Which IMX571 camera QHY 268m, ZW02600mm - other? - Forums

Topic starter

IOTD Staff

Jul 17, 2025 · Edited: Jul 17, 2025

Hi all,
Apologies if this has been raised previously, but I'm looking for user feedback on IMX571-based mono cameras. I’m in the market for one bundled with a 7-position 2" filter wheel and OAG to complement my Takahashi TOA-130 with a TOA-35 reducer and Moonlite Nightcrawler.

A good friend is running the ZWO ASI2600MM and is very happy with it. Others in my network speak highly of the QHY268M, and the Player One variant also looks promising. Pricing seems fairly close across the board; Touptek is a bit more affordable, while QHY is slightly pricier. With dealer support available here in Australia, it's likely a toss-up between the QHY & ZWO.

I’m particularly interested in hearing about:

Long-term reliability - needs to be essentially bulletproof
Any issues requiring factory support and how that was handled
Driver and software quirks (ASCOM/Voyager/NINA etc.)

Any real-world experiences would be greatly appreciated to help guide my decision.

Thanks in advance!

CS
Andy

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wsg

Jul 17, 2025

Hi Andy, I have four ZWO 2600MC's ages 1 to 5 years old and though not MM's they have been absolutely flawless. I can not speak regarding Voyager or Nina but with SharpCap and ASIAir they have been bulletproof in winter and summer for me with no problems ever.
Issues I have heard about are directly related to running the heated and cooled cameras without a dedicated power supply, the importance of which is not well enough explained in ZWO literature. I have numerous models of ZWO cameras and they have all been good for me but I feel the 2600's are in a certain class of their own somehow.

CS's

scott

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Werner Stumpferl

Jul 17, 2025

Hello Andy,
I believe there are not much differences. You can hear good and bad things on both sides. I had always QHY (183M/C, 294M/C, 268M/C, 600M, 585C) and had never any probems with dew, reflections, cooling or drivers. Smooth darks, less hot/cold Pixels, good quality and cheaper then ASI.
CS
Werner

Dan Watt

Jul 17, 2025

Been using my qhy268m + OAG + FW every clear night (lots of them here in socal) for a few years now and it's been bulletproof.

Stjepan Prugovečki

Jul 17, 2025 · Edited: Jul 17, 2025

I do have QHY 268M an 2 Touptek 571 OSC. All do work without any issues (NINA, Sharpcap) . There is no essential difference among them. QHY has some nice and handy features (like humidity sensor , several modes of exposure,..) and is made very solid , but on the other hand it does not have USB hub and cooling does not exceed 30C difference between environment and sensor.. ZWO? I do not know , I am not big fan of ZWO cameras. If I would be buying today, It would be Touptek either direct or re-branded

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Médéric Hébert

Jul 17, 2025

I've only tried the QHY268M, but it's been running flawlessly for a bit over a year now. I gotta point out that the power cable is a screwed in connector. Like the EQ6, but 5.5x2.1mm instead (it's also compatible with regular 5.5x2.1mm cable).

If you end up like me with a the QHY cam and ZWO EFW, you'll have to use a treaded connector or a ream the hole on the ZWO to 3mm.

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andrea tasselli

Frequent contributor

Jul 17, 2025

Touptek isn't that reliable. One (a rebranded one) died on me, the other (still rebranded) works fine until it drops occasionally a frame (or two). Keeps me wondering whether it would follow the other one's route. Issues with USB hardware, me thinks. But they were considerably cheaper than the competition. OTOH, ZWO's never miss a beat. Apart from dewing the sensor but this for older generation cameras. Player One (not IMX571) seems better camera but we shall see. Bulletproof ones that I know of: Moravian Instruments C3-26000 PRO

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Georg N. Nyman

Jul 17, 2025

I got both and both are working without problems so far. Keep in mind that if you go for QHY, you cannot use ASIair. My personal opinion - QHY is a bit more a diva, a tiny touch less robust but the imaging performance is flawless. ASI2600 is a working horse..

