I got a FLI MIcroline 16 with the KAF 16200 APS sized sensor. Its actually a bit bigger and slightly squarer in shape at 27.6mm x 15.6mm. I got it to match the AP Riccardi Honders and 6 microns is a good match for scopes in Australian seeing up to about 1500mm focal length. On the Honders its 1.1 arc secs /pixel. Roland Christen from AP recommends 1 arc sec for average seeing. It also performed surprisingly well on my CDK17 under ideal conditions so that is a bonus.
I originally nearly purchased the Moravian G3 16200 but a bit of stupidity/dishonesty from the Teleskop Services Salesman put me off. I decided the best scope needs the best camera and the FLI is a no compromise type of product. Best coatings, best cooling, best electronics, lowest noise, best shutter, most reliable etc.
Its 6 micron pixels and on the FLI less than 6 electrons in read noise. 39,000 electron well depth and low dark noise.
Firstly I had forgotten how compact the FLI MIcroline camera is. Quite small really. Cooling is powerful and fast. I have been running it at -35C and it goes there very quickly - within a few minutes.
The camera digital converter runs at 2 speeds, a fast speed for focusing and a slower speed for lower noise. At the slower speed a 1x1 binned images takes about 8 secs to download at a guess.
The FLI has a 42mm shutter which is black and quite smooth in operation and fairly quiet. The shutter seems to have been upgraded from the earlier Microline shutters.
The camera ran straight off in the Sky X and CCDsoft. I usually use my FLI Proline so that was no surprise but you never know with new gear and it worked first time.
My first check of it showed some odd vignetting on the AP Riccardi Honders. Almost no vignetting on the bottom half of the image and a fair bit on the top half. I wondered if I was getting shading from the MMOAG pick off prism but I semi removed it and the vignetting was the same. I also put the camera and MMOAG on my CDK17 and got exactly the same vignetting but that must be then the imaging train not the camera so perhaps its the MMOAG or filter wheel. To be continued on finding that out. It does not affect the images though as it flats out well.
The camera does extremely clean images. They are similar in low noise as the Starlight Express Trius 694. A bit less sensitive (QE is 59% versus 77% for the Trius).
But the 39,000 electron well depth means it can take a longer exposure without blowing out the highlights and bright stars. More like the 16803 (not quite as good but a lot better than the Sony sensors which is their weakness).
Images seem to be cleaner quicker when processing. Stars take processing without breaking down (again I am over small well cameras in this regard with fragile stars). There is a certain vibrance and vitality I am seeing in the images compared to other cameras so this sensor is definitely a step forward. Its a natural advance from a KAF8300 camera.
16mp in that size sensor gives a noticeably higher resolution in images compared to the 9 micron pixels.
I have taken quite a bit of exposure with it and will have several images to post in the near future once I process them.
Overall I am very happy with the camera and sensor and recommend it to those who have been using an 8300 camera and are looking for an upgrade.
It is very muck like the smaller brother of the 16803 sensor which I still regard as the king of the current available sensors.
The 16803 is still my favourite camera but the advantages of the 16200 are its got lower read noise and higher resolution at 6 microns versus 9. This shows up a bit more detail and stars tend to be rounder etc.
Overall the main thing that is noticeable is images seem to pop a bit more.
27 x 21mm is less demanding on tilt, collimation and large focusers/flatteners so it should be pretty popular to those looking for an upgrade over their 8300 cameras. Once you hit full frame sizes the demands for flatteners, large focusers, strong no flex focusers, no tilt and adapters becomes a lot higher.
