XBox Live Camera Questions

[Knight of Clear Skies]

I've been very impressed by some of the images people have taken with modded XBox Live cameras, and am considering getting one or two myself. As I mentioned in another thread, the telescopes I have access to are on the other side of the country, so I'm thinking of buying a small telescope and cheap camera. Even if I don't get very good results, I'd gain valuable experience in using the equipment and processing software. I'd be grateful if anyone could answer a few questions.

Firstly, is the XBox Live camera currently for sale the same model, and still eqipped with a CCD rather than a CMOS sensor? As I understand it, webcams equipped with a CCD are more sensitive.

Secondly, I'd really like to try imaging some constellations. Would the XBox cam be any use for this, using its original lens? (This is why I'm considering getting two of them.) I did find a thread where someone had tried this, but the image links themselves are now dead.

Finally, are there other cheap alternatives to the XBox cam?

[burger]

To be honest, i paid £2 for mine and only had my scope a few weeks so no idea as to how good it will be for constellations etc but had a quick go on the moon and pretty clear, but that is very bright so only having a small CCD might struggle on darker subjects.

[knobby]

I read somewhere that Blockbuster were selling them off cheaply...

[Biggazza88]

Blockbuster is selling everything cheap now it's going down!

[Knight of Clear Skies]

Digging around in other threads, I see burger only purchased theirs the other day and was able to take a very good moon pic with it, so it sounds like the model hasn't changed. I've ordered one off eBay for less than £4.

Thinking about it, I should be able to answer my other question about whether it is possible to take pictures of constellations with the unmodified camera. I'll simply stick it out the window and see if I get anything, after setting the exposure settings to 30 seconds or so.

[watersblue]

I don't think it's capable of much other than planets and the moon. I tried it on M42 and it wasn't worth the bother.

[burger]

Digging around in other threads, I see burger only purchased theirs the other day and was able to take a very good moon pic with it, so it sounds like the model hasn't changed. I've ordered one off eBay for less than £4.

Thinking about it, I should be able to answer my other question about whether it is possible to take pictures of constellations with the unmodified camera. I'll simply stick it out the window and see if I get anything, after setting the exposure settings to 30 seconds or so.

I got mine at a carboot sale so no idea how old it was, the ones on ebay look the same but obviously depends if the internals have changed

[madatter]

I bought one to try guiding, it picked up stars and locked onto one, then the clouds rolled in, still waiting for it to clear... ive got 2 more in the post, one im going to use as a polarscope webcam.

[Knight of Clear Skies]

I got mine at a carboot sale so no idea how old it was, the ones on ebay look the same but obviously depends if the internals have changed

OK thanks, fingers crossed that they haven't replaced the sensor with a CMOS one. (Even if they have, it won't be a total waste of £3.86, as the webcam in my laptop is truly awful.)

[burger]

My second one arrived this morning £4 on ebay, it is the same model as the older one I got from the carboot sale, decided to leave the IR filter on this one and check the difference when the sky is clear, so modded in 5 mins this time, screw the lens out, saw the nose cone off, didnt bother to prize the front case off.

packed away now for who how knows how long.

[Knight of Clear Skies]

Good to hear thanks.

Another related question please: has anyone tried imaging a room with the lights off, just to practise using Shapcap and stacking software? Is there any reason this wouldn't work?

[burger]

Good to hear thanks.

Another related question please: has anyone tried imaging a room with the lights off, just to practise using Shapcap and stacking software? Is there any reason this wouldn't work?

yes if you have removed the lens it would just be a blur,

[jakeybob]

Good to hear thanks.

Another related question please: has anyone tried imaging a room with the lights off, just to practise using Shapcap and stacking software? Is there any reason this wouldn't work?

Yes, as Burger mentions, you can't really see anything except a massive blur. You can point it at a light, and then cover it up to make sure it goes from a big white blur to a big black blur but that's about it.

But, seeing this reminded me of a weird effect I noticed. Once I modded the cam, I plugged it into sharpcap (indoors) to see if it was still working and there was loads and loads of banding. After thinking on it for a minute, I figured it might be 50Hz noise from the lights. Thankfully, it was, and no banding appears on anything taken under natural light. But I wonder if I did something when modding the camera that caused this? I can't remember if the effect was there *before* I modded it Maybe it's just an artefact of choosing a non-native framerate or something.

[Knight of Clear Skies]

yes if you have removed the lens it would just be a blur,

Before I remove the lens that is.