ok
I was thinking about getting a CCD camera, I am currently using a DSLR Canon EOS , is a CCD any better and what are the benefits of it
I ask because the CCD is a lot cheaper than my EOS

Thanks

Since the EOS DSLR is mass produces you are getting a lot of sensor for your $.
Most of the Canon DSLR's are CMOS sensors, but they are just as good as the best CCD semsors in the Nikon D40 or equivalent. Spend your $ on a better lens or a better tracking tripod.

hha

Your scope is a planetary scoope. A web cam is where to put your money not a CCD. Even with a compressor the field of that scope is small and the image scale very large. Not a good combination for deep sky on that mount. Go with its strong points not its weak ones.

For what you can do deep sky through it, small bright clusters for instance the full CCD camera has little advantage over the DSL. Factor in your light pollution and it just isn't worth the bucks. A CCD with the same field of view as the chip in your DSL is several times the cost of the DSL for only a 5% gain at best.

Rick

Hi Starchild615

When you say you were thinking about getting a ccd camera, did you mean ccd camera as in astrophotography specific ie starlight xpress, SBIG, etc. or did you mean DSLR with ccd chip as there is quite a difference between the two.
If you are trying to compare the differences between two DSLR's (one with CMOS and one with CCD) then there is not a great deal in performance when it comes to astrophotography. Part of the reason for this is that all the exposure management, processing and jiggery pokery is managed by microprocessors inside the camera and although the two cameras have different types of sensor you will find that for a given lens and aperture the shutter speed will be about the same with both cameras. You may ask why this should be when astronophotography specific cameras as mentioned above all use ccd as opposed to cmos? Well, the ccd is far more sensitive than cmos but all of the processing, exposure time, etc is managed by you. Astrophotography specific cameras are far more flexible for the reasons below
1. You can bin the pixels 2x2, 3x3, 4x4, etc. This means that you can combine several pixels to make one larger pixel thus making the camera far more sensitive and meaning shorter exposure times needed, you can't do this on a dslr
2. Every stage of processing is done by you so you have ultimate control on how your images turn out
3. There is a huge variety of chip and pixel sizes to suite all telescopes.

Your comments about ccd being cheaper seems to indicate that you are refering to a dslr with a ccd chip as astronphotography specific cameras are not cheaper. The reason for this is that all DSLRs are mass produced because there is such a huge demand for them and as with all mass production the product becomes cheaper if it is produced in bulk, as SBIG and starlight xpress, etc. are more specialist camera and use specialist ccd sensors they are more expensive and quite often are only made to order, a good example being the Starlight Xpress SXVF H36 (16 megapixel, monochrome large format) which I own and it costs £4500, this is far more expensive than a dslr equivalent.

If you were thinking about changing your canon for a ccd dslr I would say don't. The canon eos cameras are particularly good at handling noise compared with other makes and it is one of the best DSLR brands for astrophotography, you only have to look at how many people are using canons. If you have cash to burn I would always point people in the direction of mount first, ie always get as good a mount as you can possibly afford as far as tracking ability and accuracy, then think about lenses, scopes etc.

Hope this helps
Good luck
Gordon

There are cheap CCD cameras on the market such as the ones that Meade and Orion offer but the good ones are very expensive. A dedicated astronomical CCD camera is definitely superior to an uncooled and noisy DSLR.

I agree with Rick. Get a webcam setup for planetary imaging and use the DSLR for the brighter DSOs.

Dave Mitsky

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