Modified: Sunday, August 12, 2007
Copyright © 2007. All rights reserved.
Starfish Camera Competitive Comparison

Competitor #5 - 'CamE' Specifications

The fifth camera used in the Starfish competitive camera shootout is a camera that we designated 'CamE'. This camera was designed as an imaging as well as a guiding solution by a leading manufacturer in the astro-photography field. The camera got high marks in most of the testing we did on the cameras in the group. It had the most sensitive image sensor of any of the cameras. Although the image sensor used in this camera was a CCD that did not have Anti-Blooming capability and exhibited significant blooming on the brighter guide stars. The image sensor was just slightly smaller than that of the Starfish camera giving a very comparable field of view.

Even though the camera had a ST-4 style guide port for guiding applications, it was designed to do equally well as a primary imaging camera. Such features as TEC cooling, internal color filter wheel, and mechanical shutter facilitated is use in an imaging capacity.

The extra features do come with a cost however. This was the most expensive camera that we tested and also the heaviest. The weight, combined with the physical size of the camera's enclosure may make for some difficult optical setups.

CamE Specifications
CCD:

Pixel Array:

CCD Size:

Total Pixels:

Pixel Size:

Full Well Capacity:

Dark Current:

Altiblooming:

Shutter:

Exposure:

Correlated Double Sampling:

A/D Converter:

A/D Gain:

Read Noise:

Binning modes:

Pixel Digitization Rate:

Full Frame Download:

Cooling - Standard:

Temperature Regulation:

Power:

Computer Interface:

Computer Compatibility:

Cost:

Kodak KAF-0402ME

765 x 510 pixels

6.9 x 4.3 mm

390,000

9 x 9 microns

~100,000 e-

1e-/pixels/sec at 0 degrees C

Optional

Electromechanical

0.04 to 3600 seconds, 10ms resolution

Yes

16 bits

1.5e- unbinned, 2.0e- binned 2x2, 3x3

13.8e- RMS typical

1 x 1, 2 x 2, 3 x 3

Up to 800,000 pixels per second with USB 2.0

<1 second

Single Stage Thermoelectric, Active Fan, -20 C typical

+/- 0.1 degree C

12VDC power supply included

USB 2.0 (USB 1.1 compatible)

Windows 98/2000/Me/XP Mac OS-X

$1395.00