QHY8L Pro...yes or no.

[paul mc c]

I am looking at this as an upgrade from my dslr........for under £ 500,what are thoughts yes or no.

I know mono is best,but with our weather osc is my best choice.

Thanks in advance Paul.

[Starflyer]

They were very good in their day, and I used to recommend them as a step up from a DSLR.  You can pick up a used 294MC Pro for a bit more (~ £750) and it'll perform far better; less noise and better sensitivity.  They also come up quite regularly secondhand as people upgrade to bigger sensors, that's where my money would go if I were upgrading from a DSLR.

[redfox1971]

Worst decision I ever made buying one new didn't last 12 months before going wrong ,i sent it back to qhy and it cost more to get it posted back than to send it to them had exact same problem 6 months later they said the read out chip was at fault maybe try resoldering connection points,won't by qhy again have owned a zwo asi 1600 for 2yrs now no problems and lot more use.

[JSeaman]

I can't say I had good experiences with QHY's products, 12 months is about right and that included the QHY8. I too am now on the ZWO ASI 1600 and can't recommend it enough

[tooth_dr]

Personally wouldn’t be my choice of model Paul, but aside from that, I’ve owned QHY products for several years and found them to be no more problematic than any other brand.  In fact my least reliable camera is my ZWO120.  

[Adam J]

On 17/04/2021 at 19:04, paul mc c said:

I am looking at this as an upgrade from my dslr........for under £ 500,what are thoughts yes or no.

I know mono is best,but with our weather osc is my best choice.

Thanks in advance Paul.

What's your focal length? 

[whitfieldp]

On 17/04/2021 at 19:04, paul mc c said:

I am looking at this as an upgrade from my dslr........for under £ 500,what are thoughts yes or no.

I know mono is best,but with our weather osc is my best choice.

Thanks in advance Paul.

It should be a decent enough camera if it's been treated well. My QHY9 mono is still going strong after 6 years so there's nothing inherently wrong with the older QHY CCD cameras. The videos I've seen suggest the ZWO cameras have a weaker cooler than mine (QHY8Pro looks to be specced the same) but in the UK that's not a biggie. Optimally you'd be using longer subs with the QHY8 versus 12-14 bit CMOS - if your mount can handle it then great, if not then the approach with lots of shorter subs will work better. CCDs tend to be more power-hungry too. Probably the biggest gotcha in this case is the pixel size as it's pretty big on the QHY8 at 7.8 microns. It will either suit your image train (if it does then most CMOS sensors will be well oversampled) or it won't so worth using the bintel calculator to check.

Pam

[Neko]

I own and currently using the QHY8L  with optolong L-pro filter. 

And I am pretty happy with it. Bought it used also, but I paid a lot less since when I got it it wasn't working, then sent it myself to qhy and they fixed it

no problems since.  As comments avobe mentioned, depends on your focal lenght... but I mainly use it with my Borg 89ED focal lenght 600mm, a bit undersampled, but doesn't look bad either. 

One thing that  I don't like much is the TEC regulator, DC201, which is separate from the main camera, which adds another cable and so on. 

 

Carles. 

[Tayson]

I had used it 2 years. Great camera after dslr.

RGB - 5min sub, NB - 20min sub, L - 10min sub.

 

after it QHY9, and now QHY695A (vacum cleaner for photons!!!)

Edited June 9, 2021 by Tayson