From: Milton Aupperle <milton@outcastsoft.com>

Date: April 7, 2006 1:18:33 PM MDT

To: Astro_IIDC@yahoogroups.com

Subject: Re: [Astro_IIDC] Fire-i vs. DBK 21AF04

Hi Steve;

On 6-Apr-06, at 10:23 AM, Steve Childers wrote:

Hi, everyone:

I'm a new member looking for some information about webcam choices. First, some

background. I've been imaging DSO's from my back deck with a Digital Rebel on my mac for

over a year (thanks to iAstrophoto). I'm very happy with this setup, but I'd like to do

planetary and lunar imaging with a webcam for those bright moonlit nights. Also, in the

summer, we have a lot of nights with good seeing but lousy transparency because of high

humidity.

In reading over the many choices for firewire cameras, it looks like the Unibrain Fire-i may be

a reasonable low-end choice, while the DBK 21AF04 may be a better upgrade. Can someone

reiterate the advantages of each? Since I'm strictly interested in lunar/planetary imaging, I

really don't have a need for long exposures, but I would guess that low noise would be a

good priority.

Besides the exposure time (1 second versus 30 seconds), the DBK 21AF04 offers lower noise, better color fidelity, true 8 bit images, higher gain levels, has a C-Mount interface and is in a metal case. It also uses a completely different and improved chip set for controlling the CCD than the Unibrain Fire-I does.

But the DBK 21AF04 does cost more than the Unibrain does.

For Lunar imaging (or if you have a Filter wheel for Planetary and are a masochist for post processing 4 image sets), the Monochrome DMK 21AF04 will deliver better resolution on a per pixel basis and is more sensitive than the Color cameras. It also does pretty well for casual deep imaging too, as shown by Raoul Schesller's DSO images of "NGC891_20051126_RS.jpg", "NGC7331_20051017_RS.jpg" and "StephansQuintet_20051014_RS.jpg ".

I also notice that there does not seem to be a commercial scope adapter for

the Fire-i; is there a workable adapter for the DBK 21AF04?

As I mentioned in a previous post (#781), there are no adapters for the M10x0.5mm mount on the Orange Boxed Fire-i cameras and only some adapters for the Board cameras which have the M12x0.5mm mount. The DBK 21AF04 uses a C-Mount so commercial adapters already exist for it.

HTH..

Milton J. Aupperle

President

ASC - Aupperle Services and Contracting

Mac Software (Drivers, Components and Application) Specialist

#1005 - 815 14th Avenue. S.W.

Calgary Alberta Canada T2R0N5

1-(403)-229-9456

milton@outcastsoft.com