Anybody ordered a KAF16200 camera yet?

[gregbradley]

A KAF16200 camera is on my wishlist. With relatively deep wells, 6 micron pixels (a perfect match for the AP Honders) and a wide field of view plus a nice and healthy 16mp its sounds like a winner.

It appears to have fairly low read noise and 60% QE which is respectable. Large APS sized sensor not much smaller than KAI11000 but just that little bit smaller to take pressure off needing large focusers, flatteners and reducers. It should be a bit easier to manage optically.

QHY have had one in testing for ages with OAG and filter wheel its expected to be USD$3999, Moravian sell one with various options starting at Euro 2910, SBIG sells an STXL version at US$6995 or so so does FLI at around US$6795. I am not sure anyone else is offering it yet. Perhaps Apogee?


These days I like the idea of an integrated camera/filter wheel and guiding unit in one camera to prevent a lot of issues with flex, adapters, spacings etc. Such a pain. You never hear those problems from QSI WSG camera owners.

Any news if QSI are going to make one? I don't think Starlight Express is, Terry said he had no plans for one (he could change his mind though).

Anyone getting one?

Greg.

[Slawomir (Suavi)]

Hi Greg,

Apparently Atik also presented a camera with KAF-16200 at NEAF just a week or so ago. Since they have dropped the 700 series altogether, my gut feeling is that QSI will stick to smaller sensors and perhaps they will be implementing CMOS ones in near future. But that is just my speculation.

KAF-16200 certainly presents a very attractive option for imagers and it is not unlikely that it will become a relatively popular sensor among astrophotographers.

[gregbradley]

Thanks for that Suavi.

I checked the Atik website and no mention.

You are probably right about QSI as their platform may not handle the size of this sensor as its only a bit smaller than a full frame sensor (35mm).

It would suit many but not all. A large APS would not work on these smaller refractors I would predict, perhaps they would. A Tak 2.7 inch focuser is probably the minimum size as they handle a DSLR. Any setup that handles an APS DSLR would probably handle this although I think its a tad larger than most DSLR APS (there are 2 APS sizes in DSLR cameras).

I am a it unsure if its worthwhile for my AP Honders. 6 microns says yes but for large FOV I can use the Proline 16803 and learn PI's drizzle function to get back most of the res lost from undersampling.

The 694 sensor is great for narrowband but the FOV is small. Its also good for 2x2 binning losing very little to 1x1 binning but picking up a lot of sensitivity. Its good for galaxies but then that is my CDK's primary role. Honders is good but ultimately it would not quite match the CDK17. Close though. The Honders is fabulous for cutting through light pollution. So the Honders is more for narrowband, medium to widefield plus the occasional galaxy.

So what do members think? Replace the Trius with a 16200 sensor camera or perhaps a KAF8300 camera (a bit wider field of view
but less sensitive and still has small wells)?

Either way I keep the Proline as it works on any scope that can handle the large sensor. But wondering about whether the Honders is optimised with the 16200 or not at 1 arc/sec/pixel. The 16200 should not lose anything if cropped if I want a closer look at a galaxy.

Per Ray's sensitivity formula pixel size is squared so 6 microns at 60% QE is better than 4.54 microns at 77% QE.

Greg.