Vcam SC2.0 modification

This is my best performing webcam to date.The CCD is the SONY ICX098 AK.

This is one of the most sensitive of the 640x480pixel range CCDs you find in cheap

webcams.Other similar types are the SHARP LZ24BP and the ICX 098 BQ.

The micro-soldering mods done to this camera follow the typical Steve Chambers

SC2 designation and involve the SONY D1267 Timing Chip shown here.

In this view I have removed the CCD to the right but you can see several pins of the

CCD are connected to certain pins of the 1297 timing chip.

I housed it in an aluminium folded case and fitted a small

PC fan and Peltier heatsink finger combination.

The IR filter affects how this camera performs: The IR filter is the last element in the lens

that comes with the webcam. It is the flat glass plate that appears reddish in reflective light.

As this filter is lower quality than a dedicated sharp cutoff IR filter, it lets through quite a bit

of the IR and near IR.

This can be a good thing and a bad thing.....If I use SLR lenses with my Vcam, then the SLR

lens cannot focus the IR as well as the visible, and so IR flares show in an image.

If I happen to be capturing a field of stars that have an M type star or one with a very bright part

of its output in near IR or IR, then this is what happens:

The SLR lens focused most of the visible ok but the IR is unfocused, and it is made more obvious

by using a cheap IR filter. Take the filter off and most stars bloat out into big white blobs.

And the star RR Scorp is made worse because it is an M type (red/near IR/IR star).

This also makes planetary imaging difficult because Jupiter and Saturn emit part of their light

in IR, especially Jupiter.