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Yes I agree Carl. The U16M is a very good camera but could do with more cooling horsepower. But they do offer an upgrade to a different body for $2000 that gives -66C cooling which matches FLI's cooling.So that is good that they offer various products at different price points. So I'll be getting that before summer as strong cooling is a key to easy CCD work.
The STL series are very nice cameras too but are noisy compared to their FLI equivalent and their cooling is lacking in power like the U16M.
Ideally, -35C is the starting point for good cooling in my opinion and I want to be able to achieve that any time of the year so that means -65C cooling ability which currently is only offered by FLI or Apogee Alta D09 body. I would prefer -40C. Its not just thermal noise you want to get rid of with cooling, its residual ghost images or the extra noise if you use the tool to prevent these ghost images (I have never seen them on my U16M but the 09000 chipped cameras often get complaints) , hot pixels, lines from the hot pixels down the image and other cosmetic defects. It also sets you up for easy and trouble free processing.
I saw a recent image from a 12.5 RCOS and the Apogee U16M and it gave me a good idea of what it would do and it looked very good, a nice match up.
Greg.
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