From: Perry Holcomb <hpholcomb@yahoo.com>

Date: November 28, 2007 5:57:52 PM MST

To: Astro_IIDC@yahoogroups.com

Subject: Re: [Astro_IIDC] Re: New Flea2 models

Speaking as a Mac user since 1988 (Sys. 6.x or

something like that), I would pose that more PCs have

USB capability than Firewire, or there wouldn't be as

many Firewire boards for PCs on the market.

Just an assumption...

Perry

--- Tim <tjp314@pacbell.net> wrote:

--- In Astro_IIDC@yahoogroups.com, Milton Aupperle

<milton@...> wrote:

Hi Tim;

On 28-Nov-07, at 3:27 PM, Tim wrote:

Milton:

I just got an email from Pt Grey announcing a

couple of new Flea2

models in the works.

One uses a 1/3" 1.3MP EXview HAD ccd, and the

other uses a 2/3" 5MP

SuperHAD ccd.  Both have pretty small pixels,

3.75 and 3.45 microns,

respectively.

But a 2/3" chip in a camera that's only about a

1 1/4" cube?  That's

pretty amazing.

If you take a Fleas apart, you can see the boards

are all packed in a  

vertical direction. The CCD basically sits on the

board by itself.  

It's a similar design that Pulnix used of their

cameras.

So, which is more sensitive, an EXview HAD or a

SuperHAD?

ExView HAD is more sensitive by about 100% or 2x

times. It also has  

somewhat better well depth too.

So the Flea2 1/3" EXView HAD (3.75 microns per

pixel) will have about  

the same light gathering ability as your Flea

640x480 (at 7.4 microns  

per CCD pixel) does, just more pixels.

However the Flea2  are still 12 bit camera not 14

bit like the  

Grasshoppers. For long exposure they still have

the amp glow issue  

and although I've had several conversations on

this issue with PGR on  

turning it off, nothing has materialized.

Interesting.  So my idea of purchasing a Grasshopper

for DSO's, using

one of my fleas to guide with (and plugging it into

the grasshopper)

is still probably the best one, if I could convince

myself to spend

2700USD for the ExviewHAD grasshopper.  That'd be a

tidy arrangement,

much less licorice all over the place than guiding

with a flea and

imaging with my ST2000XM, which needs separate

(stiff!) power and USB

cabling, and is heavy.

Wish Pt Grey would advertise in S&T.  It's

disturbing that the Imaging

Source looks to be going to USB2, which for some

reason PC users seem

to think is better than Firewire.

-Tim.

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