SharpCap Forums

Hi Robin
There are has been various M25C questions raised over the last 5-6 years and various bugs that have been cured but I am particularly interested in the strange 3 panel display using the native M25C selection that is shown in a forum photo dated June 15 2020 under M25C not recognised as colour camera. (under search M25C articles)
Here we are 2025 with windows 11 and many releases and updates to your wonderful software which I very much appreciate for all your efforts in taking time to write.
I still have this 3 panel issue with the native driver BUT ascom appears to be ok. I don't use the latter as there is no gain and black level radio button for starters but your native driver does. The RAW16 selects ok, the force GRGB colour is ok as is all other controls. It just doesn't display a full picture, but rather the top half is split into side by side slightly mirrored and bottom half totally black/blank as very similar to the 2020 picture.
Other programs work including theskyX X2 plugin which is my main astronomy controlling software for my paramounts.
Interestingly SX's Starlight Vision will display a one shot picture with their native drivers and then be on hold but as soon as you touch the histogram to increase the percentage or move the black/white sliders then the dreaded 3 panel display appears, ie the double side by side image in the top half of the image. If you run continuous and move the histogram radio buttons it will fault until the next frame is updated back to a stable single image.
I tried single capture shots with sharpcap to see if the continuous live was triggering it somehow but its just the same unfortunately.
Is it possible to yet again have a look at this issue as it seems to be software related as the camera will work in some programs albeit some of course will use the ascom platform.
Just to wrap up I have an sx814 mono which works just fine in your programme as do my fleet of ZWO's and Atik's
Keep up the great work and much appreciated for any time you can spare on this as it is a great camera even if it is dated.
Regard
Mel

Hi Mel,

firstly I need to write in defence of the ASCOM driver! The 'gain' and 'black level' controls that SharpCap adds to the camera are purely synthetic controls that manipulate the data after it has been read from the camera - the gain control scales the data up by some multiplier and the offset control adds or subtracts some constant. Neither of them affect the camera itself, since the camera does not have adjustments available for gain or offset. These controls are useful for bringing out faint objects while searching for a target or focusing, but bring no benefit during imaging. Using the ASCOM driver and (when needed) the display stretch function in SharpCap to brighten the onscreen display should work just as well.

I'm quite happy to have a look at the code to see if I can work out a way to properly process the image to avoid the double image effect, but since I don't have a colour StarlightXpress camera, I would need sample images to be able to do anything in that direction.

Ideally the images would be images of a terrestrial scene with fairly clear objects in it (for example a red chimney pot in front of blue sky with green moss visible on the roof tiles). One copy of the image looking broken (as shown in SharpCap) and one copy of it looking correct as shown from the ASCOM driver would be needed so that I can try to work out how the two are related. Both images should be in FITS format to have the most possible data available.

Given that sort of info, I *might* be able to work out how the image is being deformed and whether it can be re-arranged to look correct, although I am worried by the fact that the 'Starlight Vision' software produces the same output under some circumstances... That would imply that the broken image is somehow caused by the way that the camera is being commanded to operate, and tracking down how SharpCap is doing that wrong would be much harder.

cheers,

Robin

Hi Robin,

Many thanks for your prompt reply. I would like to go one better here and send you this camera for further analysis. the lens on it for testing purposes, doesn't quite reach focus at infinity but it suffices closer to in-house things.
If you would like that, I have sent a separate PM (if it has worked) with my details to get an address and I would cover all post costs etc.
I have never used this camera for any astrophotography since I bought it as most drivers would cause the mentioned triple screen or just crash the windows so its just lived in its box. I believe it started with XP or maybe earlier so I have nothing to lose so to say and I am very curious to know if its now fixable .

Regards

Mel

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Hi Mel,

that's a very kind offer, although the private message doesn't seem to have come through to me. Perhaps best to email me directly (use the 'Contact Us' link in the page footer) so that we can discuss further and work out details.

cheers,

Robin

Hi Robin,
Sent email as requested and again many thanks for your valuable time
regards
Mel