ToupTek usage with SharpCap

[Oberon510]

I picked up the ToupTek IMX571 colour camera and have been doing some darks with it pre DSO work. They have two drivers (ASCOM/DirectShow) and an SDK so I have installed the ASCOM driver and copied the SDK toupcam.dll and toupcam.lib into the SharpCap program directory and SharpCap shows both the SDK (Native) and ASCOM cameras in it's camera list. I don't believe Directshow driver is of interest so not installed.

The SDK drivers only support RGB24 but allows control of the White balance selection whereas the ASCOM driver only support RAW16.

From what I have read this is a limitation with the camera developer drivers but interested to know if SharpCap or the community have been able to do more with the camera drivers and developed a profile - also maybe from Altair whom I believe OEMs this camera as it's 26C.

Any insight appreciated but for now I will use the ASCOM driver for DSO work and the SDK driver for solar system work. If users of it have more experience on Gain/LCG\HCG (using 100 gain) setup please chime in too.

Thanks,
Ken

[admin]

Hi Ken,

you have the right approach to using the DirectShow driver for high speed imaging and the ASCOM for deep sky/EAA. While you get a bit less control than for a camera that SharpCap can control directly, you can get at most important features.

Check the ASCOM driver setup page, which may let you set things like HCG/LCG and offset.

Also check the 'Pin Options' and 'Filter Options' for the DirectShow driver - depending on how much work ToupTek have put into it, they may allow you to access things like RAW8 mode for high speed imaging (although the image will come through as mono in preview).

cheers,

Robin

[Vigo79]

Hello, in Germany there will be more and more Toupteks. Will Sharpcap get a native driver support?

[admin]

Hi,

not at the moment, sorry.

cheers,

Robin

[Vigo79]

Ok thats bad. Sorry. Then I have to take picd from the moon with Sharpcap and the sun with Firecapture. Bad thing.

[c_future81]

Jumping on this thread too
I also got the same touptek 2600 camera which is relabeled / sold by Teleskop Austria (named deepskypro2600) for a very competitive price.

So far I was using sharpcap pro for focusing and lucky imaging for Planets / moon and would love to continue so with direct camera support if possible

This camera is a direct competitor for the asi 2600 mc pro having the same features for a much lower price.

That made me jump onto my first pure Astro camera now.
So please

[p-dae81]

Hello,
I also have the ToupTek 2600 (Mono) and bought the SharpCap License. But now I face the same problems, so I can not use ShapCap...
Please can you make a full working support for this camera?
Thank you very much in advanced!
best regards
Peter

[admin]

Hi,

to make everything work, you need to have

* An up-to-date version of SharpCap 4.0 (or even better, SharpCap 4.1 beta).
* An up-to-date version of the ToupTek DirectShow driver - this would be one newer than about August 2022.

The newer DirectShow driver has special code in it that allows SharpCap to properly control the camera including detecting the name, controlling the cooling, still mode, high bit depth, etc. However the last time I checked ToutTek still had a really old version on their download page. You may be able to get the updated version from their tech support. Unfortunately I am away at the moment so cannot share the installation files for the new version that I have.

Hope this helps,

Robin

[c_future81]

Hi @Robin

is there any update for this thread?
thanks a lot!

Hi,

to make everything work, you need to have

* An up-to-date version of SharpCap 4.0 (or even better, SharpCap 4.1 beta).
* An up-to-date version of the ToupTek DirectShow driver - this would be one newer than about August 2022.

The newer DirectShow driver has special code in it that allows SharpCap to properly control the camera including detecting the name, controlling the cooling, still mode, high bit depth, etc. However the last time I checked ToutTek still had a really old version on their download page. You may be able to get the updated version from their tech support. Unfortunately I am away at the moment so cannot share the installation files for the new version that I have.

Hope this helps,

Robin

[admin]

Hi,

right now the best option is to use SharpCap 4.1 with the 'advanced' DirectShow driver - we have slowly been adding refinements such as support for ROI and binning.

cheers,

Robin