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Hi Iain,
For the price, (now recently lower), I have been keeping my eye on an ATIK 314E CCD camera which, while it only has 1.45 Megapixels, it does have TEC cooling and its read out noise is extremely low.
I read the review for the 314L done in the AS&T magazine a year or so ago, and Dennis Di Cicco raved about that camera and what quality results he could get without needing darks most of the time.
Its effectively the same camera as the 314E, but the 314L has Set point cooling as opposed to just "ON" for the 314E.
For what its worth, due to the fact this camera has a guide port, I am seriously considering it as an addition to my setup either to test it and use it as the prime camera, or as the guide cam when using the DSLR and use its guide port instead of PHD via EQmod. (I use a DBK21AU618.AS as my guide camera at the moment)
Its only $899 and as far as I can tell, probably one of the best sub $1000 NEW cameras out there to get started with in terms of low noise, small pixels, TEC cooling and guide port all in one. From the test report, they are a handsome piece of kit too.
The $899 price is from Andrews Communications, I have no agreement or interest in this company apart from buying stuff from them whenever I can afford (read, the wife's not looking) it.
Worth a look for the reasons I mentioned (prime being the glowing report in AS&T for the 314L).
Cheers
Chris
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