Color or mono

[moxican]

Hi everyone
I have a SPC900 webcam. There is a program called Webcam Register Macro Tool. This tool would allow me to turn the webcam into mono colour. Now does that mean that I would have an equal to the ATiK–1HS II astro cam?
After all besides the colour tha CCD chip is exactly the same. And the ATiK–1HS II is 2.5x more sensitive then the colour cam.
If it works like this then it'd fit for LRGB.

[Skyhawk727]

Moxican,

An Interesting question. While not sure, about the chip you have, most color chips have color filters placed pixel by pixel in the sensor matrix. To convert the image from color to B&W is basically an electronic trick and does not remove the actual filters from the chip itself. If the chip can be binned, generally you can only do so in monochrome. Binning increases the sensivity of the chip which lowers it's resolution but might make it suitable to individual filtering.

Generally however, if you want to do filtered imaging, you'll be better off with a monochrome sensor with good spectral response across the visible spectrum.

Hope this helps.

Dave

[moxican]

It does help. Thanks

[CambridgeKid]

Is there ever any point to using RGB filters with a color CCD sensor?

[moxican]

I personally never tried it. I don't see too much point to it if the camera is recording all three colours anyways. I don't know if it helps the result or not. But the way I see it, you'd just put an extra object in the way of light. And don't forget as Dave said it, The colour sensor is not as sensitive as a mono.
Keep me posted if you decide to give it a shot anyway, I'd like to know.

[Skyhawk727]

Hi,

Q. "Is there ever any point to using RGB filters with a color CCD sensor?"

A. Probably to do narrow band imaging but plan on long exposures.

"The colour sensor is not as sensitive as a mono". The sensor itself is generally the same, the color sensor has individual color filters over each pixel arranged in a matrix and combined into a color image using a binning type algorithm.

Dave