Following the great youtuber Cuiv, I bought the Touptek camera IMX585 TE cooled with the new HDR mode (joining LCG and HCG), the mode is supposed to provide low noise and as many as 14 stops of dynamic range.

the video in which he introduces the camera is



The sensor has 12-bit, but thanks to the HDR mode two gain levels are fused to have precisely the 14-bit stop.

I tested the mode both in Nina with native drivers and SharpCap with ASCOM as well as with KSTARS/EKOS and Stellarmate.



Unfortunately, the results are disappointing, in the first tests (in HDR mode), vertical lines are highlighted (which are not debayer problems, by default for this RGGB camera).



Here are some FITS images with the problem highlighted
drive.google.com/drive/folders/1zhAQNGUw...YTsZJy7Tj55MrVM5a24Y



Looking at the specifications of the IMX585 sensor in this camera, we see that the HDR mode is available with two specifications DOL and CLEAR, the DOL simply takes two shots at different gains at different times, while in CLEAR the two shots are merged together.



Here is some (very few!) information about the STARVIS2 (which includes the IMX585) from Sony:
image-sensors-world.blogspot.com/2020/05...-and-comparison.html

Other interesting info about HDR mode:
image-sensors-world.blogspot.com/2020/05...-and-comparison.html


Interestingly, only Touptek includes this new mode, while the other houses preferred not to implement anything beyond the two classic HCG and LCG.


I have stacked some HDR FITS file from IMX585 and I can clearly see 2 group of pixel in different Gain, anyone can help?

Maybe something like:

RG rg RG rg
GB gb GB gb



R G B high gain
r g b low gain

Looking in the SDK, I can see two options that can't control in INDI

TSCAM_OPTION_HDR_KB

HDR synthesize
K (high 16 bits): [1, 25500]
B (low 16 bits): [0, 65535]
0xffffffff => set to default

and TOUPCAM_OPTION_HDR_THRESHOLD

HDR synthesize
threshold: [1, 4094]
0xffffffff => set to default

Touptek answered to me:

Hi Francesco,

We have stably reproduced the problem. Our engineers are solving it.

I will forward your suggestion to our engineers.

Value K and B is for another models with HDR mode, which is currently not apply to the IMX585. They are the gradient and offset which involve in the combination of HDR Image.

Thanks for your patience.

Best regard,

I have received a modified FPGA version 4.8 (you can verify it with sdk/win/x86/updatefw.exe) that fixes HDR mode, but with weird gain (near LCG).