ToupTek 2600MP G2 - ToupView vs SharpCap

[Hibou]

Hi. I'm impressed with the TS-Optics ToupTek Mono Astro Camera 2600MP G2 for very low light imaging - not astronomy
I got it because it's the only IMX571 APS-C cooled camera that I can use with an APS-C f/0.95 lens, but I still had to machine 5mm from the M42 female aperture to reduce the backfocus to 12.5mm. I couldn't do this with the ZWO ASI2600MM, so I use the ASI6200MM with old f/1.2 F-mount lenses. That combination is not much more efficient and much more expensive. The APS-C M4/3 backfocus is 19.2mm, so I then had only 7mm to make an M4/3 to M42 adapter, but that was quite easy.

The ToupView/ToupSky software has (too) many options, and I prefer SharpCap, but there is a nice feature carried over to SharpCap that is not available for ZWO. The ability to software bin-SUM images up to 8x8 (SharpCap 4x4).

It would be good if SharpCap included 8x8 binning, and a Quick Pick exposure of 30m instead of having to type 1800s.
And then there's my old gripe that none of these programs do simple hot pixel filtering, to be applied before binning.
I can filter hot pixels in imageJ, and then 8x8 bin-sum, but it would be better to be able to do it on-line.

[Hibou]

Actually ToupView (20 Jan 2025) has a "Dynamic Defect Pixel Correction" that allows filtering of both dead and hot pixels, so maybe SharpCap could pick that up too. And Flip/Rotate image is often useful. I'm still learning, but otherwise ToupView has too many controls for my simple needs.
ToupTek make cameras for many other applications, including microscopy, and provide general versions of ToupView and ToupLite for Windows, MacOS, Linux and even Android and Mac iOS https://www.touptekphotonics.com/download together with an extensive manual.

[admin]

Hi,

I can fix the issue with the missing 30m entry in the dropdown easily - it looks like SharpCap was wrongly setting the maximum exposure for this camera to 900s (but typing in a value for the exposure bypasses that). This will be resolved in the next update.

You can flip the image in SharpCap in either or both directions - the preferred method for doing that is found in the pre-processing control section - 'Flip (After Dark/Flat)' - this does the flip of the image at a later stage in the processing, so that if you are using dark or flat frames there is no need to maintain copies for each orientation that you intend to use. There is no rotate option, and I don't intend to add one, as changing the shape of the image (for example from 800x600 coming off the camera to 600x800 when displayed) would almost certainly not work nicely with some details of how SharpCap works internally.

Right now, SharpCap relies on the SDK of various types of camera to handle binning, so that when the image gets to SharpCap's code, the binning has already happened - that means that it's too late to apply any sort of correction to the unbinned pixels, and that the binning limitations match those of the camera SDK. That seems to be sufficient for the vast majority of users and allows for behind the scenes optimization (in some cases the SDK can get the binning performed on the camera and therefore reduce the data transferred to the PC, allowing higher frame rates). I can see why having pre-filtering on hot pixels and high binning might help for very faint targets though...

Out of interest, what is it that you are imaging that is *so* faint that you need f/0.95 lenses, 8x8 binning and 1800s exposures!

cheers,

Robin

[Hibou]

Thanks Robin. I understand that you can only use what's in the SDK for binning, but the latest ToupView does filter hot and cold pixels, so maybe they have added it to the SDK. And adding 30m with x8 binning would be nice.

In answer to your question, extreme low light imaging is needed for fast neutrons that are very penetrating and not ionising. It is done by mixing a scintillator such as ZnS with a layer of hydrogenous material such as polypropylene (PP). The fast neutrons knock a few protons from the PP and these ions cause the ZnS to scintillate, but it's a very inefficient process. It's worthwhile because you can image thick heavy metal objects, and tabletop fast neutron generators are being developed, but these are also quite inefficient. Impossible n'est pas français, and I even have a UK customer

Regards, Alan.

[admin]

Hi Alan,

thanks for sharing - really interesting to see how people find different ways to use SharpCap. At the other end of the scale, I recall someone who was using SharpCap for high frequency (hundreds of frames per second) spectroscopy to try to track down what was going on chemically during explosions!

cheers,

Robin

[Hibou]

Hi Robin. Thanks for the 20 March update with the 30m QuickPick for ToupTek. The 8x8 binning available in ToupView would also be useful, as would the ToupView hot/dead pixel filter, with the weighting factor simplified to 1.0 for both. I confirmed with ToupTek that pixel filtering is done after binning, which is not ideal but better than nothing

Cheers, Alan

[admin]

Hi Alan,

I just re-checked the SDK documentation for the ToupTek cameras and it looks as though high level binning *is* supported (maybe it wasn't when I first implemented that code), so I will extend the binning options to include 6x6 and 8x8 in the next update.

cheers,

Robin

[Hibou]

Great. Thanks Robin. Yes, that probably was a recent update.

Regards Alan