The professional-grade ZWO ASI 2600 MC Pro 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. Unlike 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.
The ZWO ASI 2600 MC Pro colour cooled camera features a unique 23.5x15.7mm (28.6mm image diameter) CMOS sensor with APS-C sized high dynamic range backlighting, 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-sky photography.
The camera features a high-performance Peltier cooler that keeps the sensor at outer temperatures as low as 32°C, so you can capture fine details of galaxies. To compensate for the high cooling capacity, the camera also boasts anti-fog heating. Even without cooling, the camera requires a 12V power supply with a minimum of 3A, so an external power supply is essential for operation.
The camera has a USB 3.0 connection, but it can also be operated with USB 2.0, but the former allows for much higher image transfer speeds, meaning that even with a larger image size, more shots can be captured in a given amount of time, which is justified by the 26 megapixel (6248 x 4176 pixels) sensor. The camera has a 256GB DDR memory buffer, which is responsible for stable, high-speed data transfer and greatly helps reduce "fade-in" errors during long exposures.
For image capture, there is a range of free software available for download from the internet, and for Windows we particularly recommend SharpCap and FireCapture. The camera requires Windows XP or later, but can be used under Linux and even has Macintosh support.
Included in the package:
- ASI 2600MC camera
- Soft carrying case
- M48-M42 adapter
- 2m USB 3.0 cable
- T2-T2 21 mm extension cable
- T2-M48 16.5 mm extension-to-conversion adapter
- 2 inch dust cap
- 0.5 m USB 2.0 cable.