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List of suitable image sensor chips?


Cath

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Hi

Does anyone out there know of any well liked image sensor chips that are/could be used for astrophotography?

I mean the bare sensor chip itself, whether it be a CCD or CMOSS, and a minimum of say 2Mpixels. APC (DSLR) sized would be nice but smaller also considered, Single channel and/or RGB.

So any manufacturer part numbers you may know of?

We are interested in doing an open source (and DIY if you wanted/are able to do your own board - SMT soldering etc) super duper camera that people can customize to suit their own needs (ie, built-in wifi and/or ethernet, lossless image compression, spare input/output ports, you name it).

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In no particular order, here are some of the most used Sony CCD sensors:

ICX274 2MPix colour/mono

ICX413AQ 6MPix superHAD colour

ICX453AQ another 6MPIx superHAD colour

ICX674ALG 2.8MPix exview (one of the newer chips)

ICX694ALG 6MPIx exview (also quite new)

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For planetary you need a fast high-gain 8-bit machine vision camera. For DS - cooled, slow low-gain 16-bit camera.

Really ? Can you make that distinction ?

I am no Ex-spurt but fast/slow low/high gain has little to do with what you are capturing, it surely has more to do with 8/10/12/14/16 bit (bigger is better), small pixel size (smaller is better), and the chip's sensitivity (more sensitive, quicker/easier to capture) ?.

Cooling is dependant on how inherently noisy, and how sensitive the chip is. Usually, with very long exposures (for DSO's), I agree, it's probably best to keep the chip cooled.

Please can you elucidate further,

Paul

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Really ? Can you make that distinction ?

That's what is used for Solar System and Deep Space imaging. Planets are captured with machine vision cameras in 8-bit output at high framerates while DS cameras are equipped with 16 bit A/D and produce 16 bit output. As DS exposures are long - cameras are cooled.

8-bit capture uses higher gain values. 16 bit lower gain - in both cases gain must have correct value to avoid quantization errors. Small pixels aren't needed and usually aren't desired as small pixels tend to have worse performance. Resolution is matched with Barlows. Sensitivity, read noise, dark current is also important.

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Check my catalog: http://www.rkblog.rk.edu.pl/astro/kamery-ccd/

Some sensors have public sheets, some only limited data. Aside of sensor electronics also matter. For planetary you need a fast high-gain 8-bit machine vision camera. For DS - cooled, slow low-gain 16-bit camera.

Thank you Riklaunim, your blog is a really nice source of info! .. Well done!

Yes we knew we'd have trouble getting the datasheets for some sensor chips, it can be a common with various other chip types. SOC processors are another pain when it comes to datasheets. Darned companies.

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The most interesting sensors now are e2v Ruby CMOS sensors, and also CMOSIS big (mono) CMOS sensors.

oh OK, thank you.

They seem to be 1.3Mpix, which is a bit less than we wanted, but they do have good QE (>= 70%). Very easy interface to the sensor though.

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If you need more then CMV2000 has 2.2mpix and CMV4000 has 4.2mpix. e2v Ruby line is smaller but has one of the highest QE (~70% and ~80%). CMV4000 costs around 700 EUR, older "sapphire" e2v sensors around 200 EUR. Newer from ruby line - unknown (quite likely more). Aptina/Micron sensors would be around 20 - 40 EUR, but those are not the hottest thing for astrophotography aside of guiding.

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The EV76C661 running at full 60fps at full resolution (1280*1024) at 10-bit/pixel would need on board memory to buffer the frames you wanted as that is a lot of data (786Mbit/s) for real time. But on board frame memory is what we want anyway so that's not a real problem.

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The replacement cost of the Canon 5D mkii full frame sensor is £1200 ie if you damage the sensor you may as well buy a new camera lol. The specialist sensors are normally produced in smaller numbers and I'm surprised they aren't more expensive

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk. Blame Apple for the typos and me for the content

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The replacement cost of the Canon 5D mkii full frame sensor is £1200 ie if you damage the sensor you may as well buy a new camera lol.

I guess won't be using the Canon sensor then lol.

How much are the sensors used in the cheaper Canon's?

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I've only had the 5d mkii sensor fail so I couldn't guess the cheaper prices. They probably arent the best suited chip for astro work any way

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk. Blame Apple for the typos and me for the content

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What an interesting thread :Envy: I suspect astrocam manufacturers have a keen eye on upcoming new sensors, necessary circuitry to read them and potential/ affordable markets - check 'em out.

I'm surprised by the constant bigger-is-better' blanket answer for astroimaging just because tardy DSLRs have them. This is perhaps the reason some imagers can't even be bothered to centre the target ! I vote small sensors + high QE and optics matched to the target :cool:

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If you are interested in new developments, it would be worth investigating the range of EMCCD sensors, such as e2v's L3Vision chips., though there others.

Not cheap, but i am sure an interesting way forward for high speed, low light imaging.

Callum

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Hi

Does anyone out there know of any well liked image sensor chips that are/could be used for astrophotography?

I mean the bare sensor chip itself, whether it be a CCD or CMOSS, and a minimum of say 2Mpixels. APC (DSLR) sized would be nice but smaller also considered, Single channel and/or RGB.

So any manufacturer part numbers you may know of?

We are interested in doing an open source (and DIY if you wanted/are able to do your own board - SMT soldering etc) super duper camera that people can customize to suit their own needs (ie, built-in wifi and/or ethernet, lossless image compression, spare input/output ports, you name it).

Have you come across the Audine project.. sounds very similar but out of date now.. it might be worth hooking up with the people who put that together.

http://www.astrosurf.com/audine/English/index_en.htm

Derek

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If you are interested in new developments, it would be worth investigating the range of EMCCD sensors, such as e2v's L3Vision chips., though there others.

Not cheap, but i am sure an interesting way forward for high speed, low light imaging.

Hi Callum

The e2v Ruby sensor that riklaunim pointed me towards would be a nice one to use.

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