Thread: SBIG or QHY9
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  #47  
Old 07-12-2009, 10:23 PM
Hagar (Doug)
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Join Date: Oct 2006
Location: Australia
Posts: 4,646
Having used a 8300 chip the biggest problem I found was the shallow well depth. It was extremely dificult to take short enough images to capture fine detail while still maintaining star detail and colour. 5 minute exposures almost always over saturated stars. NB imaging was a lot more productive but who wants to only image in NB. Some do I suppose.
The other big thing I did find with the chip was it seemed to generate a lot of hot pixels when taking subs longer than 10 minutes. To reduce this and the noise levels the cooling needed to be crancked right up.
I didn't find sampling to be a major problem even when used on the VC200L at 1800mm although it did improve when the FR was used lowering the focal length down to 1200mm.
I now use a QHY8Pro and contemplated another QHY9 for NB imaging but think I will wait until I can get a CCD with a bit of depth in the well. Having played with a ST4K with a mono chip I would much rather go down this path as I feel the overall results were better.
Hopefully the new pricing will flow on into other cameras in all ranges of cameras and I will think about an upgrade at this point.
Maybe competition in the Astro CCD market will force prices down overall. Lets hope this is just the beginning.
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