Video Camera Advice

Hello everyone,

I'm considering the purchase of an astronomical video camera for deep sky objects (galaxies, nebulae, etc.), and it seems the two most popular are the Mallincam and Stellacam. Any opinions out there as to which might be the better choice? Has anyone ever compared the two (looking for opinions regarding current models)? Not sure yet whether I want monochrome or color, though I'm leaning toward monochrome for the increased sensitivity.

Thanks!

Brian

Brian, hold on the purchase....if you look at the company called WATEC you will find they made the stellacam.. in fact if you buy their 120 or 120+ it is comparable to the stellacam. This comes right from their tech support group. You would need a video card in your laptop to support any model but look deeper into the whole camera issue before you buy. Ive also beeen looking at other video ccd imagers as there are numerous ones on the market which are a lot cheaper than stellacam
Bruce

check ebay for Astrovid Stellacam EX CCD Video Imaging System starting at 250

Brian McFarland said:

Hello everyone,

I'm considering the purchase of an astronomical video camera for deep sky objects (galaxies, nebulae, etc.), and it seems the two most popular are the Mallincam and Stellacam. Any opinions out there as to which might be the better choice? Has anyone ever compared the two (looking for opinions regarding current models)? Not sure yet whether I want monochrome or color, though I'm leaning toward monochrome for the increased sensitivity.

Thanks!

Brian

I assume you are wanting a current generation cam...either the Mallincam Hyper Plus or the SC3?

For me, it's the Mallincam by a nose (though I have and use the SC2). The SC3 has unlimited exposure time, but you have to start and stop the exposures manually. The Mallincam Hyper Plus will expose for up to 56 seconds, more than enough for video. It also includes Peltier cooling in the base price. My next cam will likely by a Mallincam color unit.