New bunch of ZWO planetary cams

[CraigT82]

Announced on Twitter…

 

[neil phillips]

Interesting models the larger chips good for colour saturated moon mosaics

 

[CraigT82]

 

The 678mc looks interesting to me, similar read noise to the 462mc but with a larger format and with smaller pixels (2.0um vs 2.9um), which would allow imaging at shorter focal lengths:  Altogether much easier to get the planet on the chip!

[ONIKKINEN]

the 678 looks like it could be a good all-rounder for guiding lunar and planetary. For guiding needs to be binned but the read noise is very low so no problem, for planetary and lunar the 2 micron pixels sound very enticing.

Damn it ZWO, dont announce these things when im broke!

[Shimrod]

36 minutes ago, ONIKKINEN said:

the 678 looks like it could be a good all-rounder for guiding lunar and planetary. For guiding needs to be binned but the read noise is very low so no problem, for planetary and lunar the 2 micron pixels sound very enticing.

Damn it ZWO, dont announce these things when im broke!

Prices are already on the FLO website as well - the 678 is £319

[ONIKKINEN]

3 hours ago, Shimrod said:

Prices are already on the FLO website as well - the 678 is £319

Price seems very nice actually. I would have expected more.

[wimvb]

A cooled version of the 432 would be a very nice galaxy camera. 0.9”/pixel @ 2 m focal length. I like my cooled 174mm. 😄

Edited June 16, 2022 by wimvb

[nfotis]

I feel that with all these new sensors and sizes, the field of view calculator will need an overhaul and get the whole system sensor-centered?

I am having a hard time comparing all these models (see the recent Player One planetary cameras as well)

N.F.

 

[newbie alert]

Only one  in mono?

[wimvb]

36 minutes ago, newbie alert said:

Only one  in mono?

Have patience. ZWO will soon remedy that. (At least, they've always done so in the past.)

[newbie alert]

12 minutes ago, wimvb said:

Have patience. ZWO will soon remedy that. (At least, they've always done so in the past.)

I've  never owned a zwo camera so far

Edited June 18, 2022 by newbie alert
Changed

[russ]

Haven't long bought my ZWO planetary cam. Oh how I timed that badly. These look great and the prices not bad at all. Maybe next year I'll look to replace my current cam with one of these. 

[wimvb]

4 hours ago, russ said:

Maybe next year I'll look to replace my current cam with one of these

Next year ZWO will offer a new generation. Not that I have inside information; it just seems how they operate.

[russ]

1 hour ago, wimvb said:

Next year ZWO will offer a new generation. Not that I have inside information; it just seems how they operate.

Right okay, see what they are offering next year. Looking forward to planetary season this year with my ZWO.

[raadoo]

On 16/06/2022 at 20:13, wimvb said:

A cooled version of the 432 would be a very nice galaxy camera. 0.9”/pixel @ 2 m focal length. I like my cooled 174mm. 😄

Omegon already have an IMX432 based Mono cooled camera available.

[Pixies]

Does anyone know whether the ASI678MC has the ROI feature? I know the 178 does, but the ZWO website omits this info under the 'specifications' tab.

I'm assuming it would, otherwise it'll be lacking as a planetary camera.

[CCD-Freak]

I am eyeing the ASI432 with it's big pixels that would not be so over sampled at long focal lengths.  The FOV with it on my 10"RC would fit most galaxies very nicely.

I hope ZWO will consider a cooled version since Omegon already offers one.

 

 

 

[wimvb]

12 minutes ago, CCD-Freak said:

hope ZWO will consider a cooled version since Omegon already offers one.

The Omegon version probably works just as fine as a possible ZWO camera will, at a fraction of the price. Drivers shouldn't be a problem, unless you're on a ZWO leash (ie, use an ASIAIR).

[ONIKKINEN]

Anyone take the plunge for one of these yet? Googling around results in pretty much nothing for the 678MC.

[CCD-Freak]

I have been looking at the ASI-432MM and they have not even started shipping them as yet.

[ONIKKINEN]

I had a chance to try the new 678MC last night for some lunar and planetary, but unfortunately i took the wrong adapter train with me and so couldnt find focus without a paracorr due to not enough inward travel. With paracorr and barlow there appears to be some glare/reflection/softness issue and the recordings are just wasted gigabytes.

But the camera works great at least. Wish it maybe had a bigger memory buffer to make shooting in full resolution 4K a bit less painful.

[jacko61]

It's a shame they don't include a USB hub in these cameras like in the Pro models.  I'd still like to be able to control my focuser from my warm room

Graeme

[Jane C]

There are some quite nice results from these cameras on the ZWO Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/groups/zwoasiusers.  

I'm an incurable devil's advocate I'm afraid.  I'd be interested to hear people's views on why I'd need a separate planetary camera when I have a good ZWO deep sky camera.

(I should declare that I own a ZWO ASI290MC planetary camera and a ZWO ASI294MC Pro deep sky camera.)

Thank you.  🙂

Edited August 16, 2022 by Jane C

[jacko61]

56 minutes ago, Jane C said:

I'm an incurable devil's advocate I'm afraid.  I'd be interested to hear people's views on why I'd need a separate planetary camera when I have a good ZWO deep sky camera

This boils down to how you do your planetary imaging. I guess the most common method is to take a video and stack the individual frames. I've just ordered an ASI224MC for planetary imaging, the reason being my ASI2600MC puts out file sizes in excess of 50Mb per sub (or each frame in the case of lucky imaging).  The new camera will also manage 150 fps compared to 3.5 on the 2600.  (or around 17 with your 294.  

Graeme

[Jane C]

"This boils down to how you do your planetary imaging. I guess the most common method is to take a video and stack the individual frames. I've just ordered an ASI224MC for planetary imaging, the reason being my ASI2600MC puts out file sizes in excess of 50Mb per sub (or each frame in the case of lucky imaging).  The new camera will also manage 150 fps compared to 3.5 on the 2600.  (or around 17 with your 294.  

Graeme"

 

Hi Graeme,

I get a very fast fps rate with my ASI294.  ZWO claims 170 fps.  I think that I have seen better than that when I cut the image size down to 320 x 240, but I'm sure they have to be careful with their marketing claims.  The one of the new range that caught my eye was the ASI585MC, but I see that part of the penalty is that the max claimed frame rate drops to 46.9.  That's only 27% of the speed of the ASI294MC.  I suppose that this makes sense given the relative size of the chips.  I wonder how fast the newer camera is when you cut the image size down?

Jane.  🙂

Edited August 16, 2022 by Jane C