Saturn - ToUcam vs TalkCam HD

[iceman]

Hi guys.

Here's my comparison image, taken Friday night (17th) in 6/10 seeing, between the ToUcam and the V-Gear Talkcam HD.

The Talkcam HD is a true USB2 webcam, but has a CMOS sensor, and as the following image will show, is not suitable for astronomical applications. It's just not sensitive enough and doesn't have the manual controls to boost gain/exposure. The "low light" mode is all it has, apart from the "brightness" control, which lightened the whole image horribly and can't be processed out (bottom of the second image). I found the CMOS also had missing pixels all over it - like a dust mote on the ToUcam, but worse.. black areas all over it.

It also appears to have a smaller chip or smaller pixel size (I can't remember how it works), giving a smaller image scale as can be seen .. both the ToUcam and the Talkcam HD were inserted into the 5x powermate.

I'm hopefully receiving the Talkcam Tracer CCD (again, USB2) in the next few days, which has the same Sony chip as the ToUcam, and therefore i'm hoping for much better things!

I don't need to say it, but the ToUcam image is the left one. :)

[davidpretorius]

well that was easy, toucam 1, talkcam CMOS a big fat 0!!

thanks mike, looking forward to the ccd.

[ving]

maybe mike just doesnt know how to use it :P
;)

thanks for the comparo mike :)

[Robert_T]

thanks Mike, it looks a similar result to the LPI which I guess is hardly surprising given that it's a CMOS chip too.

Ah well, bring on the CCD version - hope it's not too good otherwise I'll be poorer yet again;)

[nightsky]

Well at least you give it a go

[affter333]

Hi Iceman, have you tried talkcam HD's high res mode? (1280x1024)
Does it really have a mega pixel Cmos chip or it just use interpolation trick?

Thanks for you reply..

[bird]

Mike, it probably has larger pixels if the image scale is smaller.

The size of an image on your PC screen is determined by the ratio of screen pixel size to camera pixel size (ie divide them).

cheers, Bird

[bird]

Also, CMOS cameras usually have a rolling shutter which also makes them not very suitable for astronomy. (Just google this term to see what it means)

Bird

[iceman]

Hi affter333.

I didn't try the hi-res mode. I got to test the Tracer CCD as well, and those results are here: http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=8832