zwo asi 174

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

1/1.2" seems a bizarre way to specify the dimensions of a sensor.  I really didn't understand what it meant until I read the "Table of sensor formats and sizes" in the wikipedia page that Michael linked to above.  That table does give the dimensions for 1/1.2" sensors.

James

But the exact dimensions depend on aspect ratio, which varies quite a bit.

[JamesF]

Quite.  That's one of the most odd things about it.  Because the stated sensor type is based on the dimensions of a different part of the camera, you might have any number of different aspect ratio sensors that would fit.  I'd have thought it far more useful to specify the size based on the linear dimensions of the sides, or the diagonal and aspect ratio.  But then I don't make cameras

James

[Amra]

Agreed, it's pretty odd. I'm not a fan of the imperial measuring system either. [emoji14]

[Astroboffin]

nice to know, ive never dealt with import tax and even if i do still going to be cheaper than buying from a retailer(hope im right lol)

Import tax = 20% plus £11 handling fee

So on £339 that would be £79 extra, I have just got stung with a bracket I bought from the USA

They are clamping down on items that especially say that it is a gift on the package, as mine did.

AB

[Astroboffin]

If you are really unlucky then you could get stung for VAT @ 20% and duty tax @ up to 17% but as stated on the HMRC site digital camera are exempt from duty from most countries outside the EU, except maybe china !!

So,it all depends on how good a day the inspector is having when your goods arrive. or

AB

[ronin]

Strange "sizing", I went and dug out 5 data sheets before finding one that said: 11.34mm x 7.13mm.

And it wasn't a Sony data sheet either, who it seems make the chip.

[Astroboffin]

All info here

http://www.dutycalculator.com/country-guides/Import-duty-taxes-when-importing-into-the-United-Kingdom/

[sooot]

Import tax = 20% plus £11 handling fee

So on £339 that would be £79 extra, I have just got stung with a bracket I bought from the USA

They are clamping down on items that especially say that it is a gift on the package, as mine did.

AB

cheers ab. What did they do send you a letter?

[Astroboffin]

cheers ab. What did they do send you a letter?

When the item gets to the UK, it goes to the Royal Mail, they then put a card through your door when the deliver your normal mail, on that card it sates that they are holding an item for you as there are unpaid fees, and the fees are listed, you then either have to go into your local sorting office and pay and they will hand over the package, or, as I did make payment online and they will then re deliver it as soon as possible.

Let's hope nobody gets stung

I bought a finder bracket that was £39.99 plus £5 from FLO (£44.99) delivery here in the UK, I bought it from USA for $42 including delivery ( £31.00 approx)

When it got here I had another £11.20 fee to pay, It was still cheaper by £2.80 .....but not worth the hassle and waiting time,

There is a sliding scale on fees depending on the value of the item.

Regards

AB

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Ouch, those are pretty high. Handling fees seem to be outrageous in the UK. What also always surprises me is that it is MUCH cheaper to send a package from the Netherlands to the UK than the reverse. Likewise, my bank charges less than half the fee to transfer money to a UK bank than UK banks charge to send money to the Netherlands (Transfer within the eurozone is free!). But then we do not have bank-manager jokes (I wonder why).

[sooot]

Looks promising

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

That does look good. If it performs like that for me it might even oust the DMK21 (the AS I130MM has already been axed)

[long_arms]

I ordered one yesterday   
For me at least, this looks like the camera to beat for Lunar. I'm also hoping to enter the scary, bright world of Solar so I hope its good for that also   

I know its kind of a niche, but another big strength for this camera will be closeup images of the ISS. I love chasing it myself! 
Extremely short shutter speeds allows you to make the most of the extreme frame-rates!
The ASI120 was good but its not easy with a 1/3" sensor!  Much easier to get the ISS on the bigger sensor = loooads more frames + Higher frame rate. Global shutter may help as well. No downsides? Slightly bigger pixels maybe, not an issue imo. 

Here's an example of what I got with the ASI120. 

I used a 200p with its stock 2x barlow and around 3ms shutter speed (hence ability to make the most of the ASI174MM frame rates)

[Amra]

Wow that is just awesome!

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Great stuff long_arms. I am pretty sure the new camera will be great for solar. Other cameras with the same chip produce great results

[sooot]

WOOHOOO mines on its way

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Mine is on its way too :blob1:

[Amra]

Mine too! Now how about some clear skies?

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Mine too! Now how about some clear skies?

