Black & White QuickCam

Features of the CCD sensor
Features of the camera
Features of the softwares
Minimum configuration
Some examples of images

Five years ago, this Web Cam was one of the first available. Connectix is bout to celebrate the millionth one sold ! At first glance, this VCAM looks like an egg. It weights less than 100 gram and the diameter is 58 mm. The CCD sensor is the well known by experts , as some famous cameras are equipped with such a sensor :  ST5 SBIG,  PixCel 255 Celestron, Pictor 208 and 216 Meade , and SCR200 from Synonyme. The size of the 324x243 10µm square pixels frame transfer CCD sensor is 3,2 x 2,4 mm. Of course, this size is far from of photo film's. A CCd sensor of the same size (24x36 mm) coats a bomb, and only professional astronomers can afford it. The TC255 is well adapted for astronomical jobs, because it is very sensitive and the frame transfer speed is high. As there is no shutter, there is no vibration.

This camera connect on the PC parallel port. The 5V power current is supplied by the keyboard port. Parallel cable, keyboard adapter and the softwares are furnished with the camera. This camera allows very good planetary and lunar imaging. Deep sky is possible only on bright objects (see  Frequently Asked Questions). Nevertheless, you may take weak stars images (reaches the 9th magnitude with a 200mm refractor) with the maximum 5s exposure time.

Features of the CCD sensor : 

Texas Instruments TC255P Frame Transfer CCD Sensor Electronic shutter, ranging from 1/60 sec to 1/50000 sec Black & White sensor. Size : 324(H) x 243(V) pixels 10µm square pixels Size of the chip : 3,2 x 2,4mm Signal conversion rate : 12µV / electron Dynamic range : 66dB Readout noise : 62 electrons Low dark current Integrated anti blooming Sensitivity :  350 mV/Lux. Good response in blue field

TC255P image from  Texas Instruments

Features of the camera :

Connected on the PC parallel port Power supplied by the keyboard port (5V) Delivered with : holder, 1.80m cable, adapter and softwares Diameter : 58mm Weight: 100gr Kodak screw thread to adapt the camera on photo tripod

image from Logitech

Features of the softwares :

64 gray level (6 digits)-320x240 pixels image

Other image sizes : 160x120 or 80x60 pixels and 16 gray levels

Tuning of brightness, contrast and color balance, or automatic mode

Snapshot software : QuickPict. Uses BMP, TIF or JPG format for backing up images

Storing capacity : 36 images

Size of a 320x240-gray levels image file : 76ko

Video software : Quick Movie. Uses AVI format for backing up videos.

Minimum configuration

PC 386 20 Mhz (PC 486 recommended)

Windows 3.1, W95 or MS-DOS (see the special driver at Drivers page)

RAM : 4 Mo, free space on hard disk : 3Mo

Some examples of images

Other images in the image gallery  

	CN212 Takahashi refractor in Cassegrain mode B&W QuickCam modified	Robert Labre
	CN212 Takahashi refractor in Cassegrain mode B&W QuickCam modified	Robert Labre
	CN212 Takahashi refractor in Newton mode (F=820 mm) B&W QuickCam modified	Robert Labre
	254mm LX200 Meade refractor + Barlow lens B&W QuickCam modified - 7 images mosaic	Antonio Cidadao
	190mm refractor + green filter B&W QuickCam modified - 69 images composite with Qmips	J-P Cazard

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