New ZWO planetary camera’s

A total of 4 (!) new ZWO-ASI planetary cameras have been announced, one monochrome and three OSC. All new cameras benefit from the latest in sensor technology, resulting in zero amp-glow. Some sensors are known from for example the Player One series of planetary cameras. Other sensors are completely new.

The cheapest of the four is the ASI662MC, with a price of $269. This 2MP camera is the successor to the ASI462MC. The main benefit is the greatly increased full well depth.

Next one up is the ASI678MC, an upgrade of the ASI178MC. The read noise is significantly lower, but the bit-depth is 12 bit, where its successor was 14bit. This 8MP camera has the smallest pixels of them all, with a size of 2 µm. The price is $299.

The final OSC camera in this list is the ASI585MC. Main feature it puts it above the ASI485MC that it is replacing, is a much bigger full well depth. This 8MP camera comes in at a price of $399.

Last but not least is the ASI432MM, a monochrome camera replacing the very popular ASI174MM. Like its predecessor it has a global shutter, allowing for fast frame-rates. At 120fps perhaps not as fast as the ASI174MM, but with 12bit ADC a relevant step up from the previous 10-bit. The main feature however is the gigantic pixels of 9 µm with three times the full well depth! Pixels of that size were known in the CCD era, but are rarely seen in CMOS cameras. These large pixels, even though there are ‘only’ 1.7 million of them, make up a pretty beefy sensor size of 14.5x9.9mm, that is an 80% increase in overall surface. All this comes at a price, but at $599, this seems like good value. This camera will probably make its way to many solar and lunar imagers.

All cameras are available to order from the ZWO website.

Specs from all four cameras as published on the ZWO website.