Any experiences with Firecapture?

[StuartT]

I'm getting started with planetary imaging (having only done DSOs before). I saw a video from Dylan O'Donnell in which her raves about Firecapture. It's got some very nice new features.

I wondered if anyone has any experience with it for planetary? How does it compare with APT and SharpCap? 

 

 

[Chris-h]

Some love it, others hate it. I used to use FC, but I now prefer the much cleaner look of SC. Both work great though!

 

Edited August 16, 2021 by Chris-h

[CraigT82]

I love it and don't use anything else for planetary and lunar capture. 

I do use sharpcap pro for other things though. 

[johninderby]

Firecapture does have a very crowded screen and using a decent size monitor really helps. 

Edited August 16, 2021 by johninderby

[StuartT]

17 minutes ago, Chris-h said:

Some love it, others hate it. I used to use FC, but I now prefer the much cleaner look of SC. Both work great though!

 

Thanks. I've heard though that sharpcap generates heavily compressed MOV files which are not good for planetary imaging. Maybe that's a misconception

[CraigT82]

4 minutes ago, StuartT said:

Thanks. I've heard though that sharpcap generates heavily compressed MOV files which are not good for planetary imaging. Maybe that's a misconception

No that's wrong, you can set it to collect AVI or SER uncompressed files for planetary imaging

[StuartT]

4 minutes ago, CraigT82 said:

No that's wrong, you can set it to collect AVI or SER uncompressed files for planetary imaging

Excellent! That's great to hear, as I do like SharpCap's uncomplicated interface, so I'd prefer not to have to learn a new piece of software. 

[CraigT82]

For what it's worth, Firecapture's UI is customisable so you can set it to show whatever you want...

 

[powerlord]

I use it, as it's free and available on the mac - unlike sharpcap.

I've found it easy to use and reliable with all my ASI cameras.  Pretty straighforward to use - can't say I've found any features missing for planatary stuff.

I use the beta, as the regular version isn't happy with M1 macs for some reason - but beta seems to work - though there are some errors in the log - stacktraces for something or other - it doesn't seem to affect its functionality.

One weird thing though is that it always loads my ASI cameras anyway with red off. So I have to bring up settings and 'reset color' - then it's fine. But it does this every time for reasons unknown - but it is the beta version.

stu

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

I use firecapture for all planetary, lunar, and solar work. APT only for DSOs. Both work a treat for me

[Pete Presland]

I also use Firecapture for all my Planetary, Solar and Lunar imaging. Packed with all the features I love it