the "cheap to buy this one, but
expensive as hell in the long term due to needing frequent replacement"
solution. My limited time "on the boards" (credited in the program as
"Soldier with a line" - chuckle) in a 6 week run of Jesus Christ
Superstar at a local playhouse showed me a lighting guy *CONSTANTLY*
griping about needing to chase up into the flys to replace gels -
sometimes before each run of the show, and particularly the reds. From
that, I reached the conclusion that gels are, at best, a "make-do",
rather than a permanent solution. And the prices... choke At one
point, I overheard him saying something like "There goes another hundred
bucks" while he was working on cutting a blue one to shape.

He was probably chucking approx 0.5-2kW at the gel, which was
transmitting 10% of the visible light (and not much IR in many
cases). As far as his prices, I don't know - he'd probably just
finished a roll. You should be fine so long as you avoid those linear
halogen "security" type floodlights - they burn all but the high temp
gel.
See
http://www.leefiltersusa.com/LightPr...iceSheet.html#
for pricing (US)
Looking at the transmission curves in the swatch book, which go up to
800nm, the following 2 combinations could work
141+027
172+198+027

The 027 is a red with ~2% visible transmission.

I don't know about getting hold of some, but $14 at list price doens't
seem too bad - with plenty to spare.

I tried both with a mini maglite, but my digital camera can hardly see
any IR (spot from a recmote control in a darkened room is faint even
if pointed straight at the camera) so I couldn't see anything. Both
combinations appeared dull red - but then so does "invisible" 785nm
laser light.

Chris