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Very cheap PGR Firefly 0.3 mono on ebay

riklaunim

By riklaunim
in The Astro Lounge

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Rihard

Rihard

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Hi Riklanium,

that looks like a wonderful price.

I have seen your website and you have produced some interesting sharp pictures with this camera. Saturn looks great.

How do you compare this little cheap camera with more popular cams like the SPC900NC or the DMK's?

I was looking for a beginner's Mono as they should give a better defined output and this seems a pretty good value so ...

Did you buy yours from eBay too?

Cheers.

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riklaunim

riklaunim

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I had a test set of cameras from Point Grey. The Firefly 0.3 is a machine vision camera, not a webcam so you have no compression and fast framerate. Compared to for example DMK21AU618 - leading planetary camera - FireFly has a less sensitive sensor and lower gain values (noticeably lower) which makes Saturn imaging much harder than with DMK (much dimmer view).

At that ebay price it's a very handy opportunity for people to try mono imaging. Maybe not jump from color to mono imaging instantly but try planetary luminance imaging with orange filter, red/infrared for Moon, cheap UV filters on Venus etc.

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Rihard

Rihard

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I had a test set of cameras from Point Grey. The Firefly 0.3 is a machine vision camera, not a webcam so you have no compression and fast framerate. Compared to for example DMK21AU618 - leading planetary camera - FireFly has a less sensitive sensor and lower gain values (noticeably lower) which makes Saturn imaging much harder than with DMK (much dimmer view).

At that ebay price it's a very handy opportunity for people to try mono imaging. Maybe not jump from color to mono imaging instantly but try planetary luminance imaging with orange filter, red/infrared for Moon, cheap UV filters on Venus etc.

Thanks for your reply Rik.

You say Saturn is difficult to image with this cam, however your results are better then my xbox webcam attempts :)

If the camera output is uncompressed I assume the data is of better quality and all data is there, thus giving better results then any common webcam?

Would this device work with popular tools like Sharpcap or in Unix Like OS's?

The price is very appealing alright, but I've noticed that the same company makes several cameras.

Are there other cameras worth a look at for people with low budgets ;) ?

I think I'm gonna try to buy this one on eBay anyway. It seems worth it for that price.

Dziekuje Bardzo :)

Clear Skies

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Stu_2011

Stu_2011

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I had a test set of cameras from Point Grey. The Firefly 0.3 is a machine vision camera, not a webcam so you have no compression and fast framerate. Compared to for example DMK21AU618 - leading planetary camera - FireFly has a less sensitive sensor and lower gain values (noticeably lower) which makes Saturn imaging much harder than with DMK (much dimmer view).

At that ebay price it's a very handy opportunity for people to try mono imaging. Maybe not jump from color to mono imaging instantly but try planetary luminance imaging with orange filter, red/infrared for Moon, cheap UV filters on Venus etc.

Hi

Would it work well with a PST with a bit of modification?

Thanks

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

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riklaunim

riklaunim

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You say Saturn is difficult to image with this cam, however your results are better then my xbox webcam attempts :)

ORGB image - where bright orange filter was used as a luminance "rescuing" the image (blue was very very dim and noisy). A lot of processing/imaging to get it.

If the camera output is uncompressed I assume the data is of better quality and all data is there, thus giving better results then any common webcam?

It's better :)

Would this device work with popular tools like Sharpcap or in Unix Like OS's?

It works with FireCapture (Windows, free).

The price is very appealing alright, but I've noticed that the same company makes several cameras.

Are there other cameras worth a look at for people with low budgets ;) ?

Didn't saw anything from PGR or other similar company on ebay lately. Usually the prices aren't that low. Cheapest good machine vision cameras for Solar System imaging that may show up on market soon can have a base price around 180 - 200 GBP (tests pending, software missing). Everything else costs more than that.

Would it work well with a PST with a bit of modification?

If you use non-collar nosepiece it should focus without a Barlow. It has a MICRON CMOS sensor and those sensors like to get Newton rings with H-alpha scopes (they are in my test shots) - it seems to be related to some units of those sensors. So there is no guarantee H-alpha will work nicely... but if it would it would be a handy small camera. It has a "companding mode" which could be good for prominence imaging.

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beamish

beamish

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$10 shipping from Canada plus $24 for the cam !! Cripes guys this is a great llittle cam to start RGB imaging. Riks captures of Sun & luna are great and has been said already, his "poor" Saturn captures ought to sway any undecided folk.- HELL'S BELLS ! I'm even tempted mesen !!

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beamish

beamish

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You have a Flea 3 already :grin:

I know but I find it sooo hard to resist a bargain sometimes - what can I say ????? what a great find !

....................must resist, besides it'd probably stay in the box for a year before a clear sky would allow me to use it :)

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beamish

beamish

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Stuart don't be too upset- given what Rik has said about it I doubt it would do very well with a UV/Violet filter, having said that according to the thread over on CN I was under the impression they had about 400+ to sell

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seigfriedwilson

seigfriedwilson

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Stuart don't be too upset- given what Rik has said about it I doubt it would do very well with a UV/Violet filter, having said that according to the thread over on CN I was under the impression they had about 400+ to sell

450 odd when I looked yesterday. Maybe.someone snapped them all up? Watch out on Astro Buy Sell!

Seigfried

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riklaunim

riklaunim

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Stuart don't be too upset- given what Rik has said about it I doubt it would do very well with a UV/Violet filter, having said that according to the thread over on CN I was under the impression they had about 400+ to sell

Mono sensor doesn't have UV block like color one. The QE looks also relatively good so at limited resolution it should work on Venus in UV.

They may reappear if they have more of them.

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Rihard

Rihard

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FYI:

Mine arrived just 3 days ago (it was picked up by my brother only today as I'm stuck at work :) )

So it took just over a week to be delivered from the new world via standard post. And the customs did not harass me off this time! :D

So far it seems a reliable seller.

Can't wait to give it a try.

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Stu_2011

Stu_2011

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FYI:

Mine arrived just 3 days ago (it was picked up by my brother only today as I'm stuck at work :) )

So it took just over a week to be delivered from the new world via standard post. And the customs did not harass me off this time! :D

So far it seems a reliable seller.

Can't wait to give it a try.

I think mine is at the local post office now, will pick it up tomorrow. Would be interested in how you get on. What are your plans for it?

Stu

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

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Rihard

Rihard

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I think mine is at the local post office now, will pick it up tomorrow. Would be interested in how you get on. What are your plans for it?

Stu

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Hi,

I do not have much experience with Astro Imaging (at least not with scopes + webcams / mono cameras) as I am currently living in a small apartment in the centre of a light-polluted and very humid town, however I had this bug of buying a mono cam to image Venus... so I guess I'll try some moon / planetary imaging.

The forecast is promising for tonight, so I might call a cab and go somewhere outside the city with my equipment and try it out.

I also have to try out a brand new SPC900NC and the tracking motors on some DSO with my dSLR, but I guess I will do that another time :)

This new mono camera has a serial port, so with a friend we are looking into some input that might trigger long exposures, in that case it might

be of use with some small DSOs or just parts of them.

Keep us posted with your results when you'll try yours :) :)

Clear Skies !

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