Apogee U8300 and FLI ML8300 Photon Transfer Comparision

[richardc]

I just completed a Photon Transfer Curve analysis of both an Apogee U8300 and an FLI ML8300

There is a lot to like about both cameras, but each are pretty different in several respects

First of all they are shaped completely different.

The second thing is the way the cooling systems slew is different: the Apogee is very slow to change temperatures while the FLI is reasonably fast to cool down.

The Apogee reads-out/downloads in about 9 seconds while the FLI does it in about 2 seconds. The Apogee reads at 1MHz while the FLI reads at 8MHz accounting for the faster readout/download time.

They are close on read noise: the FLI is just a bit less (7.6 vs 8.9) and they cool pretty close too: ML800 at 65C versus 57.8 for the U8300> It is noteworthy that the FLI has lower noise and faster readout than the Apogee: usually you'd expect it to be the other way around: faster is noisier.

obviously the sensors are a bit different in each, they show slight differences in PRNU and DSNU and that could account for some of the read noise difference, but the speed difference remains.

the gains are set differently: with the Microline at 0.4e-/DN versus 0.5 e-/DN for the Alta

as a result full well is encountered at a slightly different DN value for the two cameras, with the Apogee at 56,267DN and the FLI at 64,167DN

Have a look at the report here:

http://www.narrowbandimaging.com/U8300_ML8300_char_report_page.htm

[narrowbandpaul]

thanks for posting the results.

a most interesting comparison