The pixel sizes obviously have their advantages but FWIW, I intend to bag a couple of CCD cameras before they are no longer available.
cheers
Martin
Which CCDs are you interested in? I quite like my KAF16200. Surprisingly it works better on the CDK17 than the 16803 at about .48 arc sec/pixel.
The 16803 is still the king of imaging at this stage.
Perhaps the Sony medium format 102mp sensor may challenge it if QHY can get their hands on it (its the sensor in the Fuji GFX100 but they use spatial filtering causing star eater worse than Sony).
I will stick with SBIG as I have so much other gear that is interchangeable e.g FWs, AOs, HDMI guiders etc. I would only need to buy the actual camera so I will probably get another 16803 and a 16200.
I will stick with SBIG as I have so much other gear that is interchangeable e.g FWs, AOs, HDMI guiders etc. I would only need to buy the actual camera so I will probably get another 16803 and a 16200.
Yeah the 16803 and 16200 are the 2 best choices in my opinion.
My STX16200 arrived today courtesy FedEx. I suspect OnSemi have refined their processes over the years, as this is a remarkably clean chip (60 second dark attached) compared to my KAF16803...which wasn't too shabby!
The thermal load also seems quite a bit lower than trying to cool a KAF16803.
As you can see from the status line the chip was sitting at -30C with the cooler just idling at 63% (ambient was 23c).
I'm now rather pleased to have gone for a last generation CCD over early generation sCMOS.
A bit offtopic. I am thinking of buying a camera made by either ZWO, Rising Tech, or SVBONY. They sell through eBay, Aliexpress, Amazon, and their company websites.
I want to buy the camera without paying GST. All the mentioned selling platforms automatically charge 10% on their wares, and pass it onto the Australian govt. The smaller sellers are not covered by the Australian government agreement to charge and to pass the GST onto them. I checked the SVBONY website (it should not charge GST), but their price was no better than the GST-added price on the mentioned platforms.
It is my understanding that if you purchase it without paying the GST you’ll get hit by customs for GST anyway due to the price of most of these cameras.
Hmm, things changed soon after my posting above. Coronavirus pandemic stopped world's economies. As a result, the exchange rate of the Australian dollar dropped (from US$0.69 to US$0.57). The prices on the international e-commerce platforms jumped up by 10%.
Now, the AUD has climbed back to US$0.64. But I suspect it could be the "dead cat bounce". Should I buy now, for essentially the late 2019 non-discounted prices ? I was thinking the prices could go down because of the decreased demand. But the demand seems to be stable now...
I would be doubtful on the prices dropping much if at all right now. I suspect these companies could handle a few months of slow sales and besides I imagine it might not help that much anyway, since there's a lot more people that may no longer have the discretionary funds to buy at this time thanks to the large amount of unemployment.
I would be doubtful on the prices dropping much if at all right now. I suspect these companies could handle a few months of slow sales and besides I imagine it might not help that much anyway, since there's a lot more people that may no longer have the discretionary funds to buy at this time thanks to the large amount of unemployment.
Watching the market in the past month, I tend to concur with your conclusions. I have purchased the ZWO ASI183MC camera directly from the ZWO website. They did not charge me the additional 10% for GST like Aliexpress does. I will see if the customs charge me for GST upon the package's arrival to Australia. I paid the full price even if I thought that ZWO would still hold the traditional EOFY and EOY 10% sale. In Australian dollars, I now paid 5% more than I would pay in the end 2019 when I first thought about buying a new camera. I did not buy the camera from the known Sydney store, as their price went up in April with the AUD dropping to US$0.57, and did not go down when the exchange rate went back to US$0.65. It would cost me 25% more to buy from them. (Although I bought an ASI120MC-S from them a year ago as it was cost effective.)
The ASI6200mm Pro seems the camera to get if the budget allows but its basically not available for the next several weeks at least.
So I doubt there is any downward price pressure but only upward price pressure.
That will change later on when its no longer the newest and latest sensor.
To some degree it also seems to be an evolving product with some Cloudynights threads complaining about the M54 opening causing vignetting and now an M68 opening is now standard.
Still its performance sounds impressive. There is still a lack of good images from those who have one to be sure about it.
IMHO, the M68 would be the better adapter to go if you’re using an/OAG & FW where the adapter is 55mm away from the sensor. It’s just a more logical superset that can cater for all scopes whether it’s needed for the current scope or not.
I have the ASI6200MM wit hc M54, & an waiting for my M68 to be delivered before asking Joshua to make any further custom adapters.
I am just sitting here dreaming of having the spare cash to jump in to a 6200 mono. I am definitely due to upgrade the camera I am using and it seems like good money after bad to buy an OSC APS-C sized camera as a stepping stone when I have a scope that seems to cover a FF sensor nicely (As best I can tell by putting an older FF DSLR with bigger, more forgiving pixels on it)
I am keen to use that time to see how the 6200 calibrates, after all the hoops and highjumps involved in nicely calibrating images from my ASI294. I even manged to dial out the background colour blotches they produce in really heavily stretched images with my latest experiment, but flats have to be done very carefully to achieve it.
Add to that I am interested to see how the ZWO 2" filters go, some of the older ones showed halos and other oddities that would steer me toward spending up bigger on Chromas or Astrodons, at least for NB.
I have to be frank that I don’t think the 2” ZWO filters work too well with the ASI6200MM. I’m having reflections which are difficult to calibrate out. Note that 2” mounted filters are really only 43mm worth of glass placed approx 45mm away from the sensor.
I’m seriously considering 50mm unmounted alternatives (& putting up my 2” ZWO filters for sale). It would work better for smaller sized sensors.
I have to be frank that I don’t think the 2” ZWO filters work too well with the ASI6200MM. I’m having reflections which are difficult to calibrate out. Note that 2” mounted filters are really only 43mm worth of glass placed approx 45mm away from the sensor.
I’m seriously considering 50mm unmounted alternatives (& putting up my 2” ZWO filters for sale). It would work better for smaller sized sensors.
I used to us 2 inch unmounted Astrodon filters on my STL11 mono years ago. No issues.
I currently use Astrodon Gen 2, 50mm square as I need them for my Proline 16803 and there are no issues with other smaller sensors.
A high quality full frame 61mp sensor like that may need top notch filters.
From what I have gleaned so far from Cloudynights the Chroma Filters are also very good. Antlia is another filter maker that seem half the price of Astrodons (Don has sold his filter business but they are still selling them). Astronomiks seem very good, see Stronmanmike's images for that).
Whoops, I miscalculated. The filters are more like 22.5mm from the sensor, not 45mm.
Using Astronomy Tools, with my scope (250mm/2500mm) & with the ASI6200MM, if the filter is 22.5mm from the sensor, then I’d need at least 45.14mm sized filters. So uncounted probably works fine but mounted may be too small.
My Proline camera has the sensor 21.5mm deep in the camera and the filter wheel is 21mm thick with the filters roughly half way so that would be 33mm.
For full frame 50mm round would work.
Its tricky as you have to know what the clear aperture of the mounted filter is.
45mm is a fairly long way.
That’s assuming you use a ZWO filter wheel.
I use my FLI one with mu ASI 183mm Pro.
Not that the tiny sensor outs any stress on the peformance of the filters sizewise.