CCD buying time. Advice needed please.

[Paliadon]

Okay guys the time has come to finally fork out the dollars and buy a decent CCD camera. I am particularly interested in deep sky imaging, nebulas, galaxies, etc. I am currently leaning toward the QSI 583wsg. I was wondering if anyone has one or has any experience with it. So far, from what I have researched (and for my budget) this one would get me through the next few years.

Any suggestions or ideas would be welcomed. Thanks again.

Cheers,

Kris J. Parker

Seymour, Victoria, Australia

[rfdesigner]

I have recently aquired the Atik 383L+ (still in wrapping paper awaiting my birthday)

I was able to test it prior to it being wrapped.

What I found is that there is some 'over-speccing' going on with these Kodak chips. Whilst most of the cameras with these devices including the QSI one are claiming 7~8e readout noise, that is unlikely to be what you'll get.

Unlike most of the other cameras on the market which do seem to more or less achieve advertised specification the KAF8300 based cameras are coming in much nearer 10e readout noise. Mine is very nearly bang on 10e noise.

The only manufacturer that seems to get close to 7e is Morovian Instruments, but there appear to be rumours that they get to pick and choose their KAF8300 chips (please don't quote me I am keeping an open mind here and so should you)

Also the 8300 chip is fractionally non-linear. So if you want to do something like photometry you'll need some way of both measuring the curve (not very hard, just a fiddle) and a package that allows you to 'un bend' the distortion.

On balance I think the 8300 based cameras are very competative for price vs overall capability. The only competition in my opinion are the new ICX694 cameras but they're several hundred pounds dearer and if you've got a long focal length scope you would suffer from the even smaller pixels. They are however 5e noise (and I would expect them to actually be 5e) and QE above 70% peak.

Hope this is some use.

Derek