Touptek 585 c Offset doesnt work? - Forums

Topic starter

Dec 18, 2024

Hey guys. I am a proud new owner of the Touptek atr585c camera. However, I was testing it tonight and when using the HDR mode with few different settings for Gain and Offset, it seems to be too noisy. Also the Offset doesn't work, whatever the value i put in it still clips data from below. Also i got some wierd artifacts around some bright stars. Even at a 5s exposure the artifacts where there. I will attach a few images to show you guys. Eventually i set it to HCG mode Gain 100 and Offset 500 which seemed to do the trick, no clipping data from below or above! Anyone else owns this camera having same issues? I hope i didn't get a defective one.

Davide Maino

Dec 18, 2024

For HDR I use gain 800 and offset 850. Would you give it a try?

Tony Gondola

Frequent contributor

Exemplary contributor

Dec 18, 2024

I don't think that amount of noise in a single sub, un-cooled is unusual. I own the ZWO version of the 585 and this is tuned completely differently though. I do see a lot of bright star clipping, even at 5 sec. After looking at the performance graphs for this camera it seems that for deep sky imaging you should be in 16 bit raw mode, at a gain of 100 (lowest). This will give you the deepest well, widest dynamic range which will reduce highlight clipping. Also remember that increasing offset reduces dynamic range so you want to use the smallest value that works.

Helpful Concise

Menelaos

Topic starter

Dec 19, 2024

you should be in 16 bit raw mode, at a gain of 100 (lowest)

I already tried gain 100 and i still get those star artifacts. And besides this doesn’t solve the problem with the offset. The blacks are clipped no matter what the offset

Menelaos

Topic starter

Dec 19, 2024

Davide Maino:
For HDR I use gain 800 and offset 850. Would you give it a try?

thank you for the suggestion but as i already said previously it seems that the offset is inoperative.

Tony Gondola

Frequent contributor

Exemplary contributor

Dec 19, 2024

you should be in 16 bit raw mode, at a gain of 100 (lowest)

I already tried gain 100 and i still get those star artifacts. And besides this doesn’t solve the problem with the offset. The blacks are clipped no matter what the offset

It must be a driver issue if that's the case. It seems that touptek has had issues in that area with other cameras.

Davide Maino

Dec 19, 2024

I think it could be the driver. I just update to the latest one and things seem to go better. Previous version gave me strange debayer issue with exposure time greater than 60s (like it was GGRB or similar instead of the expected RGGB). I tried yesterday night and between the clouds I was able to shoot up to 180s without any issue in HDR with gain 800 and offset 850.

Astropimmy

Jan 8, 2025 · Edited: Jan 8, 2025

I had the same issue and contacted Touptek a while ago and they send me the new driver. I only saw your post now or I could have saved you some troubles, sorry.

How is the noise, I am still getting a fair bit to be honest, but maybe I am a bit demanding. I used a dslr before with low exposure times, so maybe that's just it as I now use 2min exposure times.

Clear skies.

Tony Gondola

Frequent contributor

Exemplary contributor

Jan 8, 2025

Keep in mind that if you are used to looking at data from a much larger sensor, visually the noise will seem to be less compared to a smaller sensor simply because the image is magnified more to comfortably fit your screen.

Well written Insightful Concise

Menelaos

Topic starter

Jan 8, 2025 · Edited: Jan 9, 2025

First, thanks to everyone who replied! I wanted to share an update, as some of you might be interested in buying this camera. Overall, the camera itself is excellent, but so far, I’ve only been able to use it in LCG and HCG modes. I’ve reached out to ToupTek multiple times regarding these issues, and their response has been that they’re actively working to fix several bugs in the firmware. My two main concerns with the HDR mode are:

1. Offset Setting Inoperable:In HDR mode, the offset setting didn’t seem to do anything—it appeared completely nonfunctional. This caused the blacks to clip, rendering the mode almost unusable for me. However, this issue was limited to HDR mode; all other modes seemed to work normally.

