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Phil dyer pd colour camera

shirva

By shirva
in EEVA - Reports

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shirva

shirva

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Thought i would treat myself....carols avairy near completion just perch's ect to go in soThat's me ordered the Phil dyer pd cctv camera 104 pounds..had searched the web and could get it for near same price but would rather spend the money with somebody in the hobby....Davy....ps don't hold breath for review been craps weather here fir months...

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Macavity

Macavity

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At ~£100 it looks a *great* deal - Spotted his website a few days ago.

Will be interested to hear of your experience, Davy! ;)

Frankly I have rather held off buying a £50+ Super Had / Exview "board" CCTV camera, with no access to control of gain, gamma, no / unclear possibilities of integration etc. THIS one has the attraction of integration, smaller pixels - (planetary) colour particularly. :)

My Watec 120N+ was an indulgence. A fine thing, but realistically, I am unlikely to upgrade (can't afford!) the €700+ WAT-910HX. That would give 4x the sensitivity - Real time images upto the sky background? But the "word on the web" suggests VIDEO astronomers are looking for "alternative technologies"? As they say on "Dragon's Den", I'm OUT... :D

My erstwhile bosses used the word "commodity" a lot re. replacement of expensive stuff! But I sense VIDEO astronomy will move from less-unavailable 1/2" chips to more-available (colour) 1/3" chips. Market forces? Better buy up on "Astro-relevant" stuff, while it's still... available? :p

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shirva

shirva

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Hi Chris ..had read that on the web the 1/2 sensor is being fazed out..as you said at 100 quid its a good deal and worh a punt....also same as you if I found a decent board camera I would self build with a Peltier fan config the Sammy is too restrictive in its own casing to adequately Peltier cool better using just a fan mod as I have tempted to fan cool it when I get it..

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shirva

shirva

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No even out the box yet....orders orders orders got home after saying I was nipping into Tesco did she need anything """ no""" great I thought down rd n a king donner kebab for my dinner before a chap brings two pair of Chinese quail for her avairy between 7.30 -8pm...not so sits down and its '''I need to go to Tesco but I don't know what I want......grrrrrr....its no 5 to 7 n just in no dinner. ..

N she never got nothing ..I give in.....then wonders why you have a little crabbit face on....Davy

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Red-Dwarf82

Red-Dwarf82

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Hi all, well finally got a couple of hours of reasonably dark sky between 9-11 to test the Phil Dyer Colour Camera. I have posted videos on you-tube so you can all judge the initial results for yourself, links are as follow's:

[Unfortunately there is an error when I try and post links, I will try and post links later]

All video's are are live feeds from the camera, unprocessed and compressed to Mpeg as captured. All are captured from the camera on to a laptop via a USB anolgue to digital video convertor dongle and recorded using very basic and standard capture software that came free with the USB dongle. The camera is set to Phil Dyers recommended standard setting.

M57 is captured at 10 seconds exposure or 512 integration

M2 is captured at 5 seconds exposure or 256 integration

M13 is captured at 5 seconds exposure or 256 integration

All are captured to demonstrate the live view capability of the camera and are over exposed for the purposes of stacking the frames to obtain a processed image. For processed images a faster exposure would be used to capture an video for processing.

As the aim was to capture live images, the exposure was increased to provide a bright but not over exposed live image. At 10 second exposure M57 displays a pleasing amount of colour and even shows the central star. Although there is a very orange background, this is in part due to the light pollution and the longer exposure for a bright live view. Lowering the exposure reduces the glow significantly.

M2 globular cluster again gives a very pleasing view picking out many more stars that would otherwise be seen with the naked eye. The resolution of the camera (752x582), while obviously not as high as your large format sensors, provides 0.8 arcseconds per pixel on a Meade LX200 10" at f6.3 which is more than enough to pick out individual stars in the cluster.

As M2, the camera provides a lovely view of M13 having sufficient resolution to pick out individual stars all the way to the centre.

