Svbony SC715C planetary camera first light review

Greetings fellow astronomers.  Wishing you all clear skies and sunny days.  As you all know from my previous blogs I currently own several Svbony planetary cameras such as the Svbony SV305C, SV705C among several other brands. I do love to do lots of planetary imaging and as a result Svbony has been kind enough to send me a Svbony SC715C planetary camera for review.  So what makes the  Svbony SC715C color planetary camera special compared to the current batch of planetary cameras on the market?  Read on and find out. I will be imaging Jupiter with the Svbony SC715C planetary camera to see how well it performs both in visible and invisible IR light.. 

The main advantage the Svbony SC715C planetary camera has over most of the current batch of planetary cameras on the market today is that this new camera sports the newer Sony IMX715 sensor touting a extremely small pixel size of 1.45um at and with a total of 8 million pixels stuffed onto a very small sensor.  Virtually all older planetary cameras with varying Sony sensors all have at least a pixel size of 2.9um or greater.  This means the newer Sony IMX715 sensor found in the Svbony SC715C actually has twice the pixel resolution since at least twice the number of imaging pixels fill the sane sensor space compared to the same sensor space on other sensors (see Svbonys illustration below).

What does this mean in practical terms?  The most significant advantage that this camera has over all the other planetary cameras is since the camera pixel size (1.4um) is half the size or smaller than other planetary cameras (2.9um or larger) you do not need to attach a barlow lens to use it with a high focal length scope like a Mak or SCT scope (1500mm or higher).  This means less optical abberations and clearer images since you reduced the optical train.  Even more relevant to most users who use refractors, wide field imaging scopes and reflectors with mch shorter focal lengths you can now use these telescopes with this high resolution planetary camera to get much better and higher resolution planetary captures when attaching a barlow. 

In this review I will be using my Celestron 127SLT (a 5 inch mak telescope with a focal length of 1500mm) to test the camera's capabilites without a barlow lens attached.  I normally would for sure attach a barlow to my mak telescope to get any real planetary detail.  Lets see how well the planetary camera performs without the barlow.  Unfortunately due to unstable and bad weather conditions I have not yet had a chance to test the second capability of using the Svbony SC715C camera with my smaller focal length wide field reflector.  Normallly I would never get decent planetary images from the short 650mm focal length Celestron Astromaster 130mm reflector.  I will be testing this capablity in a future review for sure when weather permits.  

Also due to unstable and bad weather I will not be exploring the deep sky capabilites of the Svbony SC715C camera either in this current review.  A future review will be done to explore it's capabilites with deep sky.  I expect the increased pixel resolution of this camera will improve fine details on deep sky targets but will have to wait and see.      

A second major feature in the the Svbony SC715C planetary camera is the significantly improved IR (infrared red) sensitivity with the Sony IMX715 sensor it uses over the older Sony camera sensors in the current planetary cameras.  The IR sensitivity is significantly higher in the IR range than the current batch of planetary cameras such as the Svbony SV305C, SV705C cameras with the INX662 and IMX585 sensors and even way more sensitive than much older generation planetary cameras such as the original Svbony SV305 with the Sony IMX290 sensor.  What does this mean?  This means better captures of atmospheric, high attitude cloud details for planetary IR imaging and better planetary and lunar imaging in bad seeing conditions and even the capabiluty to perform planetary daylight imaging! 

With IR imaging it used to be you needed a large aperature telescope and or a dediciated mono camera to capture in IR but with a newer camera like the Svbony SC715C and the Sony IMX715 sensor this planetary camea is so sensitive in the upper IR range this is reallly no longer a mandatory requirement..  I will be testing this with my small 5 inch Celestron 127slt mak definately not a large aperature scope by any means quite small actually.  

At high IR wavelengths this camera acts like a highly sensitive mono camera! I will briefly test this capability in this review when I image Jupiter switching out my Svbony IR/cut filter (visible light filter) and using my Svbony IR650 Pass filter (non-visible light) using my Svbony SV226 magnetic filter drawer.  The Svbony SV226 magnetic filter drawer is a wonderful filter system allowing you to switch out filters on the fly with magnetic trays and it works great.  The holder is completely light proof and seals extemely well due to the tight fit the magnets create to each other.  The SV226 magnetic filter system is highly recommended as well and a link to it can be found at the bottom of this review.

