Product Description

Here is an excellent review of the ASI2600MC-P by Simon Lewis on AstroWorkz

The ASI2600MC Duo combines imaging and guiding sensors in one compact body. The main sensor is the Sony IMX571 coming with a native 16-bit ADC,14stops dynamic range, and a 3.76um square pixel array. The readout noise is as low as 1.0e, and the full well capacity reaches an incredible level of 73ke. And it has no amp glow!

The guide sensor is the Type 1/1.8 SC2210 with excellent NIR sensitivity. The sensor size is 7.68mm x 4.32mm. It has 4umx4um pixels with an array of 1920×1080 and a full depth of 8780e.

The stars on the corner of the guide images affected by reducers back focus distance might not be very round. It is not due to the sensor tilt and will not affect normal use.

The image circle including the guide camera chip is roughly 44m across.

Two-in-one design

Thanks to the compact design, the ASI2600MC Duo only needs one USB cable for control. It reduces potential cabling issues and improves setup speeds. You don’t need a separate OAG and guide camera.

Tilt Adjustment from Rear （Optional）

The 3 points from the rear make tilt adjustment much easier without the trouble of removing the tilt plate from the camera.

Performance improvement comparison

Guide sensor

The SC2210 sensor taken from the ASI220MM Mini camera features very high sensitivity. The QE peak value reaches 92% at 500nm. The readout noise is as low as 0.6e. As the new generation of guide sensor, it has achieved great results in guiding, proved by hundreds of astrophotographers.

Main sensor

The main sensor IMX571 features an APS-C format and 26MP total pixels. The size is 23.5mm in width x 15.7mm in height, and the diagonal is 28.3mm. The 3.76um x 3.76um small pixel size accommodates an impressive full depth of 50ke. With the new hardware technology, it is even extended to 73ke.

STARVIS technology

ASI2600MC DUO is based on Sony STARVIS technology. Sony’s back-illuminated CMOS image sensor improves sensitivity and noise reduction – the key factors to enhancing image quality.

Camera performance

Native 16bit ADC

This 16-bit ADC is not a CCD 16-bit ADC. It can really achieve a dynamic range output of 14stops, which will significantly improve the image sharpness and contrast, and also create smoother and more natural color transitions.

FPS

ASI2600MC Duo’s max FPS in RAW 8 mode at full resolution is 15FPS, which is even quicker compared to ASI2600MC Pro.

Extended full well mode

The full well capacity of ASI2600MC Duo is extended to 73ke, which is 1.46x larger than ASI2600MC Pro.

USB 3.0 & 512MB DDR3 buffer

With the match of USB 3.0 and 512MB DDR3 buffer, ASI2600MCDuo provides stable and secure data transmission that can effectively avoid frame-dropping issues during long exposures.

No amp-glow

Traditional CMOS sensors produce a weak infrared light source during operation quite often seen in the corner of uncalibrated images. It is the tell-tale sign of amp glow. As the ASI2600MC Duo uses zero-amp glow circuitry, you won’t have to worry about amp glow even when using high gain, long exposure imaging.

QE (Quantum efficiency)

Based on our testing results, the QE peak value of ASI2600MC Duo is over 91%.

Two-stage TEC cooling

Thanks to the two-stage TEC cooling, ASI2600MC Duo can lower the CMOS sensor temperature to more than 35 degrees Celsius below ambient temperature, which can greatly reduce dark current generation and sensor noise even during extended exposure times.

*The Delta T 35℃ is tested at 30℃ ambient temperature. It might get down when the cooling system is working for a long time. Also, as the ambient temperature falls, the Delta T would decrease.

Dark current noise

Anti-Dew heater

There is a polyimide heater completely fitting the protective window in the ASI2600MC Duo camera. It can help avoid any potential annoying dew or icing issues depending on the environment in which you capture images.

The power of the heater is around 5W. You are free to turn it off anytime in your photography software if you want to save power.