Firewire Camera - any experience

Hi Frank, not sure if this is of any help to you!

Best of luck with the new toy for a start. The “DFK 21AU04” is a high speed USB 2.0 colour camera with IR filter fitted that can be powered from PC USB bus via the USB cable alone.
The “DMK” is a monochrome camera, while the DBK is a colour camera that comes without the IR filter fitted while the camera you are planning on getting is the DFK which has an IR filter fitted as stated. The old naming system was as followed…
• D = Digital, M = Monochrome, K = Kamera (Camera)
• The “21A” is a series name and nothing else.
• F = FireWire, 04 = 1/4″ CCD Chip, .AS = Astronomy
As far as I am aware of, the new system works out the following way with some of the above information included…
USB Cameras: DMK, DFK and DBK have “AU” in model description while the Fire-Wire series has “AF” in the model description. I use a fire-wire version of camera and I do require an external power source simply because the camera has a six pin fire-wire connection and my fire-wire connection on my laptop is four pin. I believe if I had a six pin connection on my laptop I would not need an external power supply, this is the information as I understand it. Looking forward to seeing your astro pics Frank, keep em coming.
www.astronomycameras.com/en/support/faq/

Clear skies
Mike

Thanks for that Mike!
The firewire port I have is
1 x i.LINK® (IEEE 1394)

Do you know is this sufficient to power the camera?

I also see the camera does not come with a lens.
How / where do you select one!?

Hi Frank

1 x i.LINK® is a Sony name (this is the four pin configuration, which deals with signals only and not power supply) while “DV” is Panasonic's. 1394a also standardized the 4 pin connector already widely in use (data transfer up to 400Mbps). The 4-pin version is used on many consumer devices such as camcorders, laptops, and other small FireWire devices etc etc. Though fully data compatible with 6-pin interfaces, it lacks power connectors.
I think Frank you need to look at the laptop you have and to check whether it is four pin or six pin, (here is a link to show you what I mean: www.vasst.com/training/4-pin.png ). If you are using your laptop with a fire-wire camera chances are it is the four pin configuration and you will need an extra power supply to power camera if you decide to go for Fire-Wire camera. Here is a link to the cable I use for my Fire-Wire camera to show you what I mean ( www.optcorp.com/product.aspx?pid=10108&a...ire%20cable&st=2 ).
I have a Desktop PC at home and it has six pin Fire-wire connections only, I am sure there are reasons why six pin fire-wire configurations are not commonly found on laptops, perhaps it would drain the battery too quick if a number of devices were connected, I am not sure, I am not expert on PCs at any stretch of the imagination, nevertheless I hope you found the information of some use. I am sure there are some computer experts here that could give more accurate information.

Regarding the type of lens you want to fit to the new camera (I presume you will also be imaging through your telescope) depends on what kind of imaging areas you are interested in, for example wide field meteor detection work I would recommend a fast Aspherical 6mm f0.8 lens, but this really depends on what you have in mind and what the camera is capable of, hope this helps!

Clear skies
Mike

A great help Mike, thanks again!

I have a 4 pin firewire by the looks of it so I'm defiantly
going to settle on USB.

As for the lens,
My imaging targets would be the Moon & Planets.

Hang on...
What do you need a lens for?!
Is it not like the webcams (SPC900) where you use it at prime focus?

That’s what I was wondering Frank, why do you need an extra lens and not use the ETX at prime focus? You will need a T-C adapter for your scope since the new camera has a c-mount connection thread, just check your telescope owner’s manual for what is needed.
Ah well scrap that last post about my lens suggestion, I’m off for lunch now, we’ll work out image scale and FOV after some brain food!

Mike