[Atmos (Colin)]

With my mount purchase on hold for the next month or two (awaiting the release of the new ASA DDM60 to get officially specs and price), I figure I may as well get the new camera under way. At the moment I am using a QHY9 with 36mm unmounted filters. As nice as the FOV is, my real gripe with it is the 8.5e- read noise. It is on the lower end of the KAF-8300 sensors so the QHY9 is a good camera. As most of my imaging is happening in light polluted areas (Melbourne) I have mostly been doing narrowband with 3nm filters. With my current setup I need 2 hour subs to hit the noise floor. Without a serious mount upgrade and VERY good polar alignment, I don't see 2 hour subs happening.

My camera list at the moment is:

QHY23 - Easy choice as it means that I can directly attach it onto my current QHY CFW2. QHY have recently released an OAG so I am trying to order one of those.

SX-Trius814 - Company has been around longer, come with OAG and has the ability to tip/tilt the sensor for squareness.

FLI MLx- 814 - Not really on my list because I cannot afford it but with a read noise of 2e- RMS, I want it!

Atik490EX - Although considered the lower end of the market, I don't hear much bad wrap from the Atik range. They also have an integrated OAG which is good.

As nice as the QSI cameras are, I don't have any way of mounting my 36mm filters in one. The one gripe I have against the QHY cameras is their thick heavy power cable, one that neither the Atik or SX cameras use.

From the research I have done, except the FLI, the QHY23 is likely to have the lowest read noise. Although QHY don't seem to have specific specifications on the QHY23, from the few sources I can find on the net, the QHY variants typically have lower read noise. I imagine that both the Atik and Trius are roughly the same at about 4. The FLI slaughters the others but out of my reasonable price range.

I prefer the ICX 814 over the 694 because of the smaller pixels and higher resolution that it brings. Better suit for my typical seeing conditions. Both have very similar QE but the 814 typically has lower read noise which compensates for the smaller pixel size.

So, what do ya'll think?