About to pull the trigger - few quick questions - Forums

Hi everyone,

I have been thinking about upgrading from a DSLR to a cooled cam, with my budget restricting me to either a system based on the KAF8300 or indeed the ASI1600MM-C. I would use this with a 102/714mm triplet APO (TS) and a 0.79 3" reducer.

My understanding is that both platforms can deliver fairly similar results, so that the ASI has the edge in terms of price vs performance. Is that assessment correct from your experience?

Secondly, I hate optical artifacts and am already struggling a bit with reflections caused by the 3" Flattener in my imaging train. It is manageable, but still. So I am slightly concerned about reports regarding halos in the 1600MMC caused by the protecting glass on top of the chip. Is this a prevalent issue and is this ASI specific or also found with the KAF8300?

Thanks for any feedback and clear skies!
/Marc

Hi Marc,

I have some pictures of the same object, but with different exposure times and focal lenght, taken with a KAF 8300 and with the ASI 1600 MM-C. You will see, that halos with the ASI only happend with really bright stars, and more strong if the bright star is orange.
With the KAF i dont have this issue, but with the KAF i have some issues if using binned mode (LRGB). The 2x2 binned Pictures also have halos, but after processing and adding the luminance, it is not a Problem for me, but visible if you now how it looks.

Check the Andromeda, you see the halo of the ASI on the orange star on the lower right. This is no problem for me, and could be corrected but here, it is not.
The Plejades hat a strong halos but i corrected it partially, and the starlight is white, so the Problem there seems less problematic.
IC443, there the halo is terrible and also totally uncorrected, but there the reducer was completely in a wrong distance to the sensor, and i think it will dramatically enhance the problem.

If you check rosette nebula, you will see, there are no halos at all with both cams…

I like both cams. The ASI i bought for widefields and with the 80/480, but i am sure also with my 700mm it will be great, but i never tried. But you can find a lot of Pictures here with bigger focal lenght
At the end, for me the 1600 halos are not nice, but no problem for me, except on the IC443 Picture, but there i think the problem with the reducer increases the problem dramatically . It happens only on a few stars, and could be corrected. The asi is small , easy to use and the possibility with gain / offset is very interesting for shorter exposure, but also with unity Gain (or lower) and long exposure times no problem. This you can see here in the blogs and picures.
Another thing, the Price is nice.
The KAF has a good performance, but with Problems in the binning mode. For long exposure time a good choice too. Both have pros and cons…
The Problems described here is only my experience with my cams, and i cant tell if everyone have the same issue, but i think, it is comparable with entry from other users i found

You have to decide

CS Thilo