K3CCD tools

[beren]

Anyone use this image capture software? Just want to know if its worth it to get it to use with a Meade LPI :confuse3:

Cheers

[seeker372011]

I use it for all capture. It is very easy to use and quite robust.

I got it for nothing when I bought the Atik but I think it is still freeware.

I also found that it is great for helping in drift aligning..you get a whacking big reticle on screen, and you can drift align with the webcam. As I result I think I can get away not buying an illuminated reticle which costs mega $$$$

[beren]

Thanks, havent used it yet because of sky conditions but looks pretty good , thats a neat feature with the reticle etc .

[[1ponders]]

I've had a bit of a muck around with it, and I mean only a bit.

There's a couple of bugs with it though the new version apparently has them ironed out. When using ToUcam I can get it to work on my PC but not on my laptop, which means I can't use it for capture which is a bit of a pain (not sure why yet). Seems to work fine with LPI, though I had to do a bit of tinkering first, but nothing too difficult. If you get it have a good read through the help files, they're not too bad at explaining how to use it.

It has a plantetary wizard for processing which is useful, but not fantastic. The learning curve doesn't seem as steep at Registax though its not as powerful IMHO in its post production tools. It's free to non commercial users (ie you and me :) ), but you have to copy the registration Key from the home site about every 70 days. Unless you want to pay $35 US (last time I looked) for a permanent registration key.

Here's the Home Page

http://www.pk3.org/K3CCDTools/

I like it, you know in that friendly sort of way :) as its simple enough for this relative (isn't it all) newbie to understand and use.

Hope I've helped in my round about way
Paul

[Robby]

Hi,
I use K3CCDTools2 for image aquisition & auto-guiding.
I haven't used any of the processing tools yet. It is probably worth the money, but the licencing scheme it uses is a nightmare! Even time you install it on a new machine or new OS you need to request a key from the author. A bit of a pain in the neck, but when it's working it works well.

[iceman]

I'm using version 1 (the free one still) for capture using the ToUcam. My version of version 2 expired so I went back to version 1.

There's others out there and for what I use it for, they all do a equally adequate job.

It's probably worth US$35 if you use it for more than just capturing an avi..

[rumples riot]

Hey Stuart, I have used this program last night for the first time with the LPI and it worked great. I got 10 frames a second out of the LPI and think that it does a great job, infact better than the
Autostar suite for capture. See my latest Saturn.