This New Smart Camera Simplified My Favorite Telescope - ASI2600MM Air Tested
ZWO’s new ASI2600MM Air is finally here—and I’ve spent the past week testing it under real-world conditions from my light-polluted balcony. This is the all-in-one monochrome versio...
Hi Luca, another great review. I had a spare reverse side tilt adjuster thrown in as a bonus when I bought my AM3 and 2600MC Duo on pre-order. It was left over as 'surplus to requirement' for my FF80 grab and go rig. (BTW I guide successfully @6nm f/5.6 MC Duo on that grab-and-go at 1 sec in normal/good seeing). When I went mono on my main 130APO rig, I had to decide between 2600MM pro, or the Duo or waiting for the air. In the end because I already had an asiair and a piggyback guide with the 533MC on that rig to start with, I decided to take the cost saving and not to risk potential difficulties of guiding through 3nm filters that I planned for. So my choice was the MM Pro. To my disappointment I found that you can't swap out the 2600MM Pro's M42 standard tilt plate for the 2600 Duo/Air's M54 back adjustable tilt plate - the connection holes are not in the same place or orientation. Maybe that's obvious to others but it wasn't to me, so I thought I'd warn people about that in a comment here. I was also surprised to find out that screwing the 2600MM Pro to the back of the EFW was MUCH more difficult that it should have been. There are countersunk holes on the EFW backplate, and manufacturing tolerance variability meant that the particular screws that I was supplied with to attach EFW to the standard camera tilt plate passed right through the plate and came into contact with the camera body *before* they were fully tight. This meant that upon initial assembly they didn't seat properly and there was play between the EFW and the camera. I had to take it all apart and redo it a few times before it bedded in. Also disappointing is that whereas the old spacers and camera (533MC) attached to my reducer to give an accurate 55mm when replacing them with EFW and CAA which have identical dimensions on paper, the measured back focus comes out at 56mm - and it shows in the corners of the subs. So again I feel that the manufacturing tolerances are not particularly accurate. I do use the paper masks to avoid light leaks (and I fitted them externally to the EFW) but this can only account for about 0.2mm at most. BlurX can hide the effect, but it cant recover the lost detail. To finish on a positive surprise, I bought an EAF pro - just to have manual adjustment buttons. This is because I wanted to keep using this rig visually (camera and computer free) and I don't want to have to dismantle the EAF for that. I have a Pegasus power saddle to handle the dew straps (so in AltAz/Visual I don't need to mount an asiair or camera). The surprise is that my AM5 is not Bluetooth capable, but EVEN SO using AM5 SkyAtlas app wifi alt/az for goto in visual mode I can still focus the EAF pro using the android app. This is is a huge surprise - evidently the skyatlas app is using the tablet/phone native BT feature! I wonder if this is true for the Asiair app too? TBH I prefer the focuser hand controller (to protect my night vision) but there it is - a bonus feature. Finally while the EAF Pro is battery operated and BT capable; unless I am doing visual I always run it with a cable connected. If you don't sooner or later you're bound to lose a night to flat battery problem. For that reason (and having already snagging risk in traditional ways - with well designed wiring looms) I tend to see 'wireless' as 'cool' but a bit of a gimmick.
hey, the poor placement of screw holes sounds very frustrating indeed, I did not have this experience. Though the piece of equipment I would most like to have it (asi6200MM + EFW +OAG-L) I cannot mount it due to the presence of the focuser. I have to say I'm a bit confused by your backfocus problem: "Also disappointing is that whereas the old spacers and camera (533MC) attached to my reducer to give an accurate 55mm when replacing them with EAF and CAA which have identical dimensions on paper, the measured back focus comes out at 56mm - and it shows in the corners of the subs" What did you mean by EAF here? What exactly are the items in your imaging train? I don't think there is a way for you to install the back-adjustable tilter on this setup.
@the_space_koala Typo I meant EFW in that sentence (I've corrected my comment). Light train is 0.8x reducer + CAA, + 7x2" EFW + 2600MM pro.
..and how is it going after 5mo I had my trigger ready yesterday for one of these as a backup for the Epsilon160ed/Ultracat91 but I have esitated because currently my guding is hassle free with a Uniguide 50 and Uranus M imx585 and it reminds me a bit of my frustration some nights last year with the oag/refocusing on the TOA130 especially with the B/O3 and guiding impact afterwards..with my current setup is fire and forget for months..but I have to admit the convenience of not having to plug things around and fight with cables..why haven't you considered a colour version instead I have seen you use it and the Artec doesn't seem much portable? (I gave up on colour and sold my 571c as I'd need twice the integration time to reach decent results.. (long message sorry 😬)..many thanks for your reviews they cover everything and unbiased.
I have the color version as well but in general I prefer mono imaging. It has been going well and I have been using the mono air more than I had anticipated. I have been working on a way to improve guiding when using ultra narrow band filters - I hope to share my findings maybe in the next month
un jouet de riche
I could not see the floor. Is it wood or concrete. I have a concrete floor for my 2 permanent stationary C14, 10", but I never walk on it while exposing.
