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Spare £18000 anyone?

CowFish

By CowFish
in Discussions - Cameras

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CowFish

CowFish

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Pocket change to some, Life changing windfall for others..

Wonder if its any good?

I would hope so for that money. I cant imagine spending just over £18000 on a camera only to find out its not the be all and end all.

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ollypenrice

ollypenrice

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I guess many of their customers will be institutions.

Plenty of people pay over eighty grand for a car which the law and the speed cameras will not allow them to exploit. An owner can harmlessly exploit this camera on any clear nght.

To put the price of this instrument into perspective it costs approximately one third of the difference in price between a standard S class Mercedes and a high spec one. Well, you wouldn't want to be rattled and shaken in the basic one, now would you?

More money than sense? It's all around us, isn't it? But nobody is going to buy an Apogee to show off to their neighbours. Maybe they love the night sky.

Olly

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sologuitarist61

sologuitarist61

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It is clearly impossible to justify the cost of this camera :D how can anything cost that much without it being over the top?

I really do get fed up with the high prices we are expected to pay on astro and photographic gear. I know they don't sell in bulk, but that is really no excuse for making you pay many times more than the cost of the constituent parts and decent profit margin :(

I know there will now be a wave of people now saying how wrong I am, and how people have to make a living and yes, I agree, but at least price things according to their cost and a profit margin, rather than how much the market will bear.

Rant over :p

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JamesF

JamesF

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It is clearly impossible to justify the cost of this camera :D how can anything cost that much without it being over the top?

I really do get fed up with the high prices we are expected to pay on astro and photographic gear. I know they don't sell in bulk, but that is really no excuse for making you pay many times more than the cost of the constituent parts and decent profit margin :(

I know there will now be a wave of people now saying how wrong I am, and how people have to make a living and yes, I agree, but at least price things according to their cost and a profit margin, rather than how much the market will bear.

Rant over :p

Then why is no-one else producing the same thing at "the cost of the components plus a reasonable profit margin" and putting every single other astro camera manufacturer out of business?

James

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ollypenrice

ollypenrice

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You'd need a good scope to go with that - 3" focuser, 2" wouldn't cover it. 36mm square sensor - that's bigger than 35mm full-frame. :(

Gina, please don't let that deter you from buying me the Apogee; our TEC 140 has a 4 inch focuser... :D

Sologuitarist, I really don't think astronomical equipment is all expensive and nor do I think margins are excessive. These cameras are difficult and expensive to make. Let's just find a perspective. This image was taken by a professional astronomer and genius using the Anglo Australian Telescope not many years ago.

http://messier.seds.org/Pics/More/m20adfmw.jpg

And this one was taken by an amateur numpty (myself) two years ago using a 140mm refractor on an EQ6 with a £2.4k Atik CCD.

http://ollypenrice.smugmug.com/Other/Nebulae-and-clusters/trifid-finished/928841121_dugLY-X3.jpg

In that perspective was my gear really all that expensive? By choosing to drive a Fiat Panda (which actually I love) rather than the Zafira I had before it I could pretty well pay for my observatory.

Olly

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ollypenrice

ollypenrice

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If I had that money I'd get myself a holiday of a lifetime 'over there', and during that stay I'd pick it up for a mere 11.700USD, and just chuck it in the bag for the flight home!

That's not fair; you wouldn't even have to pay for the flight!

Olly

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ollypenrice

ollypenrice

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Expect to see this CCD featured in a photo of "the author's setup" in a future article of "beginner's intro to astrophotography" in AN magazine.

An amusing point, I'll grant you! :( However, I've just contributed a piece to a Beginners' CCD Imaging 'Focus' in Astronomy Now and my camera is an Atik4000 costing less than a sixth of the price of the one under discussion. Nik, who wrote the main feature, uses a QSI.

A guest said recently that he was thinking of writing to a journalist who writes extensively about DSLR imaging to say that he felt he'd wasted a lot of money buying DSLRs instead of just going for a CCD to start with.

Olly

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Chris

Chris

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"In that perspective was my gear really all that expensive? By choosing to drive a Fiat Panda (which actually I love) rather than the Zafira I had before it I could pretty well pay for my observatory". Olly

Snap-I drive a Fiat Panda and also love it! its great fun and cheap as chips which allows me some spending money on second hand astro gear. An Atik Titan is out of my league net alone this CCD:D its just best to have fun with what you can affored, Its nice to have expensive kit available though, even if its only for a wish list:D

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Jessun

Jessun

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Oh, man, another story I suppose - for another forum - but disaster holidays are quite entertaining when it wasn't your money... or relationship... or bag with Apogee camera that got lost...

I love those Holiday from Hell shows :-)

Hope you recovered Steve!

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