The dark-images of the two cameras were taken at rather low temperatures of 0°C.(comparison at hot temperatures) The displayed images are the average of very many individual frames. Both cameras were set to their maximum sensitivity settings, with maximum gain and exposure time, 10sec for the Watec and 2.5sec for the Mintron. The settings of the used framegrabber were not changed.
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Darkimage of the Watec, inverted |
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Darkimage of the Mintron, inverted: uneven background brightness towards the left edge. Only half line resolution. |
The displayed histograms were generated from the above darkimages (not inverted). The histogram of the Mintron shows the increased and widenend floor, resulting from the artificial "brightness" on the left side .
The following two cross-histograms of the cameras were generated from the full number of dark-images and demonstrate the amount of noise of the two cameras at different levels. An ideal cross-histogram would look like a thin line. The ideal cross-histogramm for dark-images would actually be a single point. A broadening of the line shows the degree of noise at a certain level of brightness. The differing size of the images results from the fact, that the brightest pixels in the image-series differ between the two cameras.
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Watec at 10sec | Mintron at 2.5sec |
The noise levels are quite similar, but the histogramm of the Mintron is smeared, due to the uneven background.
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Averaged dark-image of the Watec at 10sec, massively contrast-stretched, grainy structure and strange, repeted hot-pixels. The "repititions" have a far lower brightness in the real image, though. |
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Averaged dark-image of the Mintron at 2.5sec, slightly contrast-stretched. Serious brightening towards the left, large bright pixels with dark regions around them |