Discover the Power of the Player One Zeus-C Pro Camera

The Player One Zeus-C Pro Camera is designed for astrophotographers who seek outstanding color imaging and enhanced deep-sky performance. Equipped with advanced features and precision engineering, the Zeus-C Pro is your gateway to capturing vibrant, high-resolution images of celestial wonders with unparalleled clarity and detail.

Key Features of the Zeus-C Pro Camera

• High-Sensitivity Color Sensor: The Player One Zeus-C Pro utilizes a cutting-edge color sensor for dynamic range and rich color depth, perfect for capturing faint galaxies, nebulae, and planetary details.
• Advanced Cooling System: With a powerful TEC cooling unit, the Zeus-C Pro can maintain a stable sensor temperature even during extended exposures, reducing noise and improving image quality.
• Compact and Durable Design: Crafted in Player One’s signature style, the Zeus-C Pro Camera features a sleek, hexagonal body that is both lightweight and robust, making it an ideal choice for portable astrophotography setups.
• Non-Amp-Glow Design: The Zeus-C Pro is engineered to eliminate amp glow, resulting in cleaner, noise-free backgrounds in long-exposure images.
• STARVIS Technology: Back-illuminated pixels ensure the Player One Zeus-C Pro excels in low-light conditions, allowing for stunning captures of deep-sky objects.

Why Choose the Player One Zeus-C Pro?

The Zeus-C Pro stands out in its class as a versatile, high-performance camera for astrophotographers of all skill levels. With Player One’s focus on quality and innovation, the Zeus-C Pro Camera provides the features needed to capture vivid, detailed images of the cosmos, all while being easy to operate and built to last. From rich colors to deep shadows, the Player One Zeus-C Pro brings out the best in every celestial scene.

Product Specifications for the Zeus-C Pro Camera

• Sensor Type: High-sensitivity color CMOS
• Resolution: Optimized for deep-sky imaging and planetary details
• Cooling System: Dual-stage TEC cooling for superior temperature stability
• Body Design: Hexagonal with a durable, frosted finish in Player One’s signature colors
• Compatibility: Works seamlessly with major astrophotography software

Capture the Cosmos in Color with the Player One Zeus-C Pro Camera

Whether you're a seasoned astrophotographer or just beginning your journey, the Player One Zeus-C Pro offers advanced features and reliable performance to help you capture the night sky in all its glory. Embrace the vibrant colour and detail that only the Zeus-C Pro can deliver, and experience the universe in a whole new way.

Features:

 DSO cooled camera line is the most advanced product line in Player One history. We start the project from 2021, through a lot of modify and rebuild we made this final version. It brings our newest technology and design to everyone, we are very proud to introduce this camera line.

Power supply for the Zeus-C Pro is not include in camera package, high quality 12V 5A power supply link: https://player-one-astronomy.com/product/12v-5a-power-supply-dc5-5-x-2-1mm/

Drivers and softwares download: http://player-one-astronomy.com/service/software/

Manuals download: http://player-one-astronomy.com/service/manuals/

 Zeus-C Pro KIT setup tutorial (Demostrate with Poseidon-C PRO KIT):

Product Description for the Zeus-C Pro

 New Cutting-edge Design

Polygon like regular hexagon is very Player One, the DSO cooled cameras we want to make it more beautiful and practical. After a lot of trying,  we fix the final style, which uses a scientific and technological octagon to construct the main body line and 4 sides are cambered surface, supplemented by round chamfers to achieve both rigidity and flexibility. The front piece is round to avoid diffraction on RASA. The positive red, which is like a summer fire, is matched with the low-key and steady black, and the super-fine frosting process on the entire surface makes the camera look luxurious and cool, and keep Player One style.

ZEUS 455C Pro cooled camera is developed by Player One Astronomy, it’s design for advanced DSO imaging. it adopts Sony Industrial grade IMX455AQK-K full-frame format color sensor. The ZEUS 455C Pro 3.76um pixel size accommodates a well depth of 71.6Ke with a total of 61MP  (the resolution is 9576*6388), and the diagonal is 44.3mm.

Rear Adjustment 4 Point Sensor Tilt Plate

When taking deepsky objects, using sensor tilt plate can get a much smaller field curvature of the telescope. We adopts rear Adjustment and 4 point tilt plate, it has a lot advantages in usage.

 ZEUS 455C Pro 4 Point adjustment is easier to know which corner is needed to adjust. The built-in high-density sponge shading pad can block the light from the side slits without any side leakage.

For understand ZEUS 455C Pro  4 point adjustment method, we made a example for users:

Deep Cooling

Player One ZEUS 455C Pro cooled camera series use 2 Stage TEC Cooling unit, after improved the structure design to reject the heat back to camera chamber, Zeus Camera Delta-T can reach about 35℃.

ZEUS 455C Pro 512MB DDR3 Cache

As an improvement, DDR3 cache in cooled cameras are increased to 512MB. It helps stabilize and secure data transmission, it effectively avoids frame dropping and greatly reduces readout noise.

