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Review of QHY5v Camera.


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Hi all,

As most of you know I have the QHY5v camera since last month.

So I thought I made a little write up of my experiences so far.

qhy5.jpg

(I got the red one. They come in various colors. Not choosable)

Specs:

CMOS sensor: Micron MT9V032 (Mono version)

Resolution: 752x480

Pixel size : 6µm x 6µm

Image area: 1/3inch

Download speed: 54FPS maximum USB2

Image Save Speed: 20-54FPS depending on PC speed

Electric Shutter type: Global shutter

12bit companding mode

High Gain Boost and High dynamic mode

Hardware:

The build quality of these little cameras are Top Notch and of good quality. And you are able to use all kinds of accessoires on it.

It comes with Nosepiece adapter and cap and long USB cable.

Software:

The only real capture software you can use is QGVideo32 for Lunar/Solar/Planetary imaging.

For guiding you can use programs like PhD. but I haven't used the cam for guiding, only for Solar and Planetary.

Results:

The camera's CMOS sensor is very sensitive (especially for CMOS). And framerates achievable up to 53 fps at full frame resolution.

One of my best solar images:

AR11087_14_07_2010.jpg

My attempt on Jupiter:

jupiter_11_07_2010.jpg

As you can see in the Juputer image. There is vertical banding clearly visible on the planet.

This camera is suffering from vertical lines noise really badly. And at first I thought it was due to my inexperience and me doing something wrong.

But after lots of test runs. Later even with a 2x ED Barlow. The vertical lines noise became even more of a problem and much more noticable. To the point that with average seeing conditions I was just not able to focus the image.

Now I have seen decent / better results with this camera and was seriously doubting myself. Or that it might be that I have a defective camera.

So I put a discussion thread on the qhyccd forums ( Vertical Lines Noise problem with QHY5V ).

QiuHY ran some tests and could only confirm this issue on one occasion.

After some more debating / discussions between him and Tom it seems the problem is now confirmed and in the software. :p

But as Tom is over his head atm having to write drivers for the new line of cameras coming out of QHY. This is not going to be fixed any time soon.

So I have decided to return the camera and exchange it with a DMK21.

A shame. As the camera itself is of high quality and has a ton of potential to be a very good planetary imager and has the specs to back that up.

It's just a shame that QHY lacks that same quality in the driver / software department.

I am sure one day they will sort it out and get their drivers and software out of Beta and on release quality.

And then this little camera will rock! As it has all the potential for it.

But I decided not to wait for that and go for something else. (DMK21).

Guillermo

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Good, detailed review JeroKane. Sad about the software problems though.

Mark

Yes it saddened me as well.

For people that already do DSO imaging and have the ability to make darks and flats. They will be able to process much better and probably eliminate most of the vertical lines noise. As workaround till it gets fixed in the software.

I don't have the equipment yet to make flats. So couldn't test that. Nor willing to invest that kind of money yet.

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that's a nice review, shame the lines killed it for you. I've had them, and managed to work around them in processing for Lunar and planetary (well the one image of Mars...). I'd always suspected the issue was software related, so one day they'll sort it out properly. The camera works well for me as a guidecam which is the primary reason I got it.

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that's a nice review, shame the lines killed it for you. I've had them, and managed to work around them in processing for Lunar and planetary (well the one image of Mars...). I'd always suspected the issue was software related, so one day they'll sort it out properly. The camera works well for me as a guidecam which is the primary reason I got it.

Yes I guess that's why this issue really hasn't come to light earlier.

As most buy these cameras as guider. And than some line noise isn't much of an issue. Especially when using PHD and it's darkframe option(?).

I bought it as dedicated solar/planetary imager with the option to use it as guider as well later on.

So for me this noise problem is an issue.

With my solar images I could take the processing far enough to make the vertical lines noise minimal (but still at the loss of detail). Plus the bright background helps masking it. :p

But with planetery you just can't take the processing too far, before you just overprocess it and kill the image anyway.

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The lines can be "removed" by turning off that noise reduction option (doesn't remember the name of it). I did that when imaging Jupiter in the DMK21 comparison and there were no lines. When on - they turned up in the stack. Sensitivity (QE) is nearly equal or bit higher (ir/red) than ICX098 in DMK21.

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Yes I guess that's why this issue really hasn't come to light earlier.

As most buy these cameras as guider. And than some line noise isn't much of an issue. Especially when using PHD and it's darkframe option(?).

I bought it as dedicated solar/planetary imager with the option to use it as guider as well later on.

So for me this noise problem is an issue.

With my solar images I could take the processing far enough to make the vertical lines noise minimal (but still at the loss of detail). Plus the bright background helps masking it. :p

But with planetery you just can't take the processing too far, before you just overprocess it and kill the image anyway.

I've yet to try it on Jupiter, but I'll bear that in mind... I just upped the contrast with a curve on my lunar mosaics and the lines disappeared. It was one of my images shot with this camera that won photo of the month in the S@N in June.

Interesting Riklaunim, I'll look at that next time.

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The lines can be "removed" by turning off that noise reduction option (doesn't remember the name of it). I did that when imaging Jupiter in the DMK21 comparison and there were no lines. When on - they turned up in the stack. Sensitivity (QE) is nearly equal or bit higher (ir/red) than ICX098 in DMK21.