A final feature to be briefly discussed with the Svbony SC715C planetary camera is that this camera actually captures true RAW data (the data is completely untouched) unlike the other planetary cameras.  This means that this camera captures all the raw data without any modifications whatsoever (yes even color balance is not touched) and therefore data is actually stored and captured in a totally non-destructive manner which is great.  All changes are done via post processing later on which is the way data should be handled actually.   As a result of this when you load a raw data image into a astro product or for processing you will notice the images have a green tine from this camera since there the debayer uses a pattern of RGGB which is greeen dominent (see figure 1 below for an example).   This can be easily fixed via auto color balance in most processing software.

Figure 1: A typical stacked green tinted image capture produced by SC715C Camera 

So the question is does the SC715C really produce higher resolution captures of planets than other older planetary cameras?  Is there a actual improvement in resolution and fine details on planets for example? Lets dive in and fine out.  Please read on. 

I. Picture of box, camera and contents

Figure 2: The SC715C camera box and contents

II. Actual Scope Setup Equipment used for imaging

Figures 3a to 3d: Celestron 127SLT Mak used for testing on Celestron NextStar Goto Mount

III. Planetary Imaging OF JUPITER in normal visible light using IR/Cut filter (seeing conditions 6 out 10 in bortle 8 sky):

Images shown below were all captured on the same night on the Celestron 127SLT MAK scope with a very short window of clear skies here in western Canada.  Most of the last month has been very cloudy and cold conditions here.  Capture frames for Jupiter using the IR/cut filter (visible light imaging) were 3000 frames at meduim gain using RAW 8 using a ROI mode of 640 by 480 and 1920 by 1080 ROI mode (for the moons capture image below). Testing was done with the Svbony SC715C planetary camera without any barlow lens attached whatsoever at the native focal length. All final processed captures where based on a 1/2 stack and processed with same sharpening settings in wavesharp 3.

Figure 4: Mighty Jupiter captured in 640 by 480 ROI mode

Figure 5: Jupiter and its moons captured with the Svbony SC715C camera

I have to say I do love the gas band detail and color range on the new camera.  I normally do not get this level of detail or resolution on this small 5 inch scope. 

IV. Planetary Imaging OF JUPITER in IR using IR650 Pass filter (seeing conditions 6 out 10 in bortle 8 sky):

Images shown below were all captured on the same night on the Celestron 127SLT MAK scope after the above imaging session.  Capture frames for Jupiter using the Svbony IR650 Pass filter (IR imaging) was only 1200 frames in RAW 8 using a ROI mode of 640 by 480 zt very high gain. Testing was done with the Svbony SC715C planetary camera without any barlow whatsoever at native focal length. All final processed captures where based on a 1/2 stack and processed with same sharpening settings in wavesharp 3.

Figure 6: Mighty Jupiter in IR mode captured in 640 by 480 ROI mode

What do you think of the image captures above? You be the judge of some of the results shown?  For myself I am definitely seeing more detailed gas banding and planetary details with the 1.4um based sensor in the SC715C planetary camera  The difference in resolution is evident to me as a experienced  planetary imager having lots of use with my other planetary cameras imaging Jupiter.  I did not have the time yet to test this high resolution planetary camera with some of my other equipment like my smaller 650mm focal length Celestron Astromaster 130 reflector but I am sure the detail will be much better as well due to the smaller finer pixel size and scale.  I do believe this Svbony SC715C would be ideal for most telescope users who do not use higher focal length Mak or SCT telescopes and use lower focal length wide field scopes.  I have to say with my brief time so far with the Svbony SC715C camera I am impressed and cannot wait to get it out for more testing.  Hope you found this comparison useful!

This camera can be found here for purchase or more details:

Svbony SC715C-Planetary-Camera

This SV226 Magnetic filter system can be found here for purchase or more details:

Svbony SV226-Magnetic-Telescope-Filter-Drawer

The Svbony 1.25 inch and 2 inch IR650 Pass Filter can be found here for purchase or more details:

Svbony-IR650-Pass-Filter

And the Svbony1.25 inch and 2 inch IR/Cut filter can be found here for purchase or more details:

Svbony-IR/Cut-Filter

Here is a discount coupon code for you to use if you choose to buy one: 

grant5 ($5 dollars off)