As stated above, the images where taken during a brief clear spell between 9-11 and by no means in dark skies. Light pollution levels at home where these were captured are far from ideal and contribute significantly to the orange glow in the images. However, despite the less than ideal conditions the results from the camera are far better than I expected.

To be honest, having seen the example photo's on Ade Ahsford's (ScopeTest.com) review and on Phil Dyer's web page most of which are processed images, I was not expecting the live video image to be as good as it was. Allthough the deep sky objects viewed where all fairly bright and can normally be seen with the naked eye, the image was much brighter and colourful that can be ever be seen by eye.

I will try and post more video's and images as I capture them. However, I'm sure you will all agree the initial results are excellent and definately worth the £100 the camera costs.

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Nibor

Nibor

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Red,

Many thanks for the posting - the camera looks very good value and perhaps with a LP filter the orange glow could be minimised??

I shall keep an eye out for further examples of your work with this camera.

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Red-Dwarf82

Red-Dwarf82

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Red,

Many thanks for the posting - the camera looks very good value and perhaps with a LP filter the orange glow could be minimised??

I shall keep an eye out for further examples of your work with this camera.

Possibly a light pollution filter would make the view a little better although I have never been a big fan of them. The seeing was not good and images are all through a little thin cloud cover which exagerates the orange glow. I suspect a small amount of adjustment to the white balance/RGB/Gamma would also improve the glow. Given the short amount of time last night before the cloud covered the sky it was pretty much a grab and run affair.

If video is being captured for processing a final image, then you would not want as long an exposure (prefence is always for keeping exposure to a minimum). The video's were captured to demonstrate the live view potential of the camera. Any stacking of these images, being a over exposed, would only exagterate the already prevelant orange glow. Lower exposures also minimise the effect of amp glow, noise etc.

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Red-Dwarf82

Red-Dwarf82

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Red,

Many thanks for the posting - the camera looks very good value and perhaps with a LP filter the orange glow could be minimised??

I shall keep an eye out for further examples of your work with this camera.

Below is a video I didn't add before as its slightly out of focus and the camera is turned up to maximum integration. Seeing at this point was better, no orange light pollution glow but because the image is very over exposed hence the blue hue and is quite noisy. Not something I would usually show but as a reference for maximum exposure when there is not a thin cloud layer http://youtu.be/pIP_GBD4pec
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Laurie61

Laurie61

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Hi Red-dwarf, thanks for the video's. The camera looks to do a very decent job, no amp glow and smooth. Your video's are doubly useful

for me as I also have a 10" f 6.3 sct and its nice to see the image scale I would get with this camera/scope combo. :smiley:

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Nibor

Nibor

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Red,

Inspiring images!!

Out of interest - how suitable do you think the camera is for remote viewing?

ie The scope and camera outdoors (cold!!) and the monitor indoors (warm!!)

The scope would be mounted on a GOTO controlled by Stellarium and the camera connected to a separate monitor - I would need some kind of electronic focuser.

I understand that the camera settings cannot be not directly controlled by a computer but are the Phil Dyer recommended settings OK without having to make continuous adjustments depending on the objects being observed? OR does the camera adjust to the prevailing conditions automatically??

I am thinking of using my Orion (US) ED80.

Any thoughts would be appreciated!!

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johnno

johnno

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@ RED, that M57 looks like it was taken in daylight hrs, really impressed with the amount of light it can gather. and the processed ones nicely done.

@ NIBOR, you might be able to do the OSD remote box mod like on the samsungs on a long lead back into the house but just read Davy's thread and he says it can be pelco controlled but I'm not sure as it says N/A in the manual?

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Macavity

Macavity

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At the price, with versatile control, the camera certainly competes well with... anything else? (In the budget area anyway!) :)

I notice that most real-world applications (even video "finding") need SOME sort of integration. Typically even the most sensitive chips are not QUITE sensitive enough. <G> Someone noted (elsewhere) that the latest Watec 910HX with 4x more sensitivity than the 120N+ comes close to visualising "anything" in 4s real time - Down to sky limits. It has a remote controller too! AND an impressive price tag? :p

http://www.astroshop...okamera/p,33009 (For information only?) :D

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