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Touptek 585 c Offset doesnt work?

ToupTek ATR585C CMOS Artifacts
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Menelaos avatar
Menelaos avatar
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 avatar
Davide Maino avatar
For HDR I use gain 800 and offset 850. Would you give it a try?
Tony Gondola avatar
Tony Gondola avatar
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.
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Menelaos avatar
Menelaos avatar
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 avatar
Menelaos avatar
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 avatar
Tony Gondola avatar
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 avatar
Davide Maino avatar
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 avatar
Astropimmy avatar
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 avatar
Tony Gondola avatar
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.
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Menelaos avatar
Menelaos avatar
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/
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Tony Gondola avatar
Tony Gondola avatar
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.
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AstroShed avatar
AstroShed avatar
Have you got the lates firmware in the camera.. as there have been many updated versions due to issues with the HDR settings, and I know that some of the updated did break stuff, but AFAIK the latest release should be good.
you will always have a few clipped pixels that is normal, aim for an offset that gives you under around 100 on the min setting, and just a few in the max side.
Menelaos avatar
Menelaos avatar
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 avatar
Massimiliano F. - Alnitak the Star avatar
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 avatar
Capturing Ancient Photons avatar
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
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Menelaos avatar
Menelaos avatar
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 avatar
Massimiliano F. - Alnitak the Star avatar
I changed three different cameras because of reseller warranty. Now I have an ASI2400 and it works perfectly!!