Tag changed since this isn't likely to involve a PIC. Thanks for the comments Russell. I will certainly look further at the Canon line. But didn't Minolta just get out of cameras? Russell McMahon wrote: > A number of mid to upper DSLR's have full image data download to PC > "on the fly". My Minolta 7D has this - PC software is free. While the > 7D is now no longer made, new ones are available and cost probably > around $US800 up new. I have not used this feature yet so do not know > capture rate but i assume it does not slow the camera down much > relative to normal use. A typical image may be 2 MB / 20 Mbit say. > That should transfer in around 0.1 s on USB2 if everything worked as > it ought - certainly well under 1 s. That would certainly be adequate. > You can make far larger images > but 2 MB - 4 MB should be OK for most things. The plan was to use 1280x1024 since that's what the LCD monitors can display. If we get a better monitor, we'd up the camera settings. > Camera does 3 to 4 > frames per second maximum. Not full motion realtime but probably fast > enough for most astronomical images. An EVF mirrorless camera (non > SLR) may be better for frame grabbing. Yes, I figured there wasn't much point in optical viewfinder for this application. > Othe DSLRs have this facility. I've seen a Nikon used this way (may > have been a D70?) and Canon would certainly have it on some or most of > their DSLRs. The top Canons (and others) now have 802.11g WiFi built > in. Now that would be nice. Makes the cabling less of an issue since moving the camera from scope to scope would become trivial. (We have dedicated telescopes for solar work, vs deep sky, vs general work). > Ask further about Minolta software if interested. This MAY be the > cheapest option using a camera with an APSC or larger sensor. (APSC is > 2/3 x 35mm full frame linearly or 44% of 35mm frame area). 7D is > "only" 6 MP BUT has 'real world' performance vastly better than eg 8MP > "prosumer" wannabees. (I have both so can compare them well). > Thanks for that review. I'll see what I can find around here. IIRC Minolta has a hexagonal pixel based sensor so it gets more out of each pixel. Robert -- http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist