Toup Tek monochrome with IMX571 sensor - Pros? Cons?

Mine is a 533 equivalent from Altair Astro. Build is pretty good and the camera is properly supported by native drivers by APT and NINA (the two I use). Mine has an IR/UV window and I can't find anything wrong with it, no odd reflection or similar. I've tested at around 35 below ambient and works a treat. Unfortunately my climate (very wet) isn't very conductive to steep temperature reductions as dewing tends to occurs, which is my only beef with this camera but I keep it outside all the time under a cover with the rest of the gear and that can lead to these issues. Can't say much about customer support as I never had the need to ask for support. When I''ll buy my IMX571 camera that would be directly from the likes of ToupTek or equivalent, no doubt about it.

I use an uncooled Toup Tek camera with a different sensor (IMX178 mono).  I've had it for about a year and it has become my workhorse for both DS and planetary imaging. It's mechanically solid, well-machined and well put together and I've had no issues. It's supported natively in NINA and the manufacturer also provides ASCOM drivers that I've used successfully with SharpCap. The free ToupSky program from the manufacturer is really handy for planetary imaging, giving a good frame rate, arbitrary sensor cropping and SER output files.

Overall I've found it to be a solid performer at a good price.

I own RisingStar mono/color versions of the Touptec camera, looks like a 100% clone of the ToupTec to me.

I really like is the price and the performance / build quality of both versions, for me a nobrainer to buy them instead of the more expensive versions from ZWO amd QHY. 

There are from what I found out only two areas where you need to doublecheck and both are closely related to ZWO accessories.

One thing to check is if you need to use the new big ZWO OAG together with a ZWO filter wheel.
The Problem with the OAG is that ZWO designed it in a way that it re-uses the tilt-plate of your ZWO camera to connect to your telescope, by removing the plate from your ZWO camera the backfocus of the camera actually reduces to 12.5mm compared to the 17.5mm the RisingStar/ToupTec has.

This means that you cannot reach 55mm backfocus when you want to use both the ZWO Filter Wheel and the large OAG because the minimal backfocus in this case will be 60mm. However, the small OAG from ZWO will work fine together with the ZWO Filter wheel and the Touptec/Risingstar camera.

The other (rather minor) problem is that both the ZWO Filter Wheel and the Camera do have threads to connect so it is not straightforward to attach the camera so that the orientation of the long side of the sensor is parallel to the flat bottom of the Filter wheel.
The problem can easily be solved by adding thin spacers between the camera and the Filter Wheel until the camera is positioned right and then to add the additional spacers required for correct backfocus in another place like behind the flattener. Just make sure you have a nice collection of 0.1 0.15 mm spacers.
Thr big plus point of having threads is that you can easily remove the camera from your image train to clean the sensor or to use it in a hyperstar configuration.

When you order you should ask if your vendor sells the version with the industrial sensor or not. I think this is only relevant for the mono sensor and the industrial grade sensor has little better specs, but if this an urban legend or not I cannot tell. Risingstar told me that they sell the industrial spec version.

I bought my cameras with the AR glass and so far have no issues with reflections, and halo issues do only exist with my 3nm Antlia Sii filter, but likely here the filter is to blame.

Cooling is more in the range of -30 to -35 below ambient, I can create Darks with -10° at room temperature which is enough for me. I replaced all fans with quiter fans with less vibration, so I may have lost a little cooling performce by doing this.

I use Nina for capture and in the last year I have only lost one single frame (it was half black) because of connectivity, so no issues in this area.

Customer service from Risingstar is good and responsive, usually answers come within a few hours, but so far I had no serious issues so I cannot say how the process works when it is necessary to ship back a camera.

Michael

Tareq Abdulla:
with IR cut it is almost like using a DSLR camera.

I think to buy a imx571 camera in color version with UV-IR cut filter: I can’t find the chart now, but the transmittance between 650 and 680 nm  where above 90%, and cut quite to 0 above the 750 nm. Usually a DSLR camera has about 20%  of transmittance on H alpha

https://www.astrobin.com/full/1de9y7/0/


The two bright stars in the pic have some halo that comes from the Sii Filter.

Here's one of the stars from a single 10min sub:

Bildschirm­foto 2022-11-14 um 15.04.26.png

Do you use the filter screwed directly onto the camera or a wit a filter wheel (if you use other filters too like dual narrowband)?