Yes I know you mentioned it elsewhere. And with me when I tried that, the noise became far worse.

So with me it had the total opposite effect.

QiuHY and Tom also seems to contradict eachother a bit.

As QiuHY told me to try keep gain as low as possible and use higher exposures instead. Wich I have tried as well. >> no better results.

Then Tom told me this morning to use low exposures and gain midlevel. Plus ADC Ref voltage to 1.4V (wich is default). As temporary work around. Till he has time to fix it in the software.

But that is what I started out with in the first place and how I imaged. >> so no help either.

Maybe it can also be a hardware defect in my camera, amplifying the problem. Who knows.

But at least they have acknowledged and confirmed the issue. And hopefully it will be fixed in the near future.

So at least it will benefit others. So I have no regrets.

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Well it seems I stirred it up a little and Tom changed his priorities and already looked into it (see his post on the qhyccd forums in my topic). :p

According to him it was due to an issue with the 12-10 bit companding in the QGVideo32 software and misinterpretation of it.

He just released version 1.3 and is available for download.

Rik,

I am also curious what OS you are running? Could also be drivers issue with Windows 7. As I run Windows 7 on all my machines.

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Yes let me know. As I won't be home till late afternoon.

Still I would have wanted a bit more explanation from him how to interpret his fix.

Was the setting not working at all. Like that it was permanently on, regardless the flag you set.

Or was the setting interpretation inverted. Like flag on = off and flag off = on.

In that last case, it probably won't solve it for me. as I tested with the 12-10 bit companding on and off and didn't notice much difference.

So then it might still be also a driver problem of maybe even a hardware issue with the one I have.

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I used Nebulosity 2 and ASCOM drivers saving fits files. The exposures wasn't super short. At f/20 the images were quite nice, at f/10 overexposed (no super short exposures for that).

No I mean what OS are you running?

Windows XP, Windows Vista or Windows 7? Or linux or OSX?

I don't have Nebulosity. So I am stuck with QGVideo32.

For the default f/10 with my C8 I was indeed forced to use a moon filter.

When I got the ED 2x barlow it was no longer necessary. But the lines noise was just really horrible, regardless of exposure and gain settings or any other settings for that matter.

Last week friday night I spend over 4 hours on Jupiter. Rebooting my machine several times, with de-installing / re-installing drivers, software and experimenting with litterly every possible setting in QGVideo32. To no avail.

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Couldn't agree more about the software support for QHY cameras. If you are laying out good money on a camera the least you can expect is a cd containing the appropriate files with an easy to use installation routine compatatible with all common variations of windows. QHY are a long way from this

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Windows XP. Friend of which QHY5v I've been testing wasn't pleased with QGVideo32 as it crashed from time to time on his computer. QGVideo32 makes AVIs, while Nebulosity FITS files in 10 bit mode. Two different apps and image acquisition flows. And turning off that noise reduction in camera settings removed the lines leaving homogenous background.

QHY has a lot of searching to do to find the problem, as it's not so obvious what, when and why :p

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Windows XP. Friend of which QHY5v I've been testing wasn't pleased with QGVideo32 as it crashed from time to time on his computer. QGVideo32 makes AVIs, while Nebulosity FITS files in 10 bit mode. Two different apps and image acquisition flows. And turning off that noise reduction in camera settings removed the lines leaving homogenous background.

QHY has a lot of searching to do to find the problem, as it's not so obvious what, when and why :)

Yes I don't like QGVideo32 that much at all either. But you can switch between AVI, BMP and FITS tho.

As you are also using Windows XP. It more and more draws the suspicion that it might also be the Windows 7 drivers. :p

Unfortunately going back to Windows XP is just not an option for me.

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Couldn't agree more about the software support for QHY cameras. If you are laying out good money on a camera the least you can expect is a cd containing the appropriate files with an easy to use installation routine compatatible with all common variations of windows. QHY are a long way from this

It's a real shame tho. As the hardware and build quality of the cameras is really good. Nothing wrong with that.

The QHY8Pro got a really really good review in the latest Astronomy magazine.

It's just a shame QHY keep pushing out new cameras for sale, while Tom vd Eede isn't even finished writing drivers for it.

Like now they launched the QHY10 / QHY12 and IMG planetary cameras.

While Tom is still busting his butt off getting the drivers into a Beta state. :)

That's just bad. Real bad. :p

As like you said when it comes to money. These QHY10 and QHY12 cameras are both above £2000 ! Then it's just unacceptable to not have release worthy drivers.

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  • 1 month later...

Well, they intended this will be a guider at start. TIS didn't noticed circular artifacts in their cameras, Atik didn't predicted shortage of components for their KAF camera and so on. Nobody is perfect. QHY wrote on their forums that they hired full time their main drivers coder and want to build a team for that as they are going to launch a lot of new cams and refresh old. So everyone is working on their problems.

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This has been over 2 years... sorry, Atik part supply issue is out of their control, totally and utterly different problem. QHY without some dealers or online providers developing working driver support would be largely unusable

IS cameras...that's just shonky testing

Yes, problems exist, but this is suppsedly one of the best selling autoguiders out there, and to have this long a period with such appalling software support (see some of the vast threads on this!), is not on

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