Andy 01

Topic starter

IOTD Staff

Jul 17, 2025

Werner Stumpferl:
Hello Andy,
I believe there are not much differences. You can hear good and bad things on both sides. I had always QHY (183M/C, 294M/C, 268M/C, 600M, 585C) and had never any probems with dew, reflections, cooling or drivers. Smooth darks, less hot/cold Pixels, good quality and cheaper then ASI.
CS
Werner

Thanks Werner, good to know - curiously, QHY is more expensive than ZWO here in Oz. - CS Andy

Hi Andy, I have four ZWO 2600MC's ages 1 to 5 years old and though not MM's they have been absolutely flawless. I can not speak regarding Voyager or Nina but with SharpCap and ASIAir they have been bulletproof in winter and summer for me with no problems ever.
Issues I have heard about are directly related to running the heated and cooled cameras without a dedicated power supply, the importance of which is not well enough explained in ZWO literature. I have numerous models of ZWO cameras and they have all been good for me but I feel the 2600's are in a certain class of their own somehow.

CS's

scott

Thanks Scott - ZWO do seem to be very reliable. CS Andy

Dan Watt:
Been using my qhy268m + OAG + FW every clear night (lots of them here in socal) for a few years now and it's been bulletproof.

Cheers Dan, Do you use the multi mode options at all?
I kinda like the idea of specific settings for Broadband and narrowband imaging to avoid blowing out bright stars.
CS Andy

Stjepan Prugovečki:
I do have QHY 268M an 2 Touptek 571 OSC. All do work without any issues (NINA, Sharpcap) . There is no essential difference among them. QHY has some nice and handy features (like humidity sensor , several modes of exposure,..) and is made very solid , but on the other hand it does not have USB hub and cooling does not exceed 30C difference between environment and sensor.. ZWO? I do not know , I am not big fan of ZWO cameras. If I would be buying today, It would be Touptek either direct or re-branded

Thanks Stefek<
As asked above ^ are you using the different exposure modes at all?
CS
Andy

Médéric Hébert:
I've only tried the QHY268M, but it's been running flawlessly for a bit over a year now. I gotta point out that the power cable is a screwed in connector. Like the EQ6, but 5.5x2.1mm instead (it's also compatible with regular 5.5x2.1mm cable).

If you end up like me with a the QHY cam and ZWO EFW, you'll have to use a treaded connector or a ream the hole on the ZWO to 3mm.

Cheers Médéric, whichever way I go, it will all be the same family. CS Andy

andrea tasselli:
Touptek isn't that reliable. One (a rebranded one) died on me, the other (still rebranded) works fine until it drops occasionally a frame (or two). Keeps me wondering whether it would follow the other one's route. Issues with USB hardware, me thinks. But they were considerably cheaper than the competition. OTOH, ZWO's never miss a beat. Apart from dewing the sensor but this for older generation cameras. Player One (not IMX571) seems better camera but we shall see. Bulletproof ones that I know of: Moravian Instruments C3-26000 PRO

Hmm, interesting about the Touptec, but I guess if they're the least expensive, you get what you pay for!
Sounds like another vote for ZWO!
CS Andy

Georg N. Nyman:
I got both and both are working without problems so far. Keep in mind that if you go for QHY, you cannot use ASIair. My personal opinion - QHY is a bit more a diva, a tiny touch less robust but the imaging performance is flawless. ASI2600 is a working horse..

