ZWO ASI6200MC Pro USB3.0 Cooled Color Camera
A Lightweight, High-Performing Cooled Camera
The ZWO ASI6200MC Pro camera is designed to help astrophotographers obtain incredible, detailed images by utilizing the huge sensor and full-frame format. This one-shot color astronomy camera includes several excellent features, such as the Sony IMX455 full-frame format sensor, true 16-bit ADC, low readout noise, and zero amp-glow! The ASI6200MC Pro astronomy camera has a dynamic range of up to 14-stops, greatly reducing the issue of overexposed images, and making color gradients smooth and appear more natural.
When designing the ASI6200MC Pro camera, ZWO wanted to reduce with weight of the camera while not sacrificing the overall performance. Through years of technical accumulation and testing, ZWO was able to get the weight of the ASI6200MC-P down to only 1.5 lb. (700 grams)! This cooled CMOS camera is a great addition to your imaging train, because of the lightweight design and the top-notch performance from the 62MP sensor with a pixel size of 3.76um. When you consider the TEC cooling, the built-in dew heater, and the Zero Amp Glow, this camera truly is an ideal astrophotography asset.
A High Performance, Professional Camera for Astrophotography
Let's Dig into the Data!
What sets one astrophotography camera apart from another? How is performance measured? Camera and sensor manufacturers provide certain interconnected specifications that give insight into the performance of a camera. These measurements include quantum efficiency, read noise, full well depth, gain, dynamic range, and dark current. While the graphs provided by the manufacturer may be confusing or intimidating, don't fret! Our team has put together a breakdown of these complicated topics to help you make sense of them. Take a look at the article here: Understanding ZWO Camera Charts and Graphs, and feel more confident making the right choice for your astrophotography needs!
Sony IMX455 CMOS Sensor
ZWO uses Sony's back-illuminated IMX455 Full Frame format native 16-bit ADC sensor. There are several advantages to have a back-illuminated CMOS sensor. This type of sensor improves sensitivity and noise reduction. The back-illuminated sensor does this by minimizing the degradation of sensitivity to optical angle response while increasing the amount of light entering each pixel. The light is increased because of the lack of obstacles, such as wiring and transitors. This 62 MP sensor's length is 36mm X 24mm with a diagonal of 43.3mm.
Electronic Highlights
The 62 MP sensor has a pixel size of 3.76µm, and an ultra-low 1.2e readout noise and innovative breakthrough. Ultimately, this results in zero amp-glow! The ZWO ASI Color camera includes a polymide heater to combat dew formation on the optics. The anti-dew heater fits the protective window perfectly and the power draw is around 5W. The dew heater can be turned off by software to save power. When it comes to cooling, the ASI6200 Pro camera uses two stage TEC cooling. This lowers the sensor's temperature to more than 35°C below ambient. This can reduce dark current generation and sensor noise, even during long exposures. When the camera is at a cooling temperature of 0°, the dark current noise is 0.003e/s/pix, meaning a 300s exposure can only cause 0.9e dark current noise. The ASI camera includes built-in 512MB DDR3 cache. The built-in memory cache ensures stable and secure data transmission.
Power and Ports
Please note that all ZWO cooled cameras require an external 11-14v power supply to function, even when the cooling function is not in use. There are four ports located on the bottom of the ASI6200 camera body. The first is the DC 12V power port to connect your user supplied power supply. We suggest the Apertura Universal 5 Amp AC Adapter. The other three ports are USB interface ports. The two USB2.0 ports allow connection of a variety of accessories like a filter wheel, guide camera, or electronic focuser, providing better cable management. The USB3.0 port, coupled with the 512MB DDR3 cache mentioned above, ensures stable and secure data transmission and under long exposure, effectively avoids frame dropping while reducing the glow effect caused by slow reading speed. The camera comes with three USB cables: two 0.5m USB2.0 cables and one 2m USB3.0.
Achieving the Perfect Backfocus
Finding the correct backfocus on a reducer, flattener, or corrector has long been a difficult aspect of astrophotography. ZWO has a solution! Included with the purchase of this camera are two extenders, one being a T2-M48 16.5mm extender and the other is an M54-M48 21mm extender. Also included is an M48-M42 adapter. Using these two extenders and adapter, you will have the ability to reach the standard 55mm of back focus length. All you need to d o is attach the 21mm extender to the camera, then the 16.5mm extender, and finally the M48-M42 adapter, if your telescope threads require M42 threads. If your telescope needs M48 threads, you can leave the adapter out. The chart to the left illustrates these instructions. It's important to note that if you want to use a ZWO accessory, such as an OAG, the spacers included are easily swapped out without compromising overall spacing.
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