ATR585C

ATR585C

UPDATE 18.07.2024:
After a positive reaction from Touptek and their guarantee to release a firmware update that fixes all the issues they finally gave me the new version (4.36) to test and analyse. Well, what can I say? The results are mindblowing! The engineering department could increase the dynamic range even further than before. We are talking about 15.56 stops of dynamic range with 0,6 electrons read noise and 16Bit, which is astonishing.

Touptek kept his promise and delivered a fix in record time. Thats the reason to increase my rating from 2 to 4 stars. My next step will be testing this camera under the stars. If it can deliver the performance the whole night in a stable manner, the rating will be 5 stars and my absolute recommendation.

I posted the new sharpcap analysis in the review. You can have a look.

Original review:
I was very excited to buy this camera because it is the newest sensor technology from Sony with dual gain ClearHDR, which captures a picture 16Bit with over 14 stops of dynamic range.

Its finish is high quality and the fan is extremely silent. No driver or compatibility problems, everything is fine. Until I did a sensor analysis. Touptek and some youtubers advertise this camera with 16Bit, 0,6 electrons read noise and over 14 stops dynamic range in HDR mode. You can read it in the official Touptek manual.

My sensor could only provide 14 Bit with almost double the read noise and a maximum of 14 stops DR. I thought I was wrong and wrote the technical engineering departement of Touptek via Mail. They verified my assumptions because of HDR problems in earlier firmware they had to release an update (Firmware 4.35) which locks you out at 14Bit and reduced HDR performance to guarantee stable sensor performance.

To be honest this information is disappointing to me because I bought this camera especially for the HDR mode @16Bit. Touptek does not provide a bulletin on their shop website or manual which describes the reduced performance in the current firmware.

I dont know if this sensor will get another update in the future which opens up the HDR mode again. And if yes, when it will be released.

I am thinking about refunding because of false advertising. I attached my sensor analysis result which the techincal dep. of Touptek also received from me.

This is the second camera I have bought from ToupTek. The sales assistance is excellent. They even agreed to disconnect the LED lights for me so I wouldn't lose my warranty by opening the camera up myself (thank you for this!). But once I bought the camera, and reached out to their customer service to have the correct plug sent to me (they sent me the wrong power plug), I was ghosted. Still no response and that was a couple of weeks ago. They did the same thing after I bought the first camera and asked questions about unity gain—it took weeks to get a decent answer from them. That said, this camera is awesome!