With the ZEUS 455C Pro DDR3 cache, the camera does not have high demands on computing needs any longer, it will still has excellent performance even if it is connected to a USB 2.0 port.

STARVIS Technology

ZEUS 455C Pro cooled camera based on Sony STARVIS technology, it is back-illuminated pixel technology used in CMOS image sensors.

 ZEUS 455C Pro Full-Frame Format

ZEUS 455C Pro cooled camera has full-frame format (36mm*24mm), it is very suitable for professional DSO imaging.

 ZEUS 455C Pro Native 16bit ADC

IMX455 has native 16-bit on-chip ADC. Native 16bit ADC (65536 levels) provide higher sample resolution than 12bit (4096 levels) or 14bit (16384 levels). When we do non-linear transformation, 16bit data can endure very strong transform and also could bring much better light and dark transition, furthermore 16bit can make the color more vivid.

 Zeus-C Pro Non-Amp-Glow

Zeus-C Pro  cooled camera is a Non-Amp-Glow camera too!

300s, gain=0, offset=5, dark frame at -5℃ of ZEUS 455C Pro cooled camera: DOWNLOAD

Preview of Dark frame: Exposure=300s, gain=0, offset=5, temp=-5℃   STF auto-Stretch in Pixinsight 1.86

Zeus-C Pro  Non-Amp-Glow can give us very clean background, much easier to get high quality images.

Zeus-C Pro Type-C Data port and Power port

Back piece of the   Zeus-C Pro cooled camera has 2 Type-C data port and 12V DC 5.5×2.1mm power port.

Zeus-C Pro main data port support USB3.0 protocol, the camera can run 6.5fps under RAW8 mode. Type-C port is easier to plug in when assemble the imaging equipment in night.

When recording images, since the actual writing speed will be affected by the writing speed of the hard disk itself, when the hard disk writing speed is slow, the recording may not reach the theoretical speed. It is recommended that you use a high-quality solid state drive to record data to give full play to the performance of the camera.

The camera has 12V DC5.5*2.1mm port to provide enough power to TEC cooling system. If you don’t need to power up cooling, only need to connect the main Type-C port, the camera will works as a uncooled camera.

Zeus-C Pro Standard Cable Usage

Cooling System and Anti-Dew Heater for the Zeus-C Pro 

In ASCOM window, we provide 3 adjustable parameters: Target temperature, Fan Speed and Anti-Dew power.

Standard Delta-T: 35℃ (±2℃) , when ambient temp 30℃, fan speed 100%, dew heater 10%.

Recommend Delta-T settings: 30℃ below ambient, fan speed 70%, dew heater 10%, power consumption 40- 60%.

The rotation speed of cooling fan is also adjustable, the default value is 70% speed.

Dew problem is the biggest enemy in astro imaging, the camera integrated anti-dew heater in front of the camera. The heat power is adjustable.

Overvoltage and overcurrent protection mechanism

Player One cameras produced by us ensures the safety of your camera and other equipment through overvoltage and overcurrent protection mechanisms.

Performance

Dual Sampling Mode

ZEUS series has dual sampling mode. Normal mode and Low Noise mode, they has different advantages in imaging.

1. Normal mode has faster FPS, it is more suitable for planetary imaging.

2. Low Noise mode (LRN) mode has lower readout noise and higher dynamic range. it is more suitable for DSO imaging.

At gain=0, the camera has 14.2 stops dynamic range and 71.6Ke full well capacity, readout noise is 4.2e.

HCG open at gain=125, the camera has 13.5 stops dynamic range and 16.7Ke full well, readout noise drop to only 1.5e.

Frame rate

ZEUS 455C Pro cooled camera can run 6.5FPS under RAW8 mode, 3.2FPS under RAW16 mode.

Extended Full well

ZEUS 455C Pro cooled camera has 71.6Ke full well.

Readout Noise

Regarding readout noise, we solemnly promise that all values are obtained from actual tests.  And for users, you could use Sharpcap 4 for testing. SC4 has a function called Sensor Analysis, provide a very simple way to test readout noise.

We wrote a tutorial on our website: https://player-one-astronomy.com/service/manuals/

If you are interested in readout noise testing, you may try it yourself, which is very simple.

Dark Current

The dark current is only 0.00014 e/s/pix at -20℃, and 0.00154e/s/pix at 0℃. In entire curve, dark current is almost like a straght a line, which can prove that ZEUS camera has very good quality.

QE Curve

Mechanical Drawing

BFL Solutions

Notice: Some BFL solution is 56mm (Compensate light path differences which caused by filters)

Package List

Highlight

Luke Newbould, RASA11 v2，Zeus-C Pro , optolong l-extreme filter

Luke Newbould, Esprit 100 apo, Zeus-C Pro  , Anti-Halo Pro Ha+OIII filter

WR 134-Miguel Claro, Zeus-C Pro