£650 Budget for a Planetary cam

[Mamsoth]

Hi everyone, thinking of getting a new planetary camera, (I've been wanting it for ages but an unexpected expenditure in the garden meant I've had to wait a bit longer than originally expected ), anyway, I've almost got enough now and I was thinking of getting the mono Dmk618.as, I've heard alot of good stuff about it.

However, because I've had quite a bit of a break from imaging over the last few months I'm wondering if there are any other contenders for king of lunar/planetary cams I may have missed? Or (for those savvy few in the know) anything about to be released in the next 6mnths or so? When I come to buying it, I could stretch to about £650,

To sum it up, if you had a max budget of £650 and were looking for the best lunar/planetary camera (available now or in the near future) what would you buy?

Cheers

Matt

[gary1968]

I am hearing a lot of good reports about the Flea 3......... not sure you can get it here officially but you can get it from the States for about $600 US. As for the DMK with the 618 chip, there are a lot of good images on here taken with that camera, but being mono means a lot more work to get the image, but it is worth the extra effort IMO.... I dont have the time or extra cash required for mono imaging so opted for the DFK618.

If I had the cash, I would probably go for the Flea 3, it is what Damian Peach is using these days.

HTH,

Gary

[riklaunim]

There would be no difference between a TIS DMK and PGR Flea 3 with ICX618 sensor in imaging. Flea 3 is faster, but you have to have a Firewire 800 port which isn't easy. The extra speed is usable only for solar and lunar imaging. Don't buy things only for it name - ask questions first.

If you want a good planetary setup go with DMK21AU618 (or Flea 3 ICX618) and a set of filters (RGB + bright visual+infrared filters) + atmospheric dispersion corrector. That's the best thing at the moment.

As for planetary + lunar. There is Flea 3 with ICX445 (Firewire or ethernet - GigE) which can be such camera (it supports faster frame rate for a smaller frame - for planetary imaging - and TIS cams don't have that + they are old). There is also USB2 Chameleon, but it can record up to around 25FPS... but I would say ICX618 for planetary and small lunar/solar would be better (especially if you want planets mostly).

Within £650 there may be some future cameras this year - but that's still far away and untested (I'm counting on e2v Ruby line of sensors).

[dmahon]

Isn't there a USB3 version of the Flea 3 now?

[Black Knight]

Isn't there a USB3 version of the Flea 3 now?

Yes http://www.ptgrey.com/products/flea3_usb3/flea3_usb3_camera.asp

[Capricorn]

http://www.ptgreystore.com/products/161-flea3-13mp-color-usb-30-sony-imx035.aspx

[Mamsoth]

Thanks guys. I was looking at the flea 3 usb 3, which would be handy as I've got no firewire connections on my laptop. I also had a look at the ruby sensor which made me wish I knew more about sensors . Also looked at the skynyx 2.0 but I'm not confident enough to go for something like that, at those prices I'd feel better going for the safer option (which appears to be the dmk).

Thanks again

Matt