It’s my balcony so it’s tiles over concrete. However I have these plastic-ish cover tiles over it which is what I walked on. I don’t get any issues in my images unless I literally jump next to the mount
This camera disappointed me massively. Only accessible via ASCOM Alpaca if using NINA. I.e super slow camera access over HTTP. No native or local ASCOM driver support! Buyer beware, it’s not simply a Duo with a built in ASIAIR as a bonus, it’s essentially an ecosystem locked camera. Leads to the ridiculous situation where you literally have a USB cable running into it, but are forced to access the camera over the air by super slow HTTP REST to control the camera and get your images into NINA.
sorry you had this experience. When the first Air camera came out (september 2024) I did a review of it and showed how super slow it was via Alpaca. Since then I advise people to get this only if they're planning to use it 95% as an ASIAIR and only occasionally from a PC. If you don't want to use it via the ASIAIR, I think you're better off selling it, or perhaps swapping cams with an existing ASIAIR + Duo user
Another clear and concise review. Have both the ASI 2600 MC AIR OSC and ASI 585 MC Air OSC - love them both and really don't care about being locked to ZWO - very easy to use and all just works great - don't miss the guide scope extra weight and guiding seems a bit more accurate / consistent with the DUO's - Down the road, I'll def buy the mono rig with the 2600 MM AIr. I am in a very dark site though, in the middle of a forest out in the country, so that helps a lot.
Air is maby interesting if you can use the Air on non ZWO mounts like iOptron 18C, Skywatcher NEQ 6 pro?
it's compatible with most mounts, but not wirelessly. Some mounts (like skywatchers) will need a special adapter cable (EQMod). But tons of people use them
@the_space_koala Where can I find a full list of all brands and types of mounts that would be supported bij ASI - Air?
I'm not sure if there's an official list, however it is safe to say if the mount supports the INDI protocol it should
Next step ASI 2600 Air with build in filterwheel?
they kind of did that before (ASI183 GTI) but it was not a big success apparently
I want to hear more about your favorite telescope.
It’s coming soon! Ive shot most of it it just needs editing :)
Cool setup - if u are a billionaire....
Just started subscribed to the Channel Luca. Really enjoyed your "Auto camera system" video you did.
thanks for being here!
there should be a switch or option to turn it into a regular 2600 duo. With that it really would be a win-win. Without it, I think it just limits what you can do with the camera. Particularly given that ZWO tends to really screw up the usability with the updates as we have seen repeatedly time. But you know what would be even more ideal? if we could wipe out the ASI thing and install a regular linux (ubuntu,, arch, raspbian, you name it) with kstars / ekos and make it work in there with both chips.
I agree, if they made the ASIAIR mode optional it would be unbeatable. I thought about it in the past as well - I suspect there are technical obstacles in the background - how the sensor data is wired. However, an additional "router" chip could resolve this, potentially. Here's to hoping they choose to do this in the future :D as for the second part, I don't care for it personally, if I don't use the ASIAIR I just use NINA. Though, for many people this would be appealing for sure
Hi again. Just got this camera and I am trying to figure out how to get 56mm with the EFW? Do I take the front plate off? Telescope is the ASkAR 500 with M54 threads.
I would do camera >> tilter >> EFW >> 16.5mm m54 spacer. This gives you 54mm which is more than fine. Keep in mind the FRA500 is a petzval system so you don’t need to worry about the backfocus at all
I’m still waiting for these Air zwo cameras to come with an Ethernet port. That will be ideal for a true standalone remote imaging set up I think.
The camera used to have it
Considering this mono camera but you mentioned that it was slow to use with other control software. Can you explain if this is usable with 3rd party software or basically unusable? Also can I use my my ASI174 for guiding with my C11 instead of the built in guider?
it's fine for 3rd party software, I think it's OK for long exposure photography because you don't necessarily care if it takes 10-15 sec to download, but taking flats or autofocusing would be painful. For anything else it's not a good option. Yes you can use an external guide camera!
@the_space_koala Is it slow because of USB 2.0 output?
sorry I just saw your response - no, the USB is actually not used here, this is the problem. It works over Wi-Fi
My problem with the Duo cameras is they require a Full Frame equivalent focus aperture for the guide chip to capture light / stars. Some of my OTAs are limited to APS-C or less.
If they’re just not corrected that’s not an issue. If they’re fully vignetted that’s an issue. I use a duo on my RASA8 and I can only connect it with an M42 screw so half of the guide sensor is actually covered. However at 400mm at f/2 I still have tons of guide stars. It would be different for a longer refractor
SBIG had this 20 years ago....
The guide sensor only, it wasn’t all-in-one. And at the time the smaller sensor wasn’t sensitive enough just yet
@the_space_koala made so much pics with the stl11000 at these days. It worked in the most cases perfect. You just had to prepare your session proper to have a bright enough guide star and a field rotator :-)
Ah that dream come true
Air concept makes sense for both MM and MC.
Cool scope ;-) !!!