Quote:
Originally Posted by Camelopardalis
Without reading all 519 comments(!)… I looked at the specs instead.
Gain 150 makes no sense to me, as the dynamic range is less than at 252 when the HCG kicks in. Like the other Sony sensors with that feature, that is the sweet spot for DSO.
You could crunch the numbers to find your best exposure length, or just wing it so as not to overexpose too many stars…
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My experience with HCG
I image from City suburban heavy B8 LP skies and also at my Obs under Dark B3 skies
I have both 2600MC and 2600MM cameras and only use HCG ( medium gain 100 ) when imaging narrowband under both B8 and B3 skies ( 3min to 5 min subs ) With broadband imaging I use gain 0 or low gain in both Bortle 8 skies ( 30 sec subs ) and Bortle 3 skies ( 60 to 120 sec subs ) for optimal results.
I totally concur that HCG mode maybe a “sweet spot” on paper for DSO but it’s not always a one stop shop setting for optimal results.
The only way I settled on my gain was to image at both sites and experiment, took many months to get my gain and exposure settings set for optimal results based on different targets too.
Obviously if you image from one location , testing will be a much quicker process.
Cheers
Martin