QHY268 Colour Camera

The QHY268C is a 26 Megapixel, back-illuminated, cooled color CMOS camera based on the Sony IMX571 sensor with 16-bit A/D and 3.76um pixels. The QHY268C is available only in a color model.


Native 16-Bits
The Sony IMX571 sensor has on-chip 16-bit A/D for highest resolution of greyscale. The output is real 16-bits with 65536 levels. Compared to 12-bit and 14-bit A/D, 16-bits provides higher sampling resolution. At high gain, the camera yields close to 1e-/ADU with no sample error and low read noise.


High Dynamic Range
Great full well brings vivid colors. One benefit of the back-illuminated CMOS structure is improved full well capacity. This is particularly helpful for sensors with small pixels. Even with unbinned, the 3.76um pixels of the QHY268C has a superb full well capacity of 75ke-.


Ultra Low Read Noise

• 0.7e- Noise at High gain
• 3.5e- Noise at Low Gain

The QHY268C has only 0.7 electron of read noise at highest gain and 6.8 FPS at full resolution readout speed. One electron of read noise means the camera can achieve a SNR>3 at only 4 to 6 photons. This is perfect performance when conditions are photon limited, i.e., short exposures, narrow band imaging, etc., making this large area sensor ideal for sky surveys and time domain astronomy.


Back-Illuminated, High QE
The back-illuminated Sony Exmor sensor has about twice the QE of similar front illuminated sensors. The QHY268C has zero amplifer glow. In addition the dark current is only 0.0005e/pixel/sec @ -20C.