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KL400?

Sat, 09/30/2023 - 13:20

I am considering the FLI KL400 for my exoplanet photometry work and I was wondering if anyone here has had any good or bad experiences with it that they would like to share.  Anything would be helpful.

Ed

 

hambsch
Affiliation
Vereniging Voor Sterrenkunde, Werkgroep Veranderlijke Sterren (Belgium) (VVS)
Sat, 09/30/2023 - 16:33
I would not buy a KL400

Hi Ed,

I would not buy a KL400 from FLI. I would go instead for either a QHY600M or a ZWO equivalent. It is true 16 bit and has a back illuminated chip. I have three QHY600M in use on my remote observatory and my home observatory in my backyard.

I used to use FLI 16803 CCDs but the quality of FLI has deteriorated in the past years.

Hence, I would not recommend buying an FLI any more. Its also more expensive than the QHY600M as far as I know. In Europe you can buy nearly three QHY600M for one KL400 BSI.

Regards,

Josch (HMB)

 

BHarrisHBB
Affiliation
American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO)
Sat, 09/30/2023 - 17:15
FLI KL400

I agree with Josch.  I had an older FLI camera and it was like pulling teeth to get through to them for service. I finally gave up on the camera and purchased the QHY600M. It is an excellent camera for photometry. I have been using it for a year. You can also consider the QHY268 which is similar to the QHY600 but with a smaller APS-C chip size. I have the color version of that model.  The ZWO equivalent to the QHY600=ZWO ASI6200. ZWO equivalent to QHY268=ZWO ASI2600.

 

Barbara