[Bassnut (Fred)]

You know, just for fun, its worth drilling down with a specific use case on this long FL OTA. I used SBIG ST8XME and ST10XME CCD cams many years ago on a meade 12" SCT, the ST8 used a KAF-1603ME sensor, it's over 15 years old. Specifically for narrowband imaging, Ha response is key to detail in LRGB processing. The ST8 had 75% QE at ha, 9 micron pixels and 100000 e well depth. No CMOS cam under $100k comes remotely close to these specs. Ok its only 1530 x 1020 pixels, but any bigger on a 14" f10 OTA is problematic anyway. If exposure times are long enough to overcome read noise, then read noise is irrelevant, and with accurate darks, dark noise is not a problem. If expense is a concern the ST8XME or ST10XME S/H would be cheaper and vastly superior to most CMOS cams for specifically narrow band imaging on this OTA, if you can find one!.