QHYCCD Camera 12BIT High Speed Mode Not Working

[Ben1138]

The QHYCCD Camera 12BIT High Speed Mode has stopped working in the past several 4.2 Betas. I believe this occurred after the new QHYCCD SDK was implemented.

The last 4.2 Beta version in which the 12BIT Mode worked was 4.2.14844.0-64bit.

I'm testing using a QHYCCD QHY268M camera in Windows 11.

When selecting this mode, the control panel boxes appear as they should. However, the video preview window never appears.

Detailed Sharpcap log is attached.

Thanks,

- Ben

[admin]

Hi Ben,

I suspect that your analysis of it being connected to the QHYSDK update is correct - I certainly haven't changed anything on the SharpCap side that I would expect to be relevant to this issue. The only thing that might be relevant is the 'overscan' handling options that now exist in the main settings to control whether or not to try to read the overscan area on QHY cameras - these were updated in February though, so quite a while ago now and well before 4.2.14844.

The log shows that once you change into the 12 bit mode, the camera simply stops providing frames - SharpCap keeps asking and the SDK always says no frame is available.

I guess the next troubleshooting step would be to copy the SDK dll from the older working version over the newer one that recent 4.2 versions of SharpCap are installing to confirm that rolling back the SDK fixes the issue. Unfortunately I can't test that myself as I don't have the relevant camera. I just checked and there is also a newer SDK now available (dated 28th July 2026) - see https://www.qhyccd.com/html/prepub/log_ ... !log_en.md. If you can also try that new version to see if that works it would be helpful, then I can either just update to the latest version (if it works), or report the issue to QHY.

cheers,

Robin

[Ben1138]

Hi Robin,

Thanks for the quick reply!

I did a lot of testing with the old vs. new QHYCCD SDK and it does appear to be the culprit. The newer versions of the SDK, both what you include with SharpCap 4.2 Beta and the latest version from QHY's website, do not work with SharpCap 4.2 using the 12BIT High Speed Mode.

However, copying the old SDK from SharpCap 4.1 (which is the same version as in the "old" 4.2 Beta version I mentioned previously) DOES work.

Also, note that I tried updating to the latest QHY Windows driver (from their website) and it does NOT work with the old SDK. The newest QHY camera driver requires the newest SDK. So I also had to revert back to the older QHY camera driver to get SharpCap to work with the old SDK.

Not sure if QHY made a change to how things are "called" from the SDK or if it's just a bug in their software.

Hope this helps!

- Ben

[Ben1138]

Hi Robin,

One other small update. After installing the latest "All-in-one" driver package from QHY (QHYCCD_Win_AllInOne.26.06.03.16.exe), and reverting back to the SDK from SharpCap 4.1 (SDK version 25.6.16.15) I could get SharpCap 4.2 Beta (4.2.14994.0 BETA) to run in 12BIT High Speed Mode.

I still get an error message that the QHY driver needs a newer version of the SDK, but after dismissing the error, SharpCap works as intended with the older SDK.

Also of note, it doesn't appear that QHY's own EZCAP_QT works with the newer SDK's in 12BIT High Speed Mode either, although I'm still doing additional testing.

Thanks,

-Ben

[admin]

Hi Ben,

OK, that's all good information - let me know if you have anything else from testing EZCAP and then I will pass the details on to QHY.

cheers,

Robin

[Jean-Francois]

Hello,

??? where do you found the installation file QHYCCD_Win_AllInOne.26.06.03.16 ?

When I open the download QHY website ... I see only the "Latest stable 20241227" or the "beta 20250616".


Jean-Francois

[Ben1138]

Hi Jean-Francois,

QHY does not do a good job showing their drivers, etc. Until Robin posted the link in his response above, I too only knew about the "Latest stable" and "Beta" versions listed on their main download page. However, if you click the "SDK Update" link on the right side of the page, it'll take you to a page that lists all of their developmental SDK's, and All-in-one packages. Here's the link directly to the AIO section of the page. Just scroll down to the latest AIO package.

https://www.qhyccd.com/html/prepub/log_ ... ne_Package

Here are screencaps of the main QHY Download page showing the SDK page link and also the SDK page showing where the AIO's are located.

Thanks,

-Ben

Capture2.JPG (495.19 KiB) Viewed 583 times

[Jean-Francois]

Hello Ben,

OK thanks ... I opened the link ... but not "deep" enough

Regards,
Jean-Francois

[Ben1138]

Hi Robin,

I did additional testing with QHY's EZCAP_QT and it does not work in 12BIT High Speed Mode either using the newer SDK's. The other photographic modes seem to work fine.

Worth noting that there were times when just switching to the 12BIT mode would corrupt the preview images on the OTHER modes. It's like something in the 12BIT mode caused the camera to glitch to the point that it corrupted the other modes. Even a power on/off cycle of the camera didn't seem to fix it. Eventually, it does clear out by using other software such as SharpCap to I guess somehow force a true camera reset.

Definitely worth discussing with QHY.

Thanks!

-Ben

[admin]

Hi,

I've passed the details on to my contact at QHY and asked them to see if they can repro the issue - thanks for all the help with getting this well documented.

cheers,

Robin