The QHY 268C APS-C Photographic Cooled Color CMOS Camera features a back-illuminated 26 megapixel APS-C sensor with 16-bit ADC and 3.76 um pixel size.
Native 16-bit ADC 65536 Levels
The QHY 268C is a CMOS camera with native 16-bit A/D on-chip. The output is true 16-bits with 65536 levels. This allows for incredible dynamic range and smooth gradations between colors. The 16-bit ADC can get high sample resolution, and the system gain will be less than 1e/ADU. No sample error noise and low noise.
Great Full Well: 51ke- at 3.76 um
One benefit of the back-illuminated CMOS structure is improved full well capacity. This is particularly helpful for sensors with small pixels. Even with unbinned 3.76 um pixels the QHY268C has a full well capacity of 50ke-!
Ultra Low Read Noise
With a 1 to 4 e read noise, the QHY 268C has only one electron of read noise at high gain and 15/fps high readout speed. One electron of read noise means the camera can achieve a SNR>3 at only 4 to 6 photons. This is perfect performance when conditions are photon limited, i.e., short exposures, narrow band imaging, etc., making this large area sensor ideal for sky surveys and time domain astronomy.
Back-Illuminated: Electric Rolling Shutter and Low Dark Current
This back-illuminated Scientific CMOS camera has extremely low dark current using SONY’s Exmor BSI CMOS technology. In general, the fan-blade mechanical shutter will be broken if it is used 200,000 times or so, and in some specific cases it is easy to fail to switch on or off. The advantage of electronic shutter over mechanical shutter is high-reliability and stability when the observatory shoots a large number of pictures. The electronic shutter is a relatively perfect choice for the observatory.
Best Match for a HyperStar or RASA System
The round camera case design of QHY 268C and the imager size is your best match for Hyperstar or RASA systems.
USB3.0
Using the USB3.0 interface you transfer at 6/fps.
TEC Cooling
The QHY 268C has regulated TEC Cooling with 2-stage TE Cooler.
The differences between the Photographic and Professional versions include:
- Professional version has a high-speed fiber interface and USB3.0 interface. Photographic version has only a USB3.0 interface.
- Professional version may has more on-camera DDR3 memory than the Photographic version.
- Professional version has rich, external, expandable I/O signals as well as a rich resource that allow the user to customize the FPGA inside the camera.
- Professional version is more expensive than Photographic version.
- Professional version has a longer body to accommodate the length of the optical fiber interface.
- Camera Window is AR+AR
