Quote:
Originally Posted by darrellx
Hi Mark
If thats the case, do all the comments made so far equally relate to the ccds with the alternate cooling options? Like being less noisy; or being less affected by light pollution than a DSLR?
If we are talking mainly about noise, and the peltier fan and heatsink ccds are at one end of the scale (less noisy) and the DSLRs are at the other end of the scale (more noisy), do the QHY6 and MeadeDSI-III ccds slot in between. If so, are they close to the QHY8 end of the scale; in the middle; or closer to the DSLR end?
Hope all that makes sense.
Darrell
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Not sure about the noise aspect of the DSI etc but as a general observation to be able to produce an image that is better than that
of a modified 350D or 40D etc you would have to have a pretty reasonable CCD camera like a 6 megapixel chip or beyond. Below that I think the results on the net say you are better off with a DSLR. After all DSLRs are quite large chips and 6 megapixels and beyond with good sensitivity once modified.
Thats why you see the usual progression of DSLR, then a better DSLR then a modified DSLR then a cooled CCD like QHY models, Sbig, FLI or Apogee.
The price of CCDs cameras seems to be falling as the competition heats up. QHY may be the cause of that. Apogee U8300 cameras which would be superb are around US$3500 or so. A lot, but cheaper than where they used to be. 2nd hand cameras can be picked up at
www.astromart .com
You could get a decent one for probably about US$2500 or less. A good 2nd hand modded 350D DSLR is what about US$500 or less so it is a quite a jump. Not familiar with the QHY prices but I know they are probably less than that.
Greg.