AstroShop.de, one of our German resellers, has published the following short review of The Imaging Source astronomy cameras. The text has been translated from German into English for our global audience.

Planetary and Deep Sky Imaging With Highly Sensitive Video Cameras

One of the main problems with the range of web cams from Philips is that they only allow a limited amount of data to be transferred from the camera to host PC. Alternative cameras are available from Mintron, Watec and The Imaging Source, with their DMK range.

The DMK cameras are available with a number of chip sizes and resolutions. The DMK 21AF04 have already acquired a very good reputation for planetary imaging. This monochrome camera outputs sixty images per second with a dynamic range of 10 bit (digitization 8 bit).

In terms of sensitivity and noise, The Imaging Source astronomy cameras are far superior to web cams. This is due to better control of the chip and lack of a color filter. Color web cams have a filter in front of each pixel. This only allows red, green, blue through (quarter of the light). Only monochrome cameras take advantage of the full sensitivity of the chip.

The resolution of the DMK 21AF04 is limited to 640×480. This, however, is more than sufficient for planetary imaging. There are also some models with 1024×768 and 1280×960 resolution, which are of interest to astro-photographers who wish to capture Moon and Sun images.

The DMK cameras ship with a FireWire [and USB] connector [...] Furthermore, the camera driver IC WDM DCAM TIS and camera control software IC Capture.AS are included. Image data from the camera is not compressed: each image is in RAW format. In addition to the shipped software, it is also possible to use applications such as Virtual-Dub or Giotto with the cameras.

Post capture image processing is performed in a manor similar to with web cams.

The original page, which is in German, also offers a number of sample images.

We have just received a message from Bart Declercq, telling us that with the following mosaic image of Moretus/Clavius, he has won the Cloudy Nights Imaging and Sketching Contest.

To capture the image, Bart used a DMK 31AF03:

Charlie, the organizer of the contest, writes:

To all of you who took the time to stop by and vote for your favorite submission - thank you so much! Your participation really makes the contest!

To all the contestants - every one of your submissions is worthy of winning. Congratulations to all of you on a job done very well indeed!

Bart, congratulations on your win! Please contact me via PM with your t-shirt size and also the address where you want us to send it!

Many users of The Imaging Source cameras have recently phoned, emailed, and even faxed what seems to be a most relevant question concerning the new USB models. Tom Ferraro of Melbourne, FL writes:

[...] the humidity here in Florida is just deadly no matter what time of year it is! Can I extend the USB connection from my laptop to my DMK 21AU04.AS so that I can stay cool while sipping a tasty beverage?

Good news Tom. I’ve purchased a few long USB cables and extension cables from a local electronics shop and tested The Imaging Source DMK 21AU04.AS (and its siblings) up to 10 meters! One note: buy good quality cables!

Have a Great Day,

profjohn

In the Chinese publication Communications In Mars, issue no. 334, Eric NG has published the following image, which he captured with DMK 21AF04 and DFK 21AF04 FireWire cameras.

He commentates the image with:

I finally got time to resume my planetary imaging with the newly purchases DMK Firewire camera on 14 July, 2007 (Sat) with my friend Bill Yeung and Florence Leung. Jupiter is quite low on the sky (45 degree) and the atmospheric dispersion affected quite obvious the resolution of the images. Anyway, I am quite satisfied with this first results captured by the new cameras. The images were captured in LRGB with DMK mono and DFK color cameras within 4 mins time window.

The following image was captured by Wes Higgins through a 18″ Starmaster with 5x barlow, using his DMK 21F04:

The lunar images produced by Wes Higgins are some of the best. His web site contains a great number, many of which have been captured with The Imaging Source astronomy cameras.