Taking the plunge for a 460EX?

[stormlv]

Hi there,
This is my first post and it's also a question...
I'm really looking forward to getting a dedicated CCD camera.
I was looking at the 460EX, but I am a bit concerned about the cooling on this camera (max 25C in the manual).

Has anyone else had any experience to see how much you can descend in temperature in practice?

I know that the Sony sensors are cleaner and less noisy, but I'm wondering whether or not the -25C is not too small... The camera version from SX it is said to be descending at least 30C below ambient temperature.

Could anyone please clarify this for me?

Best,
Vlad

[Konihlav]

Vlad, you are mostly right in your opinions...

25 degrees delta is not much, but it seems Atik 4xx reaches between 28-29 delta (at least my and my friends cameras do reach up to 29deg delta). Whether it is enough or not depends on where you live. If the ambient temperature at night is below +20deg C then you are OK. For warmer places on the World it would be perfect if Atik provides some cooling enhancer BTW SX also has small delta, but with "cooling enhnancer" - that is in fact just a fan (otherwise the camera body heats too much) it reaches around 30 delta as well as Atik.

SX is more noisy then Atik. SX provides you a way how to collimate the chip tilt/aligmnent which might be good, but also might be bad as it's another thing you have to worry about and it may not stay permanently perfect. Atik on the other side also (at least I have found out) had some "problems" with alignment, but I was told (when I reported to Atik how to make their products even better and uncompromised - as I like Atik) they work on a new process how to make this even more precise then now. SX has backfocus I think 17mm? or something big while Atik has only 13mm which is just perfect Best is to use SX accessory (filter wheel for instance) with an Atik camera

http://blog.astrofotky.cz/pavelpech/?page_id=782

One more remark from my tests - the threashold temperature (from which you may not ever notice lower noise in your images) that you should cool down to is around -8 deg C. This seems to be the breakpoint. Anything cooler than this brings only very small benefit. Therefore I set mine to -10 for all year round (except of Winter times when I shoot in -15 ambient).

all best
Pavel

[stormlv]

Thank you for your reply Pavel!
I just ordered the 460EX
I hope I'll manage to take nice pictures with it.
Given that I managed to take this : http://www.flickr.com/photos/stormlv/sets/72157630692285864/
with my Canon 40D, I have really high hopes for this camera!
All the best,
Vlad

[Konihlav]

you are welcome. The Atik 460EXM (mono :-) ) is the best CCD camera you can buy in this price range at the moment. If your budget is 4 times bigger then I may have another candidate, but for cameras priced <4000 EUR there's no better choice, especially for narrow band!

you are from Romania? just guessing...

[stormlv]

Yup, that's what I got (460EXM - mono)
And yes again, I'm from Romania (however I am now living in Geneva) How'd you know?
V