Herra Kuulapaa

Hi John, Yes, they (D600am and D800am) are performing very well. I've been using them in true raw mode in which all raw data manipulation has been disabled. I was actually expecting Nikon D600 to be slightly better in terms of noise based on larger pixels 6um vs 4.88um, but haven't seen any real noise difference, resolution is of course larger. http://stargazerslounge.com/topic/250891-nikon-d600-monochrome-images/ http://stargazerslounge.com/topic/256183-california-ha-nikon-d600am/

It was -19C here last night and some ice (halos) in the air so didn't bother either.

I’ve been using a CNC to remove cover glasses from D600/D800 sensors, but the issue has been the brittleness, high risk and cost of this method. You may have noticed that the cover glass material is almost like tempered glass, hard and brittle. But what if we could use it for our benefit? Issue with the Nikon FX sensors (D600/D800) is the high release temperature of cover glass resin. Enough to kill the sensor So I tested a heat shock approach with a frozen D600 sensor on molten lead bath (>330C). Cold cover glass pressed gently on molten lead so that the heat shock can work through the glass. Not a very delicate method I know and there is a risk involved, but it worked. Sensor survived it and is fine. Glass is shattered into small pieces with this method. It stayed in one piece on sensor though so I sucked it off with a vacuum cleaner without shards rolling on sensor surface/bonding wires. I really don’t know if this is a viable method in long run and what kind of risk it holds, but an interesting test anyway. I'd consider the eye protection very important if you wish to pursue this method. By the way I have one CNC processed fully working completele flat field Nikon D600 mono sensor without any use for it if anyone is interested.

I'd like to share, once again, the key points of the conversations with couple of mod attempters. 1. Do not burn your sensor - It doesn't like that. 2. Do not damage the golden bonding wires - They're in fact there for reason. 3. Do not scrape the blue/yellow border areas - There are things that are not there for aesthetics. And you are in trouble if you break any of these rules! So be careful!

Update to previous: Easier batch of Nikon D5100 was manufactured with serial 615xxxx, so based on this limited data I would advice looking into earlier models if possible.

Against all warnings I decided to buy a Daystar Quark, yes the winter is coming, and plan is to use it with monochrome Nikon D5100. I didn't have such camera anymore though so I bought a slightly used one with serial 67188xx. I have mentioned here before that manufacturing line seems to have used at least two different types/batches of cover glass resin; hard to remove and even harder stuff. This camera was done with the latter and damn it gave me a good fight. I wasn't able to get all the pieces off, so eventually I decided to leave one shard there. It's only located on the sensor frame without reaching on pixel surface so I figured it makes no sense to risk it.

Cutting glass involves usually a bending force, which then breaks the glass clean off by the cut point (like your mirror). Sensor glass is however unbendable because to bend it you'd need to bend the whole sensor chip. So, one can introduce shallow diamond cuts to the attached sensor glass, but cannot actually cut it loose like that. Then comes the heat. Glass can be shattered by a heat shock, but will it shatter a controlled way? No, not really It's important to remember that I'm talking about the Exmor sensors now. Canon sensors are easier it that sense and X-acto knives are very usefull with them.

With Exmors it's a bit more complicated; X-acto knives are useless http://stargazerslounge.com/topic/166334-debayering-a-dslrs-bayer-matrix/?p=2740457 But, it was a clear last night so I have 10 Ha subs of California

Sounds good, or bad, don't really know Which cameras you have in your mind? I've been struggling with the D800am / D600am series lately. They're so friggin hard to deglass without heat. And with heat I measured the release temperature to be +250C (my Flir only measures up to that point so it might be also over 300C). Guess if the sensor survives it? Well, it does not

Very important and good view. I personally have a tendency for speed blindness and that has had a cost effect for me. Worst thing for me seems to be also that I don’t know what I want in the end..

In this we're basically transferring currents measured in electrons. Using paint as a conductive will introduce resistor effect to the read procedure. I'm in impression that those wires are a column storage capacitor connectors, which would that the data is being read through the paint on MHz level. So what I just mean is that a raw amp level force analogy of car hifi doesn't really apply here I'm afraid. But by all means, please try it. I'd be happy to hear the results.

