I have some pics of the camera and I have taken some darks for comparison.
First impression of this mod was "wow" the workmanship and quality of the mod is nothing less then professional quality.
1 downfall is the camera weight has increased dramaticaly probably 2.5 x the standard weight of a 350D.
Terry lovejoy has just left my place with a few darks to do some tests. will hear from terry soon with the results.
Below is some images of the mod and I have provided 2 x dark frames...both 15 minutes at ISO 800 1 with the cooler off sitting at 31 degrees and the other with the cooler on sitting at 8.1 degrees.
The darks have not been touched..just reduced and compressed the same way into JPEG.
That looks really good Tony. Are the pictures of the white components just to show what is installed in the camera? What is the lowest temperature you can go to?
I managed to collect some data recently when ambient was 1 deg C nearly all night. It made a lot of difference to the noise levels even at an ISO of 200.
It reduce's the chip temp 15-20 degrees below ambient and they have tested the canon CMOS chip at -40 and worked well.
What I noticed is that the chip temperture sits on a higher temperture then ambient with cooloing off so any temperture reduction would be benificial on those hot nights up here.
The temperture reduction can slightly be altered by the fan speed but otherwise the cooling is either on or off.
I took the dark frames before/after cooling at ISO800 15 minutes. On the lefthand side are the full frames reduced to 300 x 200 pixels and the right ones 300x200 crops near the frame centre. To make the noise more obvious I've boosted contrast 20x.
The upper frame was made at ambient 27C, sensor temperature 31 C and the lower frame with the cooling employed to lower the sensor to 6C (ambient 24 C).
In fact there is not much difference in noise between a 900 second exposure and a zero second exposure.
I think by the time you have got the chip to 0C there will be really little gain going any further.
I have seen Yun's website and he has put a lot more info there than last time I looked (also the reduced prices). Like you said the level of engineering is excellent. Just further to what we talking about leaving the detachable unit, perhaps he should just make it one unit - but its clever in any case.
Looks like they have thought of everything. Very well made unit. Have I got this right, they also have replaced the filter to make it more Halpha sensitive.
It is amazing how much heat the camera generates itself. One morning after sunrise I covered the 5DH with a black tshirt to stop any stray light getting to the darks I was taking (paranoia?). After about 30 minutes total of 'darks ' the camera was HOT after I removed the tshirt and ambient was about 5 deg C. Needless to say the darks were useless as the camera was much hotter than when the lights were taken. Moral take darks when it is dark. I now exclusively use in camera noise reduction.
Anyway look forward to your first long exposures with the LX200R. Should be awesomely deep and low noise. The other good thing is you can obviously monitor the sensor temperature so getting corresponding darks should be reproduceable.
The other thing is Peltiers dont take kindly to repeated switching, it ruins their efficiency and can at worst delaminate the junction.
Tony I bet your even more excited than I am to see what this mod can do.
I bought one of those peltier fridges a while back with a view to cooling the 5DH (even 10deg C would make a difference) but the thought of condensation on the interior of the camera has stopped me until summer when it may be hot and dry enough to stop condensation.
The noise comparison pictures look very encouraging.
Wow that's a stunning difference. I'm really excited waiting for your first shots. You're going to be a master at this very soon Tony, with the right equipment, right advice and rapidly improving skills. Well done.
Will try to get an image tonight....but the cooling only helps in regards to dark noise..it does not make the chip more sensative.....it should be more noticebale whist imaging in HA so Terry tells me...lol
I dont think I will see a huge difference just doing 3-4 minute exposures...but it all helps.
Mike you had your chance...you only have yourself to blame..hahahaha
Depends on what fl and F ratio I am imaging..also filters make a difference....I would say somewhere inbetween 3 and 7minutes for HA imaging...will have to try to push it further.
, what's the longest exposure you can go with your mount/setup you think?
