Level Up Your Astro Photography: ZWO Camera 2600MC vs 2600MM Pro

[@thomaszefo3923]

I really appreciate all of your content. I have enjoyed my 2600MC for a year now as it has given me some great images. Some day I might go after the 2600MM as I see many amazing images produced by it. As far as power I power the camera, dew heaters and mount utilizing the Pegasus and a Jackery 1000 - never had any issues.

[@hobbeeswe7472]

What solid expertise available for us noobs, totally impressive.

[@paulbenoit249]

Good video. Would be interesting to run the MM for the Luminance layer and then the MC for the color info, and merge them together in PI to see how it compares to a true RGB combined picture.

[@Sargnort]

Great information!!!

[@darkrangersinc]

Thank you so much!

[@akikopagkos1]

I like your approach to this topic. I feel the debate on mm vs mc is personal but when i view these comparisons. i get “its up to you”. Which helps no one. Your video is a bit different where you actually say that MM is definitely better than MC. The issue is where one is on the spectrum of experience with astrophotography. And I think you answered my question. Being completely new to one shots, I feel that the MC is better choice. I am also buying a new mount/telescope and all the trimmings so my budget is high as it is. And with new sensors most likely coming out over the next year or so, I think it is now a no brainer in going with a MC. Most likely in two or three years, I would definitely switch to MM. With all that said, thanks!

[@darkrangersinc]

@@akikopagkos1 hey thanks for the comment this was over a year ago now, i’ve since talked to you and worked with a couple thousand people and still for the most part of agree with what I said. Monochrome is obviously going to give you a better overall image, but I also think going color for your first camera is not a bad idea and I didn’t regret mine. Having said that I have three monochrome cameras I did sell my 2600 MC. But I used it for a full year and enjoyed it! Can’t go wrong either way - still agree there. But also think you’ll eventually go to mono and that’s fine. I had OSC, then both, now just Mono. These cameras re-sell for a good amount and back-ups are also very important in this hobby in all areas!!!

[@CDigata]

Can you explain why not to power the camera with Asiair? thats what the air is for aint it? Im powering the ZWO AM5, then the AM5 12 V output going to the ASIAir plus. Then another cable connecting a 12V output from the ASIAir plus to the ASI 2600 MC Pro with no problems.. A cooled camera can take up to 3A when running at 100%.. The main thing is not to power the Mount and the camera from the Asiair, one or the other but not both. ASIair is rated up to 5A

[@darkrangersinc]

The 2600 and 6200 need their own power source. Smaller cameras like the 533 can run off the Asiar but the 2-stage cooling on the biggest two cameras need more. If you go on ZWO’s website they’ll confirm what I’m saying. It’s not really a big deal the additional adapter is $33. I ignored the warning and it fried the 12v power supply on my old ASIAIR pro. It cooked all 4, even though I was only using one! I am also in Phoenix and it was a hot night I got away with it several times but the cooling was running at 80%+ to maintain the temp as it was over 90 degrees even at midnight

[@CDigata]

@@darkrangersinc good advice, ill just run a splitter where the power leaves the mount and send one direct to the camera

[@CDigata]

@@darkrangersinc After a quick look on zwo site, what its telling you is you can not run it from usb, meaning it has to be powered by 12v. it will not draw more than 3A even when its at max with the dew heater running.. and the 533 also uses the same 2 stage cooler.. was you using more than 5A draw from the asiair?.. so yer still better with splitter if using the asiair to also run scope dew heaters I guess..

[@darkrangersinc]

@@CDigata i saw the warning you mentioned and it’s impossible to power it from the USB… You need a 12 V style but it doesn’t have enough power to run that camera. There’s another note that only mentions the 2600 and 6200 that can’t be run by the Asiar. Every other camera can be… It’s backed up by the fact that it did eventually take down my Asiar I wasn’t running my dew heaters from it at the time so it was literally the only thing plugged into 1 of the 4 12v power supplies. Like I said, I got away with it for a while and if you’re not under extreme circumstances, like Phoenix summer heat, then you probably could get away with it I did for a few imaging sessions, but then it was too much. The rest of the Asiar still runs but the 12v power outs are cooked.

[@chrisvig123]

I played it safe and purchased a Bluetti power pak with dedicated 12V power outputs…these units have 12V regulation and current protection. I’ve never had an issue….these cameras are too expensive to start messing around with power requirements just get a good dedicated power supply .

[@dwbattag5847]

You mention not to try running the ZWO 2600 off the AsiAir because you will short out one or the other. I am unclear about that sentence and it is very important to me since I might be doing that exact thing. That is unless I misunderstood your sentence. To be clear I have the AsiAir Plus powered by a 12volt adapter. From there I run the ZWO2600mc Pro off of one of the 12v outputs of the AsiAir Plus. I’ve been doing this for several months with no noticeable problems. Thanks DB from Minnesota

[@darkrangersinc]

Yeah, I’ve elaborated on this in later videos as well. I give it its own power supply for a couple reasons for one the ZWO power supplies are only 5AMP. I would recommend if you’re only going to run one power supply to get a 10AMP from Pegasus or another reputable company. The second reason is redundancy, I go camping a lot, and I like to have a second power supply running so that if one does fail in theory, I can run everything off of one although I wouldn’t want to kind of like using the donut spare in your car, it will work, but it’s not ideal To me, it’s just a lot to run your mount, your ASIplus, your guide camera, regular camera with two stage cooling, 2 dew heaters, and potentially even more accessories off of one power supply. Brown outs and low-voltage typically hurt equipment just as bad as too much voltage I’ve had several motherboards fail from ZWO, the 2600 MC, the 7 x 2” EFW, and as I mentioned my ASA airpro, which still works other than the 12 V out but clearly it didn’t like that. For how inexpensive another power supply is I don’t think it’s worth the risk, and I’ve had several people and other videos comment that they’ve had experiences similar to mine, or just avoid it by running to power supplies. We’re talking about fairly expensive equipment and a fairly cheap solution to it. You can get away with running won. The question is for how long? To me spending an extra $32 is worth it or at least at the bare minimum upgrading to a 10 AM if you just want to run one power supply.

[@anata5127]

QHY268M or Moravian 26000 or Teledyne (expensive!) all the way. Color for EAA, mono for astrophotography.

[@darkrangersinc]

Yeah but unfortunately ASIAIR only allows ZWO. Once I upgrade to the Eagle 5 I’ll get the Moravian C3 with the 61MP FF chip with the cooling upgrade.

[@psegre]

I power my 2600mc with the ASIair all the time, no problems. I thought you were gonna actually compare photos from the cameras here? All this Hubble pallet talk is misleading, you can create a Hubble palette with a color camera just as easily as with a mono camera.

[@afryhover]

I've had both since they came out. My 2600mm just got the "exposure failure" death. I have to send it in to ZWO now. It will be out off warrenty. I also had to re-do the sensor heatsink paste because it leaked out all over the sensor, and I had to upgrade the cooling fan because it vibrated too much. Honestly, the quality of these cameras are pretty poor. They are NOT durable. To me, I think they are for "light use" not every night professional use. I might be switching to QHY. They build their version to withstand more abuse.

[@arturKrzyzak]

No sound?

[@darkrangersinc]

There is sound? If there wasn’t I think with the 5000 views we’d see a lot more of these comments 😉. It’s a little softer on my earlier episodes because I was brand new to video editing so you just have to turn it up a little bit, but I can easily hear it even on my iPhone with no headphones