Thanks Georg! Another vote for ZWO. Hmm - I won't be using the ASI air as I use Voyager and a NUC, but good to know.
Do you use the different exposure modes on the QHY?
CS
Andy

Michael Nemetz

Jul 17, 2025

andrea tasselli:
Touptek isn't that reliable. One (a rebranded one) died on me, the other (still rebranded) works fine until it drops occasionally a frame (or two). Keeps me wondering whether it would follow the other one's route. Issues with USB hardware, me thinks. But they were considerably cheaper than the competition. OTOH, ZWO's never miss a beat. Apart from dewing the sensor but this for older generation cameras. Player One (not IMX571) seems better camera but we shall see. Bulletproof ones that I know of: Moravian Instruments C3-26000 PRO

Can't confirm this one, I have a pretty reliable and well running Altair one. Also many friends and youtubers (Cuiv, Frank Sackenheim, etc) confirm high reliability. Doesn't mean there are some bad samples. ZWO had lots of problems too, cooling fan etc. If you don't need AsiAir, I wouldn't waste money. In the end it's a personal preference.

Georg N. Nyman

Jul 17, 2025

Hi Andy,

on three of my four systems, I do use Voyager sometimes - preferably when I need to acquire images without any unexpected problems with any parts of the system. Voyager can cope with both brands well, but probably a bit easier with ZWO.

With QHY, especially with my 600 cameras (both OSC and Mono), I need to disconnect and reconnect the power supply for the camera before they are recognized by Windows ( both 10 and 11). That is rather a known particularity of QHY as far as I know.

If you do not have a very special reason to select QHY, I would probably would slightly prefer ZWO because their cameras are supported by all known image acquisition software whereas QHY is not yet fully supported by all - depending on camera type.

However ZWO service - again, as far as I know - is not as fast as QHY.
The reason is, that QHY has opened a service center in the EU which can do quite a lot of standard repairs. The German dealer, Astrolumina is very cooperative and fast in responding to problems. My experience with ZWO service is that it works but takes more time to get a camera back - up to several months.

Please keep in mind, that those statements are based upon my personal experiences and might not be valid for other users of those brands!

Cheers
Georg

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David Néel

Jul 17, 2025

PlayerOne Poseidon C is perfect. No issues at all on my side.

Stjepan Prugovečki

Jul 17, 2025 · Edited: Jul 17, 2025

Thanks Stefek<
As asked above ^ are you using the different exposure modes at all?
CS
Andy

Yes I do occassionally , I normally image from my Bortle 4 backyard but when (not often enough😀) go under Bortle 2 then depends about filters used and object I image I switch to Photographic mode . But indeed in most cases I am in High Gain mode ...

But I always wonder what exactly do you get from ZWO that you do not get from the others. If reliability is in question, every electronic device can break. In my small local community there were serious problems also with ZWO cameras, even more often than with others. One of my Touptek cameras is Omegon branded. Support reaction from them was within hours. What I heard from ZWO owners, it is not the case for ZWO support. But then again, there is no dramatic difference among different brands in any aspect. When I was buying second camera I decided to buy two Touptek cameras for the price of single ZWO or QHY. (thinking if one breaks, I have another) And so far both are perfect, with no objection whatsoever for more than 2 years

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Dunk

Jul 17, 2025 · Edited: Jul 17, 2025

+1 for PlayerOne. I have both colour and mono variants of this sensor and am very happy with both. The quality of the camera is def. a step up from ZWO.

Unrelated but I've had 2 support issues with P1 gear (not this camera) and both times they have been extremely responsive (within 24hrs email). In one case they sent me a replacement part completely free (OAG issue) and in the other when I broke a guide cam, they sent me a replacement board in about 3 days (China-> Australia). Both times with excellent support when I had questions.

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Michael Nemetz

Jul 17, 2025

Georg N. Nyman:
With QHY, especially with my 600 cameras (both OSC and Mono), I need to disconnect and reconnect the power supply for the camera before they are recognized by Windows ( both 10 and 11). That is rather a known particularity of QHY as far as I know.

