The professional-grade ZWO ASI 2600 MC Pro DUO colour cooled camera features a high-end, backlit Sony CMOS sensor, which is the latest development with one of Sony's highest sensitivities and 16-bit colour depth. In contrast to mono cameras, the colour, so-called "single-shot" cameras simplify the work of those who don't want to shoot with L-RGB colour filtering.
A revolutionary new feature of the camera is that, building on the principle of the Off-Axis-Guder single-camera system, an extra image sensor that functions as a separate guide camera using the light path of your astrophotographic lens or telescope has been added to the main CMOS. The guide camera measures 7.68 mm x 4.32 mm and has a sensor with a resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels. This saves the weight and size of a separate guide scope plus a separate guide camera.
The ZWO ASI 2600 MC Pro DUO color cooled camera features a special high dynamic range 23.5x15.7mm (28.6mm image diameter) CMOS sensor with APS-C size, combining extra-low noise with powerful sensitivity. The sensor is made up of 3.76 micron pixels: this allows for a particularly high resolution. 16 bit ADC converter and QE above 80% promise extremely high performance in deep-end photography.
The camera features a high-performance Peltier cooler that keeps the sensor under 35°C, so you can capture fine details of galaxies. The camera also boasts built-in anti-fog heating to compensate for the high cooling capacity. The camera also features an increased 256GB DDR memory buffer, which is responsible for stable, high-speed data transfer as well as greatly helping to reduce "fade-in" errors during long exposures.
The camera has a USB 3.0 connection, but it can also be operated with USB 2.0, but the former allows much higher image transfer speeds, meaning that even with a larger image size, more shots can be captured in a given time, which is justified by the 26 megapixel (6248 x 4176 pixels) sensor.
For image capture, there are a number of free software downloads available on the internet, and for Windows we particularly recommend SharpCap and FireCapture. They require Windows XP or later, but can be used under Linux and even have Macintosh support.
Even without cooling, the camera requires a 12V supply with a minimum of 3A, so an external power supply is essential for operation.
Package contents:
- ZWO ASI 2600 MC Pro DUO colour cooled camera
- Soft carrying case
- M54M-M54F adapter (16.5mm)
- M54M-M54F adapter (21 mm)
- M54M-M48F adapter
- Inbus key
- USB 3.0 cable (2 m)
- USB 3.0 cable (0.75 m)
- USB 2.0 cable (0.5 m)