Sensor: Sony IMX294CJK CMOS sensor (micro-4/3 format)
Resolution: 4144x2822 (11.7 megapixels)
Pixel size: 4.63 microns
Cooling: Two-stage TEC cooling reduces sensor temperature to 35°C below ambient
Data transfer: Fast USB 3.0 transfer at up to 19fps (10-bit ADC high-speed mode) or 16fps (14-bit ADC normal mode)
Buffer: 256MB DDR3 buffer for quick and stable data transfer and reduced amp glow
Body: Attractive red anodized CNC aluminum body, compact and lightweight (78mm diameter, 410g/14.5 oz)
- Details
- Category: Cameras
- Sismo Astroberry By
ZWO ASI294MC Pro
The ZWO ASI294MC Pro is a cooled color astronomy camera designed for capturing high-resolution images of deep-sky objects, such as nebulae, star clusters, supernova remnants, and galaxies, through a telescope on a motorized equatorial mount. It is also suitable for imaging the Moon and Sun (with a safe solar filter).
This camera is very sensitive, but it's also the ampglow master of all of the ZWO cameras, I think. And because it's very sensitive, you need to calibrate your lights with absolutely perfect flats, otherwise you won't be able to eliminate those sensor imperfections. Apart from the ampglow, which is extreme at longer exposures, the ASI294MC sensor presents a random purplish pattern on every image (stretch your flats and you will notice too), which is also difficult to get rid of during calibration. When I called ZWO, they simply said "it's normal, we call it the 294 sensor's signature". At that point I sold this camera and I replaced it with an ASI2600MC Pro, which is of a different league, I never wasted my time with it, and it never betrayed me really.
Are you a beginner? STAY AWAY from this camera! Astronomical units kind of away.