Cosmetatos:
I have one of the knock-offs IMX571 from aliexpress color camera.

I have two issues:

Α. Once in a while it generates a completely problematic sub. Look at the two consecutive subs below of IC1396, both 240sec, @-10C, 500gain/ 1000offset (but it does it at any gain/offset)

B. even the normal sub has some horizontal lines. I would like to hear from fellow astrophotographers if their ZWO/QHY 2600 has similar horizontal lines or if this is a result of the cheaper clones.




normal sub (IC1396 240sec @ -10C, 500g, 1000offset)




problematic sub:

I’ve had this “ problematic “ sub lots. More times than I can count and it always happens when I’m doing a heavy process(like stacking) when the sub downloads. Horizontal banding, every camera has it and some people experience it worse than others.

Matteo Beretta:
Do you use the filter screwed directly onto the camera or a wit a filter wheel (if you use other filters too like dual narrowband)?

It depends on the setup, for example i am using those two IMX571 cameras for my both 90mm triplets with reducers, i place the mount on the reducer mount ring that it came with, it says from the store: 
"Features an integrated M48x0.75 / 2" filter thread"

So i use this for now, later if i will change the scope or use the camera with something else then i can think about something, i do have a filter drawer just in case if i have to use that, and my filter wheels are only for my smaller sensor size cameras.

Martin Palenik:

Michael Ring:
https://www.astrobin.com/full/1de9y7/0/


The two bright stars in the pic have some halo that comes from the Sii Filter.

Here's one of the stars from a single 10min sub:

Bildschirm­foto 2022-11-14 um 15.04.26.png

Nice Jellyfish pic!!  My friend linked me his Amtilla Sii (3nm) filters and it was perfect no halo, but he has the 2600 camera.   So maybe yours is the camera or flattener/reducer combo.

I was lucky enough to buy Optolong SII 3nm 2" when it has a discount offer price, from what i read this filter also no halo, but i didn't test it yet, i just go with whatever cheaper as long the performance or quality are almost the same.

Cosmetatos:
I have one of the knock-offs IMX571 from aliexpress color camera.

I have two issues:

Α. Once in a while it generates a completely problematic sub. Look at the two consecutive subs below of IC1396, both 240sec, @-10C, 500gain/ 1000offset (but it does it at any gain/offset)

B. even the normal sub has some horizontal lines. I would like to hear from fellow astrophotographers if their ZWO/QHY 2600 has similar horizontal lines or if this is a result of the cheaper clones.




normal sub (IC1396 240sec @ -10C, 500g, 1000offset)




problematic sub:

For the first example, are you using the high gain switch at all or just increasing the gain value?

I've also experienced the horizontal lines, they are non-fixed pattern noise that shows up in my autofocus exposures and bias frames at low gain on the camera (both mono and color version). Flipping the high gain switch mostly removes them.

I can attest to the strange "weird sub" effect. I've had bad subs with the risingcam 571c exactly twice, both times I was experimenting with using NINA's Pixinsight tools to livestack.

For the first example, are you using the high gain switch at all or just increasing the gain value?

High gain value - not sure if correct or not

Adrian Knagg-Baugh:
concluded that in either low or high gain mode gain 100 was optimum

Thank you for the suggestion, I will try this and see how it goes.
Do you get the feel that my subs are particularly noisy, or is it similar to what you get?  (before dark subtraction)

Cosmetatos:

For the first example, are you using the high gain switch at all or just increasing the gain value?

High gain value - not sure if correct or not

Adrian Knagg-Baugh:
concluded that in either low or high gain mode gain 100 was optimum

Thank you for the suggestion, I will try this and see how it goes.
Do you get the feel that my subs are particularly noisy, or is it similar to what you get?  (before dark subtraction)

I'm not sure on the sub evaluation, but based on the gain/read noise curve, the camera doesn't experience a large drop in read noise by increasing the gain - only by applying the high gain switch.

See:

https://ae01.alicdn.com/kf/Hcf93f6e44a7447559ccdcee5bccacd09k.png
https://ae01.alicdn.com/kf/H8d0dd002341b4ff0bb710ab3b12ba2b5S.png