Astro IIDC A FireWire camera controlling application.
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Astro IIDC Ranking & Summary

Astro IIDC Tags

control camera Firewire camera control Firewire based extract RAW

Astro IIDC Description

A FireWire camera controlling application. Astro IIDC is a FireWire camera controlling application. It works with a variety of inexpensive color or monochrome FireWire cameras, has a simple intuitive interface, can record movies, grab frames, grab averaged frames, grab sums of frames, does real time Flat Frame or Dark Frame subtraction and provides real CCD exposure times of up to 1 second with cameras that "normally" only provide exposures of 1/30th of a second.The application utilizes our industrial strength Altivec enabled IIDC/DCAM Framework to control the camera and extracts the raw bayer or monochrome images from the CCD with no YUV color aliasing. Here are some key features of "Astro IIDC": · Simple and easy to use interface in a single camera control window as shown in the screen snap shot to the right. All camera control adjustments are done with a full size live preview image so there is none of this modal QuickTime tiny 160x120 pixel image approximations nonsense, pure WYSIWYG. · Works with most inexpensive monochrome or color FireWire web type cameras (see list at page bottom for details). · Works with most high end 640x480 to 1600x1200 size, 8 and 16 bit per pixel, monochrome or bayer color FireWire 400 and Firewire 800 cameras (see list at page bottom for details). · Utilizes ASC's industrial strength, preemptively multi threaded, Altivec enhanced IIDC/DCAM framework code, with no dependency on QuickTime or other FireWire drivers for camera control. "Astro IIDC" directly accesses the FireWire camera and extracts the raw bayer or monochrome CCD data. No YUV color aliasing as we decode the bayer color data using our own custom 3x3 and 5x5 kernels. · For inexpensive FireWire cameras provides extended CCD exposure times from as fast as 1/3000th of a second down to 1.029 seconds, without any hardware modifications. That is 31 times more light gathering capability than anyone else's software and adds a new dimension for lower light imaging. · For high end FireWire cameras provides CCD exposure times from 1/10000 of a second to 60 minutes (depending on the camera) and records movies as fast as 240 frames per second. · Single click to Grab a frame, Grab a user defined burst of frames and average them (for noise reduction) or Grab a burst of frames and sum them (for enhancing low light imaging). Supports frame grabs in TIFF (Mono8, Mono16, RGB24 or RGB48), PNG, BMP, PhotoShop, PICT and FITS (Mono8 or Mono16 bit) file formats. · Supports Altivec enhanced Flat Frame division and Dark Frame subtraction to provide for real time removal of optical imperfections (i.e. dust, hairs, vignetting etc.) and to reduce CCD noise. · Provides live Sharpness estimator as a focussing aid and can also be used to exclude air turbulence blurred images from being grabbed as frames or recorded in a movie. · Logs all your camera settings for every frame grabbed or movie recorded to a text file, so that you can easily recall exactly what settings were used when each image image was captured. Also allows you to enter user notes notes for each frame or movie recorded. · Supports user definable Average and Spot Color Balance, allowing you to balance against any color you want, not just white. · Records QuickTime Movies at frame rates up to 240 frames per second down to as slow as 1 frame per minute, user selectable. All movies are recorded with a Greenwich Mean Time relative Time Code track, so that the time for each recorded frame can be determined within 1 frame duration. · Provides real time automated alignment and stacking of video, both for live image capture and post with recorded 8 or 16 bit per pixel movies. All Altivec enhanced stacking, sharpening, aligning and processing is done at a full 32 bits per color channel (Mono32 or RGB96) so that no image data is lost or compromised · Supports display and capture in color, monochrome, binned 2x2 color, binned 2x2 monochrome and individual red, green or blue color channels modes. · Provides azimuth or altitude control for Meade LX series or compatibles telescope mounts via an optional Key Span USB to Serial adapter and has preliminary support for Auto Guiding on stars, planets, lunar craters and solar sunspots. Requirements: · The "Astro IIDC" Universal Binary Application requires a Fire Wire capable Mac desktop, laptop or mini PowerPC (G4 or higher) or x86 Mac with a minimum of 128 megabytes of Ram and QuickTime 7.0 or higher. Recording at 120+ frames per second at 6 · In the "Legacy" folder of the disk image is a PowerPC version of Astro IIDC 4 that will run on G3, G4 or G5 PowerPC Macs and under OSX 10.3, 10.4 and 10.5. The "ASC_Bayer_Installer23.pkg" is a copy of the PowerPC only Bayer Codec which Limitations: · Until you purchase an unlock key(s) the "Astro IIDC" application will run in "Demo Mode" which disables some features. This allows you ensure your camera works properly with the software before making a purchase. What's New in This Release: · Adds finer (+/- 0.10 millisecond) control of exposure, enhances text log files and works around a bunch of Apple induced bugs for Leopard (10.5.x), Snow Leopard (10.6.x) and QuickTime 7.5.x.

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