They will arrive a few days ahead of the arrival of the cameras. The cameras themselves will arrive amidst hail, snow, sleet, blizzards and wall to wall cloud 

[JamesF]

Regarding payment of duty, I've been hit in a few different ways now.  Sometimes I've had to pay the courier in person when the item was delivered; sometimes I've been sent an invoice by the courier before the item has even entered the country and once I was sent an invoice for the VAT and duty a couple of months after the item was delivered.  Most recently I got a message left for me (somewhat like when an SMS message is sent to a landline) giving the waybill number and amount due and instructions to visit the courier's website to pay.  That wasn't at all convincing.  At first I thought it was some sort of fraud attempt.  It all seems a bit random.

James

[Astroboffin]

I ordered one yesterday   

For me at least, this looks like the camera to beat for Lunar. I'm also hoping to enter the scary, bright world of Solar so I hope its good for that also   

I know its kind of a niche, but another big strength for this camera will be closeup images of the ISS. I love chasing it myself! 

Extremely short shutter speeds allows you to make the most of the extreme frame-rates!

The ASI120 was good but its not easy with a 1/3" sensor!  Much easier to get the ISS on the bigger sensor = loooads more frames + Higher frame rate. Global shutter may help as well. No downsides? Slightly bigger pixels maybe, not an issue imo. 

Here's an example of what I got with the ASI120. 

01802gif.gif

I used a 200p with its stock 2x barlow and around 3ms shutter speed (hence ability to make the most of the ASI174MM frame rates)

i just hope you have a mega fast computer with the best USB 3.0 bus invented, to get the most out of the high frame rates. i think an quad core would be the absolute minimum.

AB

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

You will need a fast computer and good USB host controller. Cables should be good quality, and you might want to consider a powered USB hub. IFor me, peak frame rate is not the most important issue (although acquiring 500 frames in just over 3 seconds would be GREAT). Even with a more modest machine, the massive increase in resolution coupled with fast shutte, low readout noise and 10% more sensitivity compared to the little DMK21 I have been using will be a massive boost in imaging full solar disks. I might be adept at getting good mosaics of 40+ panes, but the option of needing just 4-6 panes at the same final resolution or 8-12 at optimal resolution of the scope would be just great

[JamesF]

I'm not at all convinced that significant CPU power is required to use these cameras.  Depending on what you're doing there's probably very little processing involved at capture time.  Mostly it's shifting data from the USB hardware to memory to the graphics card and disk.  Some of that probably won't even involve the processor at all.  What we need now is for large SSDs to become filthy cheap...

Of course once you want to process the data, having umpteen million frames is going to take a while without a fast machine

James

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

I'm not at all convinced that significant CPU power is required to use these cameras.  Depending on what you're doing there's probably very little processing involved at capture time.  Mostly it's shifting data from the USB hardware to memory to the graphics card and disk.  Some of that probably won't even involve the processor at all.  What we need now is for large SSDs to become filthy cheap...

Of course once you want to process the data, having umpteen million frames is going to take a while without a fast machine

James

You are right about the capture-time requirements on the CPU. A good USB3 controller and fast disk are more important.

Might run some actual processing stuff on Zeus, our resident 64-core machine

[Astroboffin]

I'm not at all convinced that significant CPU power is required to use these cameras.  Depending on what you're doing there's probably very little processing involved at capture time.  Mostly it's shifting data from the USB hardware to memory to the graphics card and disk.  Some of that probably won't even involve the processor at all.  What we need now is for large SSDs to become filthy cheap...

Of course once you want to process the data, having umpteen million frames is going to take a while without a fast machine

James

Sorry but I completely disagree, even with the ASI120mc (USB 2.0 version) you need a good spec computer with good USB bus to capture anywhere near the maximum fps at max resolution, Especially if you are using long repeater USB cables, which a lot of people do, I found that out the hard way, I had a dual core pentium with 3gig ram IBM thinkpad, and would only get 20 fps at max res, I upgraded to a quad core with 4 gig ram, and that went up to 30 fps, still not the maximum 35 fps advertised for this camera at max res.

So for this new USB 3.0 ASI174 camera at max res and the amount of data that will pass through the USB 3.0 bus, you will need a mega powerful processor, agreed if you use the lower resolutions then yes, you may be correct, but I am only talking about the max resolution and getting close to the the maximum fps advertised for the new camera, there will be very few people that will honestly achieve that, unless the computer is absolutely top spec, with a superb USB 3.0 bus, which a lot of lower end computers do not have, they may advertise having USB 3.0, but how good is the actual USB bus installed.

Sorry but I have to disagree, but with respect.

AB