Full spectrum camera or Baadar astro mod ? Which to buy ?

[Stuart1971]

@neilt3 A full spectrum modded camera just means that there is no UV or IR cut filter in front of the sensor, so any filter you sue needs to cut these out, so with a dual narrow and filter you would be fine as that only allows very fine points of the colour spectrum through.

The standard Astro mod means that it leaves one of the two filters that are present in these cameras, LP1 and LP2, in place, and removes the one that blocks much of the Ha, the second one is left in place as it blocks UV/IR very well, so if using without any filters on the camera on your telescope then you would be fine.

This Astro mod is also known as the “hot mirror removal” mod

As to which way to go, just remember that with a OSC camera on a telescope you always need some form of UV/IR block, mainly for the IR obviously it’s then up to you how to go about this. Personally I always went for the full spectrum with a DSLR and just added my own IR cut as and when needed.

Edited July 17 by Stuart1971

[neilt3]

On 17/07/2024 at 11:23, GTom said:

Unless you are doing the mod yourself, it makes zero financial(!) sense now to go for a shop conversion/buy a converted dslr. A cooled astrocam second hand could be found below £500. It will deliver better results even with a tiny 1" sensor and a smaller, cheaper scope!

Check for tec cooled asi 533mc, 585mc units in the classifieds, these are great modern sensors requiring far less calibration and PP magic than the predecessors.

Mono is a step up, you need to add filters+wheel to the budget. Still, a humble 533mm camera with a "cheap+small" 1.25" filter wheel will beat any FF dslr's/ilc's on the market. Even FOV matched, i.e. using a half size telescope!

I'd likely be doing the conversion myself , unless I found one at a very good price to save me time .

Especially as the canon cameras have just had one filter pack removed , rather than having the Baader one fitted ( which cost about £100 anyway ) .

I've converted several Sony and Nikon cameras to full spectrum or Infrared myself , so I'd do it myself anyway .

I've an old Canon EOS 60d that I'm tempted to do .

But on the back of this thread , the Sony NEX 6 full spectrum camera I have will do the job I want with a UV/IR block filter on it that allows the Ha through I want .

Once I source the best filter out to use I will get one , cut it , and fit it into a holder I have that sit's in the camera so I can use regular E mount lenses as well as on a telescope .

So as I'm not needing to upgrade the DSLR or Mirrorless cameras I already have , I will look more into a dedicated Mono Astro camera , starting with the ones you mention and some others I'm looking at .

Astro cameras aren't something I'm familiar with though .

Thanks' for replying .

 

 

 

 

[neilt3]

On 17/07/2024 at 13:50, TiffsAndAstro said:

I was shocked how much more smoothly stuff seems to work. That usb1 link from my 600d with 18 very warm megapixels took a long time to reach Nina. My astro cam is almost instanteous via usb3 and just 9 cool megapixels 

Thanks .

I'll be looking more into a dedicated Astrocam , though I'll be running it via USB 2 with the laptop I have .

I will also be looking into wireless options as mentioned though .

[neilt3]

On 17/07/2024 at 14:01, Stuart1971 said:

@neilt3 A full spectrum modded camera just means that there is no UV or IR cut filter in front of the sensor, so any filter you sue needs to cut these out, so with a dual narrow and filter you would be fine as that only allows very fine points of the colour spectrum through.

The standard Astro mod means that it leaves one of the two filters that are present in these cameras, LP1 and LP2, in place, and removes the one that blocks much of the Ha, the second one is left in place as it blocks UV/IR very well, so if using without any filters on the camera on your telescope then you would be fine.

This Astro mod is also known as the “hot mirror removal” mod

As to which way to go, just remember that with a OSC camera on a telescope you always need some form of UV/IR block, mainly for the IR obviously it’s then up to you how to go about this. Personally I always went for the full spectrum with a DSLR and just added my own IR cut as and when needed.

Thanks for replying .

I've converted Sony and Nikon cameras to full spectrum or infrared before , and these just have the one filter in front of the sensor .

I wasn't aware that canon DSLRs had two .

I'll use the UV/IR filter on my full spectrum camera or narrowband filters for general widefield use , but I'm now also looking into a dedicated mono astrocam .

[Stuart1971]

12 hours ago, neilt3 said:

Thanks for replying .

I've converted Sony and Nikon cameras to full spectrum or infrared before , and these just have the one filter in front of the sensor .

I wasn't aware that canon DSLRs had two .

I'll use the UV/IR filter on my full spectrum camera or narrowband filters for general widefield use , but I'm now also looking into a dedicated mono astrocam .

Yes, canon have 2 filters LP1 and LP2, no idea why they are called LP 🤷🏼‍♂️