Interesting, that's why I am using the Primalucelab Eagle, I found the ability to control USB and Power by the astro computer very handy. I'm just new to astrophotography but a long time IT guy, so that was where I was looking at because USB can be nasty.

andrea tasselli

Frequent contributor

Jul 17, 2025

Michael Nemetz:
Can't confirm this one, I have a pretty reliable and well running Altair one. Also many friends and youtubers (Cuiv, Frank Sackenheim, etc) confirm high reliability. Doesn't mean there are some bad samples. ZWO had lots of problems too, cooling fan etc. If you don't need AsiAir, I wouldn't waste money. In the end it's a personal preference.

Mine are both altair ones. Support is patchy and repair you can forget it. Reliability is poor as well. I'm not gonna buy theirs or QHY's (poor reliability but good support) any time soon.

Tony Gondola

Frequent contributor

Jul 17, 2025

It's really hard to to really know what the reliability of any product like this is with such a small sample. You would have to look at hundreds of units to come up with any meaningful data. What I would really consider the most would be customer service because any of these cameras can fail or have software issues. My personal experience is that ZWO customer service is useless, Touptek is incredibly fast, responsive and helpful.

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Dave & Telescope

Jul 17, 2025

Not sure I have much to expand on here. All very good advice. Bottom line is relatively minor differences in functionality. I have actually 3 QHY268M's and 1 268C of which one is at a remote observatory and stays on all the time. No issues with any of them. I'm using Voyager and voyager has the QHY SDK for camera control and operation has been "bulletproof" for well over 2 years now. But you can easily use any camera interface . I have also used NINA with no issues there and The Sky X. It can be a little quirky with The Sky X so you have to play around with using the native driver vs ASCOM but it does eventually work. I have found QHY support to be very good. They will respond in about one day or maybe 2. The multimode camera settings can be handy but you will need to take new calibration frames for each one you use. I really wish these cameras had an internal shutter! Cooling temp I am not really concerned about because the sensor is very low noise so I'm only at 0 to -5 in the summer and around -10 to -15 in the winter.

Anyway, HTH

Best,
Dave

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Blue

Jul 17, 2025

I can only say that my ASI294MC Pro was an OK intro camera but the pair of ASI2600 cameras I have, have been excellent. There were some very early driver issues which occasionally resulted in 0 byte frames but I have not seen one of those in a long time. My 2600MC Pro has been working away since 2020, and the MM since mid 2021. There were some issues with grease from a heat sink pad creeping around on to the sensor on some 2600 cameras but that seems to have been resolved some time ago (Neither of mine have done this)

The USB hub is a solid advantage in my view as it allows a filter wheel and guide camera to be connected via the main camera, reducing cabling. Particularly an advantage if it is on the "Wrong" side of a rotator.

I can't talk to the QHY mode settings, but I am not sure I would find them to be an advantage, just using gain -20 for broadband and gain 100 for narrowband appears to result in very similar readout settings with my 2600 cams, with perhaps a slight read noise advantage to the QHY for broadband.

Knowing you use Voyager, the only thing I do not know is if there are enough settings exposed by the driver to allow Voyager to change readout mode on the fly where you shoot broad and narrowband data in the same unattended session. If you can't the ZWO would have the advantage there. That would be a question for any QHY268 users running Voyager, can Voyager change readout modes shot by shot or is that setting not available to Voyager via the camera driver and you have to stop the session to change it yourself?

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ScottF

Frequent contributor

Jul 17, 2025

I have ASI2600MM and MC for the past few years and have had no issues other than a bad USB cable.

Kevin Morefield

IOTD Staff

Jul 17, 2025

Andy,

There has been an issue with oil leaks inside the chamber with ZWO. You might research that. This is a friend's experience - I have only use QHYs (and the ATIK).

Kevin

Dark Matters Astrophotography

Jul 17, 2025

Bulletproof is Moravian. FLI should have its Aurora line of CMOS cameras out soon.

