ZWO ASI6200MC Pro 64MP 3.76um Full Frame Cooled Colour CMOS Telescope Astrophotography Camera and Kits ZWO

AThe ASI6200MC Pro uses Sony’s latest back-illuminated IMX455 Full Frame format native 16-bit ADC sensor. It has 3.76µm, ultra-low 1.2e readout noise and an innovative breakthrough resulting in zero amp-glow.

Note: ZWO Cooled cameras require a 12V power source for the TEC cooler and USB hub power. If you don’t have one, please add it through the options on the right side of the product display.

Important: ASI6200/2600/2400 cameras require 1A current from the USB port. If your PC can not provide enough current, please use an external 12V power supply to power the camera. A power shortfall will manifest with the camera disconnecting from the imaging software during capture of frames.

Important: For the following imaging camera models, please use a separate power supply rather than the power hub the ASIAIR Pro as the hub cannot provide enough amperage to power the camera’s TEC coolers: ASI6200, ASI2600, ASI2400, ASI533, ASI071MC

 

Amazing Craftsmanship, Lightweight Body, Solid Image Quality

ZWO has been working hard to reduce the weight of the camera while improving the performance of the camera. After years of technical research and experience building cameras, ZWO was able to reduce the weight of the ASI6200 to 0.7KG.

 

Full Frame Format

The ASI6200MC Pro uses the full frame format. The sensor length and width are 36mm x 24mm and the diagonal length is 43.3mm. This is a 62MP camera with a small pixel size of 3.76um that can accommodate a large well depth of 51.4ke.

Native 16-bit ADC

The ASI6200MC Pro is ZWO’s first batch of CMOS astronomy cameras with a 16-bit ADC. This 16-bit ADC is not a CCD 16-bit ADC. It can really achieve a dynamic range output of 14 stops. This significantly improves the image sharpness and contrast, and the color changes are smoother and more natural.

 

IMX455 Backlit Sensor

Sony’s back-illuminated CMOS image sensor improves sensitivity and noise reduction – the key factors to enhancing image quality, while radically realigning their fundamental pixel structure from front-illumination to back-illumination. It has retained the advantages of CMOS image sensors such as low power consumption and high-speed operation.

With a conventional front-illumination structure, the metal wiring and transistors on the surface of the silicon substrate that form the sensor’s light-sensitive area (photo-diode) impede photon gathering carried out by the on-chip lens. A back-illuminated structure minimizes the degradation of sensitivity to optical angle response, while also increasing the amount of light that enters each pixel due to the lack of obstacles such as metal wiring and transistors that have been moved to the reverse of the silicon substrate.

Sony has newly developed a unique photo-diode structure and on-chip lens optimized for back-illuminated structures, that achieves a higher sensitivity and a lower random noise without light by reducing noise, dark current and defect pixels compared to the conventional front-illuminated structure.

Camera Performance

The ASI6200MC Pro has excellent performance with a dynamic range of up to 14 stops. When the gain value is 100, the magical HCG high gain mode is turned on, greatly reducing the readout noise, and the dynamic range is basically unchanged. It is recommended to set the gain to 0 or 100 for deep space imaging.

 

Zero Amp Glow

Traditional CMOS sensors produce a weak infrared light source during operation quite often seen in the corner of uncalibrated images as the tell tale signs of ‘amp glow’. As the ASI6200MC Pro uses zero amp glow circuitry, you won’t have to worry about amp glow even when using high gain, long exposure imaging.

With amp glow – 300 second exposure

ASI6200 frame with no amp glow – 300 second exposure

Anti-Dew

The ASI6200MC Pro includes a polyimide heater which is completely hidden under a protective window. The heater power is about 5W and can be turned off  through software control to save power.

 

QE

ZWO calculates that the QE peak value of the ASI6200MC Pro is above 80%.

 

Two-Stage TEC Cooling, Ultra-Low Dark Current

ASI6200MC Pro uses two-stage TEC cooling that can lower the CMOS sensor temperature to more that 35°C below ambient temperatures, which can greatly reduce dark current generation and sensor noise even with extended exposure times.

The unique dark current suppression technology can even further reduce dark current noise.

At a cooling temperature of 0°C, the dark current noise is only 0.003e/s/pix. This means a 300s exposure will only generate a negligible 0.9e dark current noise.

 

Note：The camera cooler requires an external 12V power supply to power the camera instead of USB 3.0/2.0

USB 3.0 & 256MB DDR3 Memory

The ASI6200MC Pro is equipped with a USB 3.0 transmission interface and a built-in 256MB DDR3 cache to ensure stable and secure data transmission. For long exposures, it effectively avoids frame dropping and greatly reduces the glow effect caused by slow reading speed.

Mechanical Diagram

What’s in the box?

The Best Solution for 55mm Back Focus

 

Connection Diagram

1. Nikon-M54 adapter
2. EOS-M54 adapter
3. Nikon lens
4. Canon lens