New ASI224MC Bad?

m@rk

First time trying astro imaging and my new ASI224MC arrived today. I am probably doing something wrong but do not know how to check.

Hardware: New Dell, Intel i7, Win 7 Pro 64bit laptop, 16GB Ram, 500GB SSD drive, USB 3.0 SS ports.

Installed the latest ZWO driver per the instructions, plugged in the camera with the supplied cable and the 2.1mm lens attached, opened the AMCap program and selected Preview. The resulting image is kind of violet or purple and very washed out. The built-in webcam displays a beautiful color image through the same application.

I next installed the latest version of SharpCap and experienced a completely washed out (white) window. I have tried adjusting the gain (helped with the white but still no real color) and various other settings without success. Could this be a bad camera?

Mark

riklaunim

ASI224 doesn't have IR-cut built in so the image may not give real colors.

m@rk

Here is a sample. I had to set the Gain to Auto or it was all white. I don't see any color other than purple, black, gray and white. If this is normal then okay, like I said, I am totally new to this. Does this mean the planets and moon will have a purple tint to it that I later have to remove via software?

Capture2.JPG

m@rk

This is how it looks via AMcap.

Capture1.JPG

james_screech

What light source was illuminating the room? Try natural daylight (point the camera out of a window during the day) and see what the colour is like.

James

riklaunim

Typical infrared effect, look at this: http://nauka.rk.edu.pl/site_media/resources/nauka.rk.edu.pl/images/lifecam_plants.jpg - color camera without IR-cut filter ;)

m@rk

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riklaunim

No, you have the best color camera that there is on the market. It has an new color sensor that aside of visible light is also very sensitive to infrared - so ZWO did not add IR-block by default on the camera so that photographers would be able to photograph either in visible light or infrared.

To shoot in visible light you will need an IR/UV cut filter that you will find in every astro-shop.

m@rk

riklaunim wrote:
No, you have the best color camera that there is on the market. It has an new color sensor that aside of visible light is also very sensitive to infrared - so ZWO did not add IR-block by default on the camera so that photographers would be able to photograph either in visible light or infrared.

To shoot in visible light you will need an IR/UV cut filter that you will find in every astro-shop.

Awesome, thank you!