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If one shot colour is your interest I would seriously consider one of these new Kodak True Sense chips. These have twice the light sensitivity as the older Bayer matrix (the matrix of RGB coloured lenses on top of the sensor that makes them colour). Instead of a repeating pattern of RGGB (Bayer matrix) they are LRGB like we do with mono cameras and filters.
They also have small pixels which matches a lot of refractors and faster scopes.
Currently the 2 companies I am aware of that offer a camera with these chips are Apogee (Ascent series) and FLI ( Microline cameras).
These are usually KAI chips. They go from about 2.050 megapixels up to 50 megapixels. There is a KAI8050 with true sense.
These one shot colour chips have nearly double the sensitivity of the older types and whilst there are no examples so far of images using them it would be a safe bet that they will add a lot of interest in one shot colour imaging.
One shot colour has advantages over filtered mono imaging. Mainly as you point out, if you have unclear and often cloudy skies you can still capture a colour image as every image is in colour. They are cheaper as there is no filter wheel no filters. They are easier and quicker to process afterwards. Colour is often already semi balanced compared to filter mono imaging.
Traditionally though this comes at the cost of sensitivity and lack of ability to do narrowband efficently.
These True Sense would also be better at narrowband than the older types.
Ascent series by Apogee are quite cheap and small and light and would be a decent camera I imagine.
Check out the Kodak Sensor Solutions website for a list of all their current chips they sell and Apogee and FLI websites or look them up at optcorp.com.
Greg.
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