Group:
There has been a lot of discussion regarding the gain and offset settings for this fine camera. First, I am not an expert nor an imaging guru. I just like to produce "pretty pictures". I have had my 2600MC Pro in operation since last fall. When I first started using it, I always used the selection in the ZWO setup menu of "lowest read noise", which produces a gain of 100. The images produced with this setting were pretty, but a few months ago I read an article on one of the imaging forums about the advantages of using Zero Gain. On my next imaging session, when I opened up the setup menu, I selected Zero as the gain setting, and saw that this is also the gain that results from using the menu selection "Highest Dynamic Range". I have used this setting since then. One thing I noticed is that at this setting the stars do not seem to be over-saturated, and the star colors are much richer.
By the way, I should mention that my imaging site is Bortle 3, and I always use sub-exposures ranging from 120 seconds to 240 seconds.
Just thought I'd pass my thoughts along, as added fodder to this discussion.
Cheers,
Stargazer66207
There has been a lot of discussion regarding the gain and offset settings for this fine camera. First, I am not an expert nor an imaging guru. I just like to produce "pretty pictures". I have had my 2600MC Pro in operation since last fall. When I first started using it, I always used the selection in the ZWO setup menu of "lowest read noise", which produces a gain of 100. The images produced with this setting were pretty, but a few months ago I read an article on one of the imaging forums about the advantages of using Zero Gain. On my next imaging session, when I opened up the setup menu, I selected Zero as the gain setting, and saw that this is also the gain that results from using the menu selection "Highest Dynamic Range". I have used this setting since then. One thing I noticed is that at this setting the stars do not seem to be over-saturated, and the star colors are much richer.
By the way, I should mention that my imaging site is Bortle 3, and I always use sub-exposures ranging from 120 seconds to 240 seconds.
Just thought I'd pass my thoughts along, as added fodder to this discussion.
Cheers,
Stargazer66207