2. Weird Star Artifacts:I was also encountering unusual star artifacts, which I’ve shown in the images I posted earlier.

ToupTek’s response was to provide me with a firmware update via email. The latest update they sent me wasn’t available for download on their website. They explained that the offset in HDR mode was deliberately fixed, meaning it cannot be adjusted manually. However, with the updated firmware, the blacks are no longer clipped at lower gain settings. At higher gains however (around Gain 1000 and above), the clipping issue persists. Personally, this isn’t a major concern for me, as I rarely use such high gain settings. From what I understand, this is a temporary measure while they work on resolving the bugs fully, and another firmware update will be released in the future.

About the star Artifacts, it’s been cloudy since i’ve done the update so i couldn’t test it under the stars yet. If you’re considering this camera, I’d say it’s worth keeping an eye on it.

Finally i would like to share an image i took with the camera and i am really happy with the results! https://astrob.in/ugjp7z/0/

Well written Helpful Engaging Supportive

Tony Gondola

Frequent contributor

Exemplary contributor

Jan 9, 2025

First, thanks to everyone who replied! I wanted to share an update, as some of you might be interested in buying this camera. Overall, the camera itself is excellent, but so far, I’ve only been able to use it in LCG and HCG modes. I’ve reached out to ToupTek multiple times regarding these issues, and their response has been that they’re actively working to fix several bugs in the firmware. My two main concerns with the HDR mode are:

1. Offset Setting Inoperable:In HDR mode, the offset setting didn’t seem to do anything—it appeared completely nonfunctional. This caused the blacks to clip, rendering the mode almost unusable for me. However, this issue was limited to HDR mode; all other modes seemed to work normally.

2. Weird Star Artifacts:I was also encountering unusual star artifacts, which I’ve shown in the images I posted earlier.

ToupTek’s response was to provide me with a firmware update via email. The latest update they sent me wasn’t available for download on their website. They explained that the offset in HDR mode was deliberately fixed, meaning it cannot be adjusted manually. However, with the updated firmware, the blacks are no longer clipped at lower gain settings. At higher gains however (around Gain 1000 and above), the clipping issue persists. Personally, this isn’t a major concern for me, as I rarely use such high gain settings. From what I understand, this is a temporary measure while they work on resolving the bugs fully, and another firmware update will be released in the future.

About the star Artifacts, it’s been cloudy since i’ve done the update so i couldn’t test it under the stars yet. If you’re considering this camera, I’d say it’s worth keeping an eye on it.

Finally i would like to share an image i took with the camera and i am really happy with the results! https://astrob.in/ugjp7z/0/

With that many software bugs I wouldn't recommend that anyone buy this camera until the issues are worked out. The 585 is a great sensor but I absolutely hate it when manufacturers push out an unfinished product and then depend on the user base to beta test the hardware.

Well written Engaging

Menelaos

Topic starter

Jan 10, 2025

Tony Gondola:
First, thanks to everyone who replied! I wanted to share an update, as some of you might be interested in buying this camera. Overall, the camera itself is excellent, but so far, I’ve only been able to use it in LCG and HCG modes. I’ve reached out to ToupTek multiple times regarding these issues, and their response has been that they’re actively working to fix several bugs in the firmware. My two main concerns with the HDR mode are:

1. Offset Setting Inoperable:In HDR mode, the offset setting didn’t seem to do anything—it appeared completely nonfunctional. This caused the blacks to clip, rendering the mode almost unusable for me. However, this issue was limited to HDR mode; all other modes seemed to work normally.

2. Weird Star Artifacts:I was also encountering unusual star artifacts, which I’ve shown in the images I posted earlier.

ToupTek’s response was to provide me with a firmware update via email. The latest update they sent me wasn’t available for download on their website. They explained that the offset in HDR mode was deliberately fixed, meaning it cannot be adjusted manually. However, with the updated firmware, the blacks are no longer clipped at lower gain settings. At higher gains however (around Gain 1000 and above), the clipping issue persists. Personally, this isn’t a major concern for me, as I rarely use such high gain settings. From what I understand, this is a temporary measure while they work on resolving the bugs fully, and another firmware update will be released in the future.

About the star Artifacts, it’s been cloudy since i’ve done the update so i couldn’t test it under the stars yet. If you’re considering this camera, I’d say it’s worth keeping an eye on it.

Finally i would like to share an image i took with the camera and i am really happy with the results! https://astrob.in/ugjp7z/0/

With that many software bugs I wouldn't recommend that anyone buy this camera until the issues are worked out. The 585 is a great sensor but I absolutely hate it when manufacturers push out an unfinished product and then depend on the user base to beta test the hardware.

