iOptron Camera iCam 178M

iCAM178M camera uses a Sony IMX178 mono sensor. The imaging area is 1/1.8”, with 2.4um pixel size, 6.4MP resolution (2096*2078) and diagonal of 9mm.

iCAM178M camera has a very high sensitivity. It is an ideal camera for planetary imaging. The camera has a very low readout noise. The testing results indicated that the readout noise is as low as 1.34e at a gain of 350. The camera has a unique DPS (Dead Pixel Suppression) technology to eliminate the any abnormal/dead pixel by analyzing camera dark frames. The camera has a unique HCG mode, which will automatically turn on when the camera gain setting is >30. The HCG mode can greatly reduce the readout noise and retain the same high dynamic range as it at low gain.

When the camera is connected to the USB3.0 interface and full-resolution preview is used, it can reach 60 FPS in RAW8 mode (10bit ADC). During image recording, the actual recording speed is affected by the hard drive writing speed. It is recommended to use a high-quality solid state drive to record data to realize the full benefit of the USB3.0 data speed. The ST-4 guiding port allows one to connect the camera to a mount GUIDE port for ST-4 autoguiding.