Toucam Pro....Worth the investment?

[togo54 (Tom)]

Although this seems to be the webcam of choice for astro imaging....is it really worth the price? Granted....a toucam pro can do 60fps and 1.3mp capabilities. Most folks are capturing avi's at 5-20 fps. Wouldn't a modded vesta work just as well?

[DRCORTEX (Lance)]

I was interested in this as well. I took my standard pc webcam, and my Fuji S5700 Digital out last night for the 30 minutes of sky that I could get ( this cloudy weather in Sydney is really starting to get me down ) for my first go at actually getting an image - any image.


Result was heaps of blank video, and heaps of blank pictures - lol.

Now as to whether the Tuocam is worth it, no idea - sorry, totally didn't answer your question - did see one going on EBay for around $100 - lot of money for a webcam, and I'd prefer something with far higher resolution.

Would a Camcorder be any better out of interest ?

ciao

Lance

[asimov (John)]

I have a toucam...One of my best investements in astronomy yet. The next CCD camera of choice would be the celestron neximage IMHO.

Merlin Had a vesta for sale a while back. I've read a bit about the Vesta's. The weapon of choice before the toucam from what I read.

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/molyned/CCD-STUFF.htm

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/molyned...f_web-cams.htm

[Robert_T]

Originally Posted by togo54

Although this seems to be the webcam of choice for astro imaging....is it really worth the price? Granted....a toucam pro can do 60fps and 1.3mp capabilities. Most folks are capturing avi's at 5-20 fps. Wouldn't a modded vesta work just as well?

Difficult question. If you're interested in imaging planets and the moon then the Toucam or similar device is more than worth the money (these can have long exposure mods, but they're really not up there when it comes to deep sky imaging). The quality of planetary/lunar images that can with some practice be produced is nothing short of amazing, and far surpasses anything amateurs could produce little more than just a few years ago. It also has the advantage you can easily share your views with friends and family. There are lot's of alternatives you could consider, but it's easier to find support and advice on the more common devices such as the Toucam, the Celestron Neximage (which is really the same at the Toucam using the same CCD chip) and the Meade LPI. They all cost much the same (esp. once you've purchased 1.25mm tube for Toucam etc), around or just over $200. When you consider this is the cost of a single mid-range eyepiece, it's a BARGAIN!

I've seen very good planetary shots taken with a modded Vesta, but couldn't comment on what's required.

cheers,

[sheeny (Al)]

Is it worth the investment?

That's a very personal question - I mean it's affected by your budget, what sort of photography you want to do, etc.

I have a ToUcam with a long exposure mod. For me, it's a worthwhile investment. I would really like to get into deep space photography, but at the moment I'm limited to setting up my scope whenever I want to observe. So for me there's not much point spending a lot of money on an SBIG camera... yet. I'm only new to astrophotography so there's lots of lessons to be learnt photographing the moon and planets on short exposures, and maybe some widefield shots on longer exposures, before I get into the long exposure long focal length stuff.

My plan is one day to be set up with an observatory so I can reasonably do deep space stuff without a lot of time spent aligning... then a better camera might be worthwhile. For now, I think the ToUcam suits me just great!

Al.

[ballaratdragons (Ken)]

Tom,

I too have the Toucam. I have used both normal mode and long exposure mode and both work excellent.

I find the Toucam very easy to use and the program is simple.

I haven't got my tracking up & running properly yet, so I got some interesting Long exposure pics using the Toucam without a scope. With tracking it would be magic!

[davidpretorius]

for accessibility to the lens to take out and then the sturdiness of the female thread to take the adapter, i ould say go the toucam.

yes it is worth it. i know you can pick up $30 web cams, but CCD is better than cmos apparently and there are just so many guys that swear by them. So $145 is well worth it and then the $30 or $40 for the adapter for prime focus.

I have worked the ring out of mine like others and it has been a very satisfying $200 investment.!!