celstron neximage 5 yes or no

[sudden-badger]

I am thinking of getting one of these and would appreciate some constructive comments

[riklaunim]

Depends what's your budget, expectations etc... I wouldn't take it

[Leveye]

I only use older U.S.A. made Celestron products and from personal experience with this new stuff i'd look for something maybe used and way higher quality. Look on Astromart.

[sudden-badger]

Budget is basically whatever, I am looking for a decent entry level imager, I have a canon dslr and have had some fairly good (to my mind) results but thought a digitla imager may be better.

[lensman57]

Budget is basically whatever, I am looking for a decent entry level imager, I have a canon dslr and have had some fairly good (to my mind) results but thought a digitla imager may be better.

Get an ASI 120, either MC or MM, a lot more money but a lot more of a camera too.

A.G

[Pete Presland]

+1 for the ASI 120, either MC (colour) or MM (mono) great camera!

[andyhulme1966]

Hi I had two of these and had to return both, faulty, and when working the picture was pants !

Got one of these a ZWO ASI120MC Colour  month or so back and it's far better.

Took this a few days ago and it was my first bash at Saturn

Regards Andy

[PorkyB]

I have one.  I've taken some nice pics of the Moon, including some detailed ones with a 3x barlow and a decent mosaic.  Pics of Jupiter, Saturn, Mars are OK but nothing special, maybe they will be better when I have learned a bit more about processing this type of image.  I tried imaging close doubles, using the barlow, and that looks like it will work once I get the hang of things.

I bought it primarily for lunar imaging, so I'm happy

Apennine Mountains by porkyb, on Flickr

Solar System by porkyb, on Flickr

[paulastro]

Hi sudden-badger.

First let me give you some background.  I've been a mostly visual observer for over 40 years, sometimes taking photos with a DSLR, but though I'm also a keen photographer I had no ambition to take astrophotography seriously - if it took too much time away from my visual time, I wasn't interested.  This is still the case.  For processing, if it is going to take me more than 20mts to process an image, I'm not going to do that either.

I am a keen planetary observer and always fancied taking photos of Jupiter, Saturn and perhaps Mars that showed at least as much as I could see through my telescope as a record, at them moment I have a Celestron CPC 9.25inch.

Anyway, I bought a NexImage 5 having talked to FLO a few months ago and it fulfils all my requirements with ease.  Not only that, it worked the very first time I attempted it on Jupiter.  Every time I have used it since I have always been very pleased, it always shows more than I can see (and modesty forbids, but I am a good planetary observer according to some, and I never spend more than 20 mts processing time per image afterwards.  I'm sure I could do better if I spent the time and effort some people are willing to put into it, so my images are by no means the best you can get out of this device.   I haven't posted any images here as I'm not sure how to - and haven't the time.  If you contact me directly I am happy to send you my 'snaps' and you can make your own mind up if the device may be any good for your requirements.  I'm also happy to exchange phone numbers as it would be much quicker that way than keep exchanging emails as I'm rather restricted time-wise at present .

At the risk at putting peoples backs up, I do think that there is a certain amount of snobbery and  the 'you must do what I do with the equipment I use'  attitude from some folks on occasions.  When I was looking at buying the NexImage 5, I found many people expressed the view that it was no-where near good enough and I had to spend several times the amount of the NI 5 to get anything at all worthwhile.  This ignores the fact that we all have different standards in mind we would like to achieve.  We don't all want to be Damian 2nd, or haven't the resources, skill or time to even attempt it.  For my requirements the NI5 was a star buy, and I still spend most of my time at the eyepiece!  For someone who has higher ambitions, I still think it can be a useful starting point and get some nice pictures along the way to gain confidence.

Regards, Paul

[Pete Presland]

i dont think there is any risk at "putting peoples backs up", as for a "certain amount of snobbery"  or  "you must do what I do with the equipment I use"  it is all about the individuals opinion. if the question had been about QHY5l-ii, ASI120, DMK618 or any other camera there would still be a range of opinions about all of them.

most people like yourself and myself included, will recommend the equipment they have had a level of "sucess" with that they are happy with.

as for price only the purchaser can decide what constitutes value for money.

i started imaging with a SPC900 like so many, then the original Neximage and have progressed through from a DMK21au04 to the monochrome ASI120mm, with all that RGB imaging entails. thats why i recommend the ASI simply on personnal opinion.