Tuesday, April 10, 2012

Orion 53082 StarShoot G3 Deep Space Color Imaging Camera

Orion 53082 StarShoot G3 Deep Space Color Imaging Camera

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Price: $399.99    Updated Price for Orion 53082 StarShoot G3 Deep Space Color Imaging Camera now
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Product Feature

  • The StarShoot G3 Deep Space Color Imaging Camera features a 1/2" format CCD sensor and an on-board thermoelectric cooler (TEC)
  • With high-tech features such as 16-bit A/D conversion, regulated thermoelectric cooling, on-board fan and more, you'll find yourself taking wall-worthy astrophotos with this affordable camera
  • The Orion StarShoot G3 can also be used as a dedicated, high-performance, low-noise autoguider with ST-4 output built right in
  • Complete Orion Camera Studio software is included for easy image capture, processing and sharing of your astro-images

Product Description

The Orion StarShoot G3 Deep Space Color Imaging Camera is totally redesigned with performance enhancing features and software that until now have been reserved for much more expensive CCD imagers. Built around the popular Sony interline ICX419AKL color CCD chip, which boasts a 752 x 582 pixel array with sensitive, 8.6 micron by 8.3 micron pixels, the StarShoot G3 is capable of detecting fine details in celestial objects. This bigger, 1/2" format CCD sensor usually isn't available in cameras priced as low as the StarShoot G3 and it provides a much larger imaging field of view than cameras equipped with 1/3" format chips so you can shoot more sky in far less time.The StarShoot G3 Deep Space Color Imaging Camera is the only camera in its price range to feature regulated thermoelectric cooling (TEC). Regulated thermoelectric cooling significantly improves astrophoto quality and reduces noise by enabling accurate dark frame acquisition. This regulated "cooling" feature is usually only found in much pricier cameras and makes the StarShoot G3 a truly amazing value. The on-board TEC can cool the StarShoot G3 to a brisk 10deg.C below ambient temperature so that noise is minimized in dark frames and exposures.The StarShoot G3 even features a small, vibration-free fan which assists the TEC to remove warm air and further optimize imaging results. These cooling features are usually only found on imaging cameras priced up to four times more expensive than the Orion Sta

Orion 53082 StarShoot G3 Deep Space Color Imaging Camera Review

This is my first dedicated deep sky astronomy camera. I've used an Imaging Source and an OpticStar planetary video cam before, and I've done some deep sky with my dSLR. This thing is a huge step forward over those. The results I've been getting far exceeded my expectations based on what I'd achieved before. However, as of right now, there are a few issues with the software that comes with it (Ver. 1.1.0 as of this writing)( at least in vista and 7). I've been talking with their support people. They seem to be working on it so we'll see. Basically right now you have to shoot in raw mode, and some of the fine adjustments in the software don't do anything. Color mode currently doesn't process reds. The gain, offset, and fine histogram adjustments don't work. Also the exposure adjustment goes in 1 second intervals, so you have to type in the exposure you want if you need something in between like while focusing or doing planetary work. I also hate that the loop exposure mode has such a lag between shots (I guess it's expected since it takes a while to download the image from the camera) and that you have to stop and restart the loop to see any changes you've made in exposure - it doesn't register changes until you stop the loop. That said, you can still get surprisingly good results. A single .4 second exposure that I did of Jupiter beats the crap out of anything I got stacking video from either of the other cams. With my Orion 120st, the M42 is visible with less than 5 sec exposure - not well, and the trapezium is blown because of the histogram settings you have to use, but visible. The flame nebula is just visible in about 40. The magnification on this cam is seems pretty high, plan on using a reducer of some sort. Without a reducer, M42 barely (mostly) fits in the FOV with the 120st which has only 600mm focal length. I do sorta wish it had higher resolution, but I don't regret buying this at all. Once Orion gets the software bugs worked out, this will be a great system. Right now, I'd recommend it but with some reservations because of the software.

Update: 3/3/12
If you get one of these, whatever you do, do *NOT* try to update the firmware through the update firmware menu option in Orion Camera Studio. If you do, it will tell you it needs to put the camera in 'programming mode'- after which your computer will stop recognizing it as a camera and decide it is: 'AT32UC3B,' a 'LibUSB-Win32 Device.' Camera Studio itself doesn't recognize the camera after that point. If you try to go back to the firmware updater it will say that it can't find the camera and that the camera may already be in programming mode. The only thing you can do in the updater is browse your computer looking for an 'elf' file (which I assume is the file type for the firmware) - it does not check online for a new version. As there currently isn't one on Orion's webpage for manual download, you are stuck at this point and pretty much screwed. There isn't any way out of programming mode - at least I haven't found a way out yet. So, right now my camera is an expensive paperweight unless tech support can come up with a solution. I'll update this again if they come through with the fix. All in all, still unsatisfied with the sorry software that came with this otherwise capable entry level camera.

Update:
About a week later the tech support guys emailed me a copy of the latest firmware. Mine originally had ver. 1.01. The version they sent is 1.07. According to tech support, going into programming mode wipes the firmware from the camera. Why they don't have it posted on their webpage for download is a mystery.

Update:
Honestly, the more they try to fix this thing, the worse it gets software wise. After updating to the latest version of the Orion Camera Studio, now the raw photos have the color messed up. I didn't think to try one of the color modes to see if they've fixed that, but c'mon Orion. My latest attempt was the double cluster which is well known to be clusters of blue stars with a few red stars mixed in. All the blue stars were green, and the red stars were purple. The colors are flipped somewhere in the pipeline...should be easy to fix, but we're going the wrong way. And still no firmware available on the webpage.

Update:
I may have to take back some stuff I said in the previous update. I noticed something recently that I hadn't expected. When you install the new version of the software, it does not overwrite the previous version, but puts the new one in a different folder. I expect that there is also a shared data folder of some sort that is getting overwritten. Basically, I've been using the same desktop shortcut to open the program. It appears that I've been using an old version of the main program mixed with some newer files that may not be completely compatible. Poor skies and work have kept me from checking, but I was still running v1.2 after installing v1.4. They've released v1.5 since I've had a chance to go out and see what difference, if any, it makes.

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