Asi533mc pro vs Asi2600mc pro (duo?) - Forums

Topic starter

4 hours ago

The answer seems obvious. But i’d like to hear from people who have used both and perhaps felt they had spent money unnecessarily?

I’m at a crossroads. I have an Asi662. An asiair plus. Several scopes smallest skywatcher evostar 80ed, largest 250pds.Az-eq6 mount. I’m interested in galaxies and emission nebula. I have several nikon lenses.

I know there are two paths to being able to fit all objects onto the two sensors.

I’d like to hear your stories and try to avoid unnecessary spending or false economies.

Thanks

Mark

bofhskull

3 hours ago

Well, FOV aside, you’re talking about 9MP vs 24MP.
I have a 533 and will likely also get the 2600 at some point if I can.
533 is great, nothing to complain about, but it’s somewhat limited if what you plan is (for example in my case) printing your captures at times…

Mark Worthington

Topic starter

3 hours ago

bofhskull · Apr 8, 2026, 08:51 AM
Well, FOV aside, you’re talking about 9MP vs 24MP.
I have a 533 and will likely also get the 2600 at some point if I can.
533 is great, nothing to complain about, but it’s somewhat limited if what you plan is (for example in my case) printing your captures at times…

Thanks. I'm very torn to be honest. There’s a huge cost difference. I can also get wider objects like m42 using the 533 with an adaptor on my nikon 70-300 lens. I’m not intending to print (well, not as far as I know 😏). What I need, is a lottery win.

andrea tasselli

Frequent contributor

3 hours ago

Image scale is the same so it is really down to FOV. Performance-wise I think the IMX571 has a slight edge but not the main selling point. If you want easiness of installation and of setting up then the IMX533 is to be preferred. If you want more of an all-arounder then the IMX571 is your best bet. I have both. Get something with a properly designed (and rear operated) tilt-plate built in, saves you a lot of grief down the road…

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Hans Roos

New contributor

2 hours ago

I have both. The 533 performs well.

It was my first real astro camera after using my old Nikon D300 for two years.

The difference was amazing, although the FOV is a lot smaller.

Then I bought the 2600 MC duo. It’s nice to have a bigger FOV.

Because I like to capture galaxies, I also tend to crop my pictures (they are often rather small..)

The image scale is exactly the same, but with the 2600 there is more room to change the composition.

The real difference for me is the built-in extra sensor for guiding. I removed my guide scope and never used it again!

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Mark Worthington

Topic starter

2 hours ago

andrea tasselli · Apr 8, 2026, 09:18 AM
Image scale is the same so it is really down to FOV. Performance-wise I think the IMX571 has a slight edge but not the main selling point. If you want easiness of installation and of setting up then the IMX533 is to be preferred. If you want more of an all-arounder then the IMX571 is your best bet. I have both. Get something with a properly designed (and rear operated) tilt-plate built in, saves you a lot of grief down the road…

Thanks. I’m guessing a tilt plate is more critical for the 2600 than the 533?

andrea tasselli

Frequent contributor

2 hours ago

Mark Worthington · Apr 8, 2026, 09:39 AM
Thanks. I’m guessing a tilt plate is more critical for the 2600 than the 533?

Yes, but you’ll need it even with the IMX533. I know I do with my 1200mm of FL.

C.Sand

2 hours ago

Basically what Andrea said but budget permitting I see no reason why you wouldn’t go for the 2600. You can think of the 533 as literally just a cropped version of the 2600. Any shot you can get with the 533 you can get with the 2600, with the addition of another 15mp.

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Mark Worthington

Topic starter

2 hours ago

C.Sand · Apr 8, 2026, 10:03 AM
Basically what Andrea said but budget permitting I see no reason why you wouldn’t go for the 2600. You can think of the 533 as literally just a cropped version of the 2600. Any shot you can get with the 533 you can get with the 2600, with the addition of another 15mp.

Thanks. I’m assuming that the pixel density, hence resolution is the same though. Lots to think about.

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Lucas Jacobson

1 hour ago

I don’t know what the rest of your setup looks like, but, in my opinion, moving to the ASI2600 would probably be one of the most cost effective upgrades you could take. I would assume the APS-C sized sensor is fine for your gear, but if you went bigger, you would probably have to make a big investment in the rest of your optical chain. What the other users said about composition is very true since you’ll have a rectangular FoV (which our brains really like) and almost 3x more sky to play with. Also the 16 vs 14 bit ADC is a benefit. It doesn’t give you a lower SNR or anything like that because the LSB of the ADC still has roughly equivalent value in both sensors. However, the two bits do give you 4x more dynamic range on the high end meaning you can have objects with bright stars or cores and you can capture these more deeply without your raw data saturating your pixels as easily. I made the same upgrade a year ago, and it made a big difference for me. The only caveat I would give is that you might bite the bullet and go mono. It does incur the cost of filters and wheel etc., but you may end up there anyway and wonder why you still have your OSC.

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Chris Seabrooke

New contributor

3 minutes ago

Hans Roos · Apr 8, 2026 at 09:33 AM
I have both. The 533 performs well.
It was my first real astro camera after using my old Nikon D300 for two years.
The difference was amazing, although the FOV is a lot smaller.
Then I bought the 2600 MC duo. It’s nice to have a bigger FOV.
Because I like to capture galaxies, I also tend to crop my pictures (they are often rather small..)
The image scale is exactly the same, but with the 2600 there is more room to change the composition.
The real difference for me is the built-in extra sensor for guiding. I removed my guide scope and never used it again!

Followed the same path, 533 then 2600 duo. Goodbye guidescope😁

Aloke Palsikar

just now

I have both now. My 1st Astro camera was ASI 533 MC Pro and recently upgraded to ASI 2600 MC Pro. Agree to most of the views expressed above. My personal experience using the two in last couple of weeks is

The IMX533 sensor is 1 inch square and the image quality is about 9 MP whereas the IMX 571 is a APS-C size sensor with 26MP image size. The image quality is way superior and good for distant objects
The ASI 2600 MC is relatively quite heavy and almost double the weight of 533 MC and hence overall weight of the gear needs to be managed.
During Live stacking the image size being larger the ASI Air takes relatively longer time to stack but is not a constraint if the exposures are longer say 120-180 sec or more.

Going for a Duo is dependent on your main image Train as not all Scopes are best suited for OAG and Duo sensor camera. Assume you have done that analysis earlier.

All the best !

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