Rant: That $600 deep-sky camera I bought was a total dud

Snagged a ZWO ASI533MC Pro last month and the first three nights of imaging were just noise and weird artifacts. Had to spend a whole weekend digging through old forum threads to find out the sensor had a bad batch from 2022 - has anyone else dealt with a lemon from that production run?

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the_henry2mo ago

Man that stinks. Bad luck with that batch, sorry.

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amyh212mo ago

Used to think it was all kind of the same honestly. Grabbed a cheap batch online last year and it was super harsh, couldn't even finish it. This recent experience totally flipped my view, now I get why people talk about quality so much. Still kicking myself for going with the budget option