Seung-Jun Kim

Jul 17, 2025 · Edited: Jul 17, 2025

I hd owned ZWO 2600MM, Touptek IMX571 Mono and QHY268M

Here is my summary of personal experience

ZWO 2600MM

Pro- ASIAIR Compatible, Very stable software/driver

Con - Price (the most expensive among three)

QHY268M

Pro - Solid mechanical built quality,

Con- software/driver, no USB hub on camera , heavier compared to ZWO and Touptek (more chance to get focuser tilt)

Touptek IMX571

Pro- Price (almost half price of ZWO), very Fast cooling speed
Con- No US vendor (I bought through aliexpress. When I accidentally broke USB port, I had to ship it all the way to manufacturer in China. )

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Alan Brunelle

Jul 17, 2025 · Edited: Jul 17, 2025

I have the QHY MC pro from about 5 years ago (maybe more?). A year prior I bought a ZWO camera, that at the time had the same sensor size and overall build engineering as the 2600. At that time, QHY was known for it having "issues" that appeared to be mostly tied with software and service. But I found the software functionality, particularly the various capture modes to be useful and I still use these today. QHY has added even more "modes" since then that even my older camera can make use of. The issues that I had with my ZWO at the time was that the seals were not very reliable and I constantly had to break down the sensor chamber to dry the ceramic drying tablets. As mentioned above, dewing of the sensor seemed to be an inherent design flaw of all that format of ZWO cameras at the time. ZWO tech supports answer to my query about how to fix the issue was that I use silicone adhesive (like used for sealing windows, etc.) after I reassemble the camera! That was a red flag for me at the time. As mentioned above, that issue seems to be less of a problem with newer cameras from ZWO. So do try to learn more about that from current users of newer ZWO cameras. I have never had to "dry" my QHY camera, even through the provided drying cartridge. Regarding that issue, with my ZWO camera, I now put a lot less pressure on either of the cameras (the ZWO is now out on loan) by not cooling the camera -30+ degrees below ambient. I know that is all the rage for newbies who love to push the technical limits of their gear to the edge, but the cooling of astrocameras is more important regarding the images being taken at a constant temperature, regardless of the specific temperature. Once that is understood, darks, biases (if used), etc. negates any tiny improvement that might be achieved by using the camera at -20C on a 80 degree night! Using my cameras close to, or just a degree above 0C, reduces the odds of dewing. And when I am remote using battery power, it saves my batteries! Cooling can be a power hog.

If you might see value in the image capture modes for your use, consider the QHY. Otherwise, I think most people would not be able to differentiate them. Regarding tech support, I have heard horror stories from both companies and some good from both. My experience from ZWO support has been fine, even if I did not like what they were telling me. With QHY, I never had to ask them for help, so no feedback on that one. Perusing here or other astro sites trying to gather a statistically meaningful assessment of those sorts of things is probably a waste of time.

Finally, the idea that being tied to a controller (such as the ASIAIR) seems to me to be anything other than an advantage. Yes, I can understand that many love the idea of using such one-stop device, but to me, the built in exclusivity was something that I ran away from as quickly as I could. However, do not take that as a statement that the ZWO cameras cannot be used with any controllers, they can. And they clearly perform well that way.

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Tony Gondola

Frequent contributor

Jul 17, 2025

Seung-Jun Kim:
I hd owned ZWO 2600MM, Touptek IMX571 Mono and QHY268M

Here is my summary of personal experience

ZWO 2600MM

Pro- ASIAIR Compatible, Very stable software/driver

Con - Price (the most expensive among three)

QHY268M

Pro - Solid mechanical built quality,

Con- software/driver, no USB hub on camera , heavier compared to ZWO and Touptek (more chance to get focuser tilt)

Touptek IMX571

Pro- Price (almost half price of ZWO), very Fast cooling speed
Con- No US vendor (I bought through aliexpress. When I accidentally broke USB port, I had to ship it all the way to manufacturer in China. )

The best way to get Touptek product is to order directly from Touptek. The price is good and the items I've ordered only took 5 days to arrive in the US.

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