I doubt you'd be getting good enough conductivity. There is a reason why those wires are made of gold..

The issue usually is that even though the sensor remains at least partially working, the data processing part cannot cope with missing bits or wrong form of data (dark sensor segments). I encourage you to continue. A fully working monochrome DSLR is a very good astrophotography tool Please post some images of the sensor.

Well done, I'm really streering away from the heating solutions too, at least when working with Nikon Just be careful with the bonding wires and microwiring on the edges and you should be fine. Here is a test comparison between D800am and D600am (am stands for astromono:) http://stargazerslounge.com/topic/250891-nikon-d600-monochrome-images/page-2#entry2775253

I'm sorry to say, but it's most likely dead. It's so friggin delicate operation and one can kill the sensor so many different ways (heat, bonding wires, polishing/scratching too deep or wrong place).

Thanks Gina. It seems to work quite nice. I need to check the sensor alignment though. Right hand side image border is slightly softer than the left one if pixels are peeped. It may be a lens issue too, but just to make sure. Hmmm., right side of the image comes from left side of the sensor when looked from behind... http://www.kuulapaa.com/D800/NikonD800.jpg

It was machined off as well, but with low rev polishing tool instead of cutting tool and only with few grams of pressure. It took forever, but the most gentle approach is the best I think. Now done - Two cameras that have caused me insane amount of trouble and gray hair, and they still think they're normal D800am on the left and D600am right, tape is there just to prevent view finder catching stray light. Do I need or even have enough time to use them both?, probably I won't

I don't know if I can justify the cost to myself. This starts to be a bit too expensive hobby even though I like to experiment I haven't really tested the D800am yet so that comes next. D600am is a solid performed though: http://stargazerslounge.com/topic/250891-nikon-d600-monochrome-images/

Ok, I'm happy to inform you guys that I have a fully working and exceptionally flat field full frame Nikon D800am (astromono;) on my desk. Flat field because the sensor is absolutely flawless. And in additionally there is the same type D600am, yep I'm using that "am" on both of them to create confusion to model D810a Process was very difficult and I struggled with the cover glass removal even though the micro CNC was used. I found out that that there really is no guarantee with that method either and it resulted one dead D800 sensor But the other one is success Left reads D800 and right one D600

I've used also clear white some years ago. Didn't see any real difference, although I didn't do any comparison either. But of course black or dark color would be better if you have any stray light or street lights etc nearby. Spray it black, fingers crossed wishing it won't melt

Issue with the Nikon D600 and D800 sensors (and later models) is that the cover glass is bonded with resin/adhesive, which has a release point above the heat kill temperature of the sensor. This means that you are practically heating glass hotter than what sensor photosites can take if you are planning to use heat to release the cover glass. But now there is an alternative method, sadly it's not diy, but at least there is one: I've got some good results with micro milling. Procedure is rather simple; sensor glass is milled off with a microtool from three sides and then glass fixed to a holder to prevent it falling on sensor surface. After that the final side is cut off. Problem is that those machines and cutting tools are insanely expensive and I don't have a production scale access to them. Sensor glass is actually eating the tools and not the other way around

Some older Nikon sensors have more easily releasing resin than the modern ones, but I don't really know about the D200. Based on the fact that the D200 may not be your active camera, I say: Go ahead! BTW, I just finished the first proper tests of monochrome D600 and it really rocks!! Full frame Monochrome Nikon D600 with true dark current mode and 12nm Ha, 8x11min

Here's a monochrome D5100 sun test, with proper filtering of course. I don't have a comparison, but I have a feeling that the mono clearly out performs a regular dslr. Larger image: http://www.kuulapaa.com/Solar/1872015_AG.jpg

I bought Canon 1200D few days ago. It didn't stay long in stock though. Some people may find following flowers interesting. In color: In mono with IR, color and UV: In 950nm IR: I'm still missing pure UV pass filter, they're so damn pricey

I doubt that a CNC machining could be directly used in color filter removal. Tolerances are so small (and/or the cost of such precision machine would be sky high). However, use of the CNC like machine in slowly polishing the surface would be a whole another idea.