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It's funny, thinking of a new cam, I read adds/specs, customer feed back, agonize over hot new features, mega cooling,mega pixels, back thinned hi qe, fast downloads,support, RBI, brand difference, it's a head spin.
So I take a step back and look at my rather limited (sbig only) brand experience,compare it to other brand user posts, what I really want in features in practical terms,and, although it's not a priority ,value for money.
I see peters experience with the u47 and very few image posts generally with back thinned CCDs, they seem very attractive qe wise, but I've also read there are many difficultys with them and are very expensive, so I keep coming back to a 6303 chip, which despite it age is still the chip of choice for NF NB
So brand. Yes FLI has better cooling and faster downloads, but at what cost, and does it really, really matter (for me).
I don't give rats if download is 2 or 4 secs, or whatever the diff between usb1 and 2 is, and from experience, with accurate darks, I don't much care about the max cooling temp either, I don't have to battle RBI so -10 or 15 Or 20 is fine by me.
So, value for money. Well, I need a 7 pos filter wheel so:
Fli 6303 proline with 7 pos filter wheel total us$10490' SBIG STL 6303 with 8 pos filter wheel $6795 total. (OPT as reference). Mmm, big diff.
Ok, fli has better cooling and faster download, not that I care much, but SBIG has internal guide, AO interface, plug for a very sensitive cooled guide cam.
Support. I don't know about FLI , but when I sent an st10 for an upgrade, it was a smooth reasonably priced experience, and a guide cam in for repair got, I kid you not, a daily report on progress by the repair tech and a full explanation of the problem and what was done.
So, I'm thinking, do I go with what I know is a bullet proof , tried and tested product, albeit a bit behind in unessential specs, but with excellent support and oddly much cheaper with a wider range of interfaces and accessories ( eg AO). or another newer very attractive more expensive brand that may well give the same image result for far more money and less options?
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