You are absolutely right!

Massimiliano F. - Alnitak the Star

Jan 10, 2025 · Edited: Jan 10, 2025

Hi, I am at the third Touptek camera in 6 months….my model is the SkyEye24c (IMX410 full frame sensor). Every single camera had different issues: from high read noise with horizontal banding to strange multicolor glows on each side of the sensor…. The last one is the worst with a big horizontal white stripe and big issues on capturing light. During this terrible experience I can say that software/drivers are responsible of this unacceptable malfunction. Tomorrow I'll change again but I'll switch to ASI2400.
However I was able to achieve some great images but too much work to get out of these issues…No more Touptek!!!

Capturing Ancient Photons

Mar 4, 2025

Hi Menelaos

I recently bought this camera and had the same issue you were having in HDR mode. I read that there was a firmware update that fixed this so I went looking and found it here:

https://www.touptek-astro.com/Firmware

After the firmware update, the HDR problems disappeared. I am currently shooting Carina using HDR mode gain 100 offset 5. I previously shot it using LCG with the same gain offset.

Hope the update works for you as well.

Cheers
Carlos

Helpful

Menelaos

Topic starter

Mar 4, 2025

Massimiliano F. - Alnitak the Star:
Hi, I am at the third Touptek camera in 6 months....my model is the SkyEye24c (IMX410 full frame sensor). Every single camera had different issues: from high read noise with horizontal banding to strange multicolor glows on each side of the sensor.... The last one is the worst with a big horizontal white stripe and big issues on capturing light. During this terrible experience I can say that software/drivers are responsible of this unacceptable malfunction. Tomorrow I'll change again but I'll switch to ASI2400.
However I was able to achieve some great images but too much work to get out of these issues...No more Touptek!!!

Sorry to hear that. It seems like everyone has some sort of bad experience. But Why do you keep buying ToupTek if you have so many issues? I am happy to say that i sent mine back to touptek. I am sorry to say that Unless they fix all there issues never again with touptek.

Massimiliano F. - Alnitak the Star

Mar 4, 2025

I changed three different cameras because of reseller warranty. Now I have an ASI2400 and it works perfectly!!

JFrijhoff

Aug 21, 2025

Well, I got one coming in secondhand, which was too good to pass up on. Coming from a DSLR as well, so looking forward to trying this out having bit better resolution and less noise. I'll make sure to do the firmware update if the previous owner hasn't done so already.

Tobiasz

Aug 21, 2025

The HDR mode utilises the ClearHDR feature of Sony’s “Starvis 2” image sensors, which exposes two images simultaneously (one in LCG mode & one in HCG mode) and merges them directly on the chip to achieve 16 Bit precision. The offset is part of the composition algorithm and is set in the firmware by Touptek.

There were some problematic firmware versions in the past, but the recent versions do work as intended. Still, you cannot set up the offset in HDR mode but it does not matter when the camera does the work for you.

Regards

Well written Helpful Insightful Concise

JFrijhoff

Aug 21, 2025

Tobiasz:
The HDR mode utilises the ClearHDR feature of Sony’s “Starvis 2” image sensors, which exposes two images simultaneously (one in LCG mode & one in HCG mode) and merges them directly on the chip to achieve 16 Bit precision. The offset is part of the composition algorithm and is set in the firmware by Touptek.

There were some problematic firmware versions in the past, but the recent versions do work as intended. Still, you cannot set up the offset in HDR mode but it does not matter when the camera does the work for you.

Regards

Thanks! Good to know so I won’t be trying to change the offset. Will just check to make sure it works as advertised 🙂

Well written Respectful

Tony Gondola

Frequent contributor

Exemplary contributor

Aug 21, 2025

…it works brilliantly.

Hassaan Zaheer

8 hours ago

📷 Screenshot_20260610_223922_Chrome.jpg📷 Screenshot_20260610_223915_Chrome.jpg📷 Screenshot_20260610_223503_Chrome.jpgI seem to be facing the same issue with the 585 mono version. it does that after recycling through filters, After shooting through the last filter “B” when it moves back to “R”, the image brightens almost as if its read out mode has been changed, the mean value jumps from 3000-4000 to 9000-10000.