ZWO ASI2600MM Pro APS-C Cooled Color Astronomy Camera

ASI2600MM Pro uses Sony’s latest back-illuminated IMX571 APS-C format native 16-bit ADC sensor. With the ultra-high 14 stops dynamic range, ultra-low 1.0e readout noise and an innovative breakthrough resulting in zero amp-glow, it’s become one of the best astrophotography cameras available today.

APS-C Sensor

The ZWO ASI2600MM Pro is a 26-megapixel camera featuring a small pixel size of 3.76um yet also having the incredible ability of accommodating a large well depth of 50ke. The sensor length and width are 23.5mm x 15.7mm with a diagonal is 28.3mm. Like its color equivalent, the ASI2600MC Pro, ASI2600MM Pro also has a very light weight of 0.7KG.

Native 16bit ADC

As one of the few CMOS astronomy cameras with 16bit ADC in the market, ASI2600MM Pro was born with superiorities for astrophotography. This 16bit ADC is not a CCD 16bit ADC. It can truly achieve a dynamic range output of 14 stops, which will significantly improve the image sharpness and contrast, also create smoother and more natural color transitions.

IMX571 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.

Camera Performance

The ASI2600MM Pro has excellent performance with a dynamic range of up to 14stops. When the gain value is 100, the magical HCG high gain mode is turned on, the readout noise is greatly reduced, and the dynamic range is basically unchanged. For better date quality, it is recommended to set the gain to 0 or gain 100 during deep-sky 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 ASI2600MM Pro uses zero amp glow circuitry, you won’t have to worry about amp glow even when using high gain, long exposure imaging.

Dark flame with amp glow – 300s exposure time

Dark frame from ASI2600 without any amp glow – 300s exposure time

Anti-Dew Heater

There is a polyimide heater completely fitting the protective window in the ASI2600MM Pro camera. It can help avoid the annoying dew or icing issues.

The power of the heater is around 5W. You are free to turn it off anytime in your photography software if you want to save some power.

QE Value

According to the test results of Sony, the QE peak value of the ASI2600MM Pro is 91%.

Two-Stage TEC Cooling, Ultra-Low Dark Current:

Thanks to the two stage TEC cooling, ASI2600MM Pro can lower the CMOS sensor temperature to more that 35c below ambient, 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 °, the dark current noise is only 0.0022e/s/pix. Which means 300s exposure can only cause 0.7e dark current noise, which is less than the readout noise. While at a cooling temperature of -20 °, the dark current can even reduce to 0.00012e/s/pix, which is completely negligible!