DMK21 or a TOUCAM

[Dennis G]

A home built 8 inch dob with an Equatorial platform restricting one to luna and planetary photography I purchased a Toucam Pro II on the advice given at that time on IIS and have had reasonable results recording the moon and planets subject to atmospheric conditions. Having built a new 10 inch dob and proved its ability under better conditions, I plan to advertise the 8 inch and purchase a "better" camera, but which one?
The articles submitted to IIS re DMK 21 etc., using 640 x 460 Res as the Toucam, in mono or colour begs the question HOW MUCH BETTER when compared to the Toucam, are they?
I'm not a computer wizz and from the little experience gained over this past year recording with both telescopes and associate gear, I do not think it possible to record three identicle pictures as required using filters, which means if I want colour as a one off recording its a loss of detail that I must accept and it appears to me the Toucam can do the same job.
If you have experienced the results of both cameras your comments would be appreciated.
A final question. Has Philips produced a replacement for the Toucam Pro II?
pic recorded Harrismith June 9 10 inch Light Bucket
See article in Equipment IIS

[renormalised (Carl)]

All you need to do tri colour imaging is the DMK21 and a filter wheel or slider with your LRGB filters. Or if you want an OSC (one shot colour) camera, get yourself a DBK21...they're $50 cheaper, from Bintel...

https://www.bintelshop.com.au/welcome.htm

BTW...don't you mean your 8" dob is on an alt/az mount??. If it's on an GEM of some sort, then you'll be able to take guided shots with your camera and the mono camera with filters etc, will be your first choice.

[Matty P (Matt)]

Hi Dennis,

The DMK is superior to the ToUcam in many ways. Higher sensitvity, faster frame rate and better build quality. Although ToUcams have proven themselves to be great planetary cameras, the DMK is still a much better planetary camera.

Like renormalised has said, to create a colour image with a monochrome camera. You will need a set of RGB filters and a filter wheel. Although creating a colour image with a monochrome camera takes 3 times as long as a OSC. The final results will be much better because you are able to capture the full resolution in each colour wavelength instead of only 1/3rd of it with a ToUcam.

[AlexN]

Shortest answer.

I have a Toucam. I want a DMK.

[Screwdriverone (Chris)]

Ditto!

Shorter answer (not into 1upmanship much am I) <<doesnt count

Chris

[iceman (Mike)]

Hi Dennis,

The DMK is much more complex in terms of capturing and processing, due to the need for filters, filterwheel, changing filters, processing the channels independently and then recombining.

If you're happy with the "ease" of using the ToUcam (given computer skills etc), then the DBK (the colour version) is probably a better choice.

It still has the benefits of less noise, more sensitivity and faster framerate (no compression) than the ToUcam.
Do you know the specs of your laptop?

[kinetic (Steve)]

Hi Dennis,

A few things not mentioned yet:

Phillips do have a later version of the Toucam II, namely the
SPC900NC.
You can still get them from eBay , I got my last one about $90AUS plus about $25 postage I think,from a webshop in HongKong.

You didn't say whether you were going to/had mounted the 10 inch on
the same equatorial platform?

If yes, then my personal opinion would be, hold off on the DMK
purchase, have a play for a few months with a webcam in all
its configurations and at the same time learn the limitations of
your equatorial platform...ie is it stable enough to let you do
modded webcam long exposure shots accurately...15sec...30 sec or longer?
If so, you can be confident it would be a good platform for a better camera.
If not then it would be disappointing to have purchased the DMK
and be held back by a tracking platform limitation of some sort.
Again, this is only an opinion...

ps: and then buy the DMK!!

hope this helps,
Steve B.