IMX 226

[neil phillips]

Thoughts on this as a large mosaic lunar camera. Look at the price 

USB3 Machine Vision Camera | 12MP Mono | MER-1220-32U3M-L (get-cameras.com)

[nfotis]

Looks like an interesting sensor. It remains to be seen if it's suitable for astrophotography (it isn't cooled, so it's rather limited to moon mosaics?)

 

N.F.

[neil phillips]

2 hours ago, nfotis said:

Looks like an interesting sensor. It remains to be seen if it's suitable for astrophotography (it isn't cooled, so it's rather limited to moon mosaics?)

 

N.F.

Wonder what software could drive it ?

[CraigT82]

Interesting camera. With a pixel size of 1.85um you would be using short (ish) focal lengths and get large amount of the moon in one go.

Sensor size is 7.6mm x 5.7mm so roughly equivalent to the 178. 

With your f/6.3 Neil, and a 1.5x barlow, you'd have a diffraction limited field diameter of 8.3mm. Big enough to cover the whole sensor and get sharp details right to the edges. Should make a very nice lunar camera, if you could get it to work with your chosen capture software. 

 

[neil phillips]

1 hour ago, CraigT82 said:

Interesting camera. With a pixel size of 1.85um you would be using short (ish) focal lengths and get large amount of the moon in one go.

Sensor size is 7.6mm x 5.7mm so roughly equivalent to the 178. 

With your f/6.3 Neil, and a 1.5x barlow, you'd have a diffraction limited field diameter of 8.3mm. Big enough to cover the whole sensor and get sharp details right to the edges. Should make a very nice lunar camera, if you could get it to work with your chosen capture software. 

 

Cheers for the info Craig. Ever so slightly larger than the 178. Which what got my attention. Its certainly interesting Especially at around £180. The software to drive it is a unknown at this point. Ive taken the plunge and ordered the player one Neptune 178 mono. Bit concerened that some seem to get pattern noise with this sensor  (but not all) Will see how it goes. But under good seeing the ideal pixel size is 0.33-1"/pixel with no barlow i am at 0.31 so ever so slightly oversampled. Miniscule amount. Got it for lunar mosaics so should work well. But will use for planets too. The moon starts getting higher around august i believe 

Edited July 1, 2021 by neil phillips

[nfotis]

17 hours ago, neil phillips said:

Wonder what software could drive it ?

 

Probably it shows as a generic USB Webcam to Sharpcap and other apps? The page mentions that it works under Windows/Mac/Linux, but it doesn't mention if they use their own software (does it support raw format?)

I would ask the developers of Sharpcap/Firecapture if this sensor/camera is supported before ordering.

The IMX464 sensor in PlayerOne is also quite intriguing (double the amount of pixels of the IMX462, if you accept colour sensors).

N.F.

 

[JamesF]

5 minutes ago, nfotis said:

Probably it shows as a generic USB Webcam to Sharpcap and other apps? The page mentions that it works under Windows/Mac/Linux, but it doesn't mention if they use their own software (does it support raw format?)

The web page says near the bottom of the spec details that it uses the USB3 Vision/Genicam protocol.  In my experience that usually means the vendor also provides their own SDK that's required to communicate with the camera (Basler has Pylon, for example, and TIS has IC Imaging Control, whilst whatever FLIR -- Point Grey as was -- are known as these days has Spinnaker).  It's possible that Firecapture or Sharpcap has included their interface, but seems unlikely.  On Linux there's also a generic Genicam interface called Aravis, but as far as I'm aware it still doesn't support a lot of cameras (and hasn't been tested with any from this manufacturer that I can see).  There may be something similar for Windows perhaps?  They do appear to have their own software package, but it may well not be suitable for astroimaging and it costs twice the price of the camera

No issues with raw format with this particular camera though, as it's mono.  Genicam does however allow raw frames from colour cameras to be made available to the user, but whether the SDK developers choose to make them available is a different matter.

And of course if someone would like to provide me with a camera, I'll try to get it working with oacapture etc. on Linux and MacOS

James

[JamesF]

And yes, it does appear that they provide their own SDK: https://www.get-cameras.com/requestdownload

James

[neil phillips]

3 hours ago, nfotis said:

 

Probably it shows as a generic USB Webcam to Sharpcap and other apps? The page mentions that it works under Windows/Mac/Linux, but it doesn't mention if they use their own software (does it support raw format?)

I would ask the developers of Sharpcap/Firecapture if this sensor/camera is supported before ordering.

The IMX464 sensor in PlayerOne is also quite intriguing (double the amount of pixels of the IMX462, if you accept colour sensors).

N.F.

 

Already have the 462c so ordered player one Neptune 178 mono. I dont want two colour cameras

[neil phillips]

Its a great price for such a large chip. Though 32fps is a little slow for a chip only slightly bigger than the 178 at 60 fps . But again that price is tempting if it could be made to run without their expensive software.

[nfotis]

11 hours ago, neil phillips said:

Already have the 462c so ordered player one Neptune 178 mono. I dont want two colour cameras

Yeah, I own an ASI462 myself already, else I would be quite tempted by the IMX464

 

 

N.F.

[nfotis]

11 hours ago, neil phillips said:

Its a great price for such a large chip. Though 32fps is a little slow for a chip only slightly bigger than the 178 at 60 fps . But again that price is tempting if it could be made to run without their expensive software.

If it could work with Sharpcap or Firecapture, I would be happy to buy it as an alternative.

 

N.F.