Actually if you use the mode where the trigger controls the shutter you should be able to do really long exposures, far more than 10 seconds AFAIK.ok, didnt think about this one... This is an VERY interresting Idea!
Unless there's something I missed there shouldn't be any limit (new crazy idea: make a photo with an exposure of weeks or months...). I think the first limitation would be software crashes but the Chronos shouldn't have this problem even for multiple days exposures.I dont think mounting is that big of an problem. There are some good Star-Tracking Mount you could built on your own and get solid results, even with high-Resolution-DSLR´s. And there are enough commercialy available also. And you could always just mount it on an solid Tripod and dont move it at all for everything else not involving Star- /Sattelite-Tracking.
But you'll need a very good mount to track what you want with no smearing.
There are some good Star-Tracking Mount you could built on your own and get solid results, even with high-Resolution-DSLR´s.
People have done stuff like that and did exposures of multiple weeks on an simle sheet of plain white office paper with an pinhole. The Sun in frame and all the light beeing projected all the time trough the lens onto the paper will "Burn" /bleach the image into the Paper and it will remain visible.
I seriously never thought i could get hyped by the idea of using an highspeed-camera for timelapse, astro- /night-Stuff and Pinhole Lenses, but this is just an crazy cool idea.
For low light filming, this camera is more suitable!
Another funny stuff from Kickstarter n_n!
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/189168434/aurora-worlds-1st-day-night-camera-with-true-night
If you want ultimative Night-Vision in a Camera just Get an Sony A7 Sii or S. There are some other Big-Sensor - High sensitivity Cameras out there, but Sony does it best at the moment with the A7Sii. About the same price of the Chronos and you will also get a lens to that A7 for this kind of money... Bad thing is that the A7s just does quite lame framerates...Yeah, i talked about that bevore. I dont know that kickstarter, but just judging by the rather Low price of that kickstarter Camera and a Quick look at the Size there, i would guess a Sony A7Sii would Still outperform it easily in terms of Super Low-Light Video. Could be wrong about this. But the Next Generation, the A7Siii is about to come out at some Point and should even improve Low-Light video in this camera. So if you need/ want ultimative Low-Light Performance, just buy any A7S of your choice.
From what I've heard — and this is second-hand, since I've been dealing mostly with the user-interface software here rather than the hardware — the sensor in the Chronos is a bit weird. The longer the exposure time, the noisier the results from the sensor. IIRC, after half a minute of exposure the resulting picture is effectively gone. Something in the physics of it accumulates errors over time, rather than averaging them out like in a normal sensor.Thats nothing unheard of. Most Digital Sensors produce Lot of noise. Thats why you will find tons of Astro-Guys modify their Cameras with special cooling for the Sensor. Some of them even go sub-zero and seal the Inside from Air to not get condensation. I think the Sensor is not specialy bad or weird in terms of noise to signal ratio, but because you would normaly pull massive framerates from it, i guess it runs "a bit Hot" in comparison to "normal" DSLR Sensors & CO. And that is completely fine for what it is intended to do normaly, Highspeed video.
I was able to open and play it with VLC without any problems.I tried again, and now i can open it. The other 3 Downloaded Files from the Same Video wont open in VLC or in AE CS6
The noise you're seeing here is actually just dark noise. Black cal won't work below about 60fps, so what you're seeing is an uncalibrated image. Try doing a black cal at 60fps then changing to 10fps.That's actually what it did. I first did a blackcal an then changed the FPS. as it was very bad, I did a second black cal at 10fps with no improvement, obviously.
@Sael: that mars video is actually really good, I guess you're using a magnification of about 250x to 300? Now I'll definitively need to hook up my telescope to the Chronos just for the fun of itYou could try just using Some Old Paper-Core from Toilet Paper or alike and A bunch of Tape for an Adapter if you want to go really ghetto and cheap with the adapter. Just cut it down to about the right Length and make sure you secure the Camera, so it wont drop down...
I'm no optics expert but I get the impression the Chronos has a high sensitivity image sensor. It stands to reason this could work in moonlight for stills or even ordinary speed video.If you're specifically looking for a high-speed camera that can also handle low-light photography, the Chronos monochrome model could be a suitable option.
For comparison:
I've previously used a Canon S5, 2002 model, for some low-light work and it does work for stars in the night sky but I couldn't get it to pick up anything non-transmissive in a just-after-dusk shot.
PS: I do want a high speed camera as well. The Chronos monochrome model would seem the right option to cover both jobs.