Thread: GSTAR-EX Camera
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Old 12-02-2007, 06:11 AM
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cometcatcher (Kevin)
<--- Comet Hale-Bopp

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Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Cloudy Mackay
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I may want one of these eventually also but like Ving will have to wait a while. I have an early GEM Mintron which operates in the same manner.

Ving, all my comet pics on this forum if you can remember them were taken with the GEM Mintron. The Gstar is better though.

There are a few other cameras out there that may be of interest. Mallincam colour hyper, Orion Starshoot deep sky version, Stellacam3 (Watec) and others.

To get any decent deep sky stills out of these cameras you have to stack as many frames as possible. You will need a video capture card in the PC, capture and editing software. I use Vidcap32 and videdit or VirtualDub. Then you load the avi into registax and let it track and stack.

The resolution of these cameras isn't that high, 768x576 with a good vidcap card. The pixel array in the camera is similar. You won't get any hi-res blowups from these "VGA" arrays. The frames often have analogue video artifacts noticable especially after post processing.

I dunno, I have mixed feelings about these low light video cameras. The technology just isn't keeping up with DSLR's, especially Canon. You can get a second hand 300D for less than a new Gstar. The pixel array is larger, it's single shot colour and you don't need it connected to a PC.

I still want a Gstar though, you can get nice images out of them with a bit of coaxing. Polar alignment or drives don't have to be accurate either. I can even get images from a home made wooden barn door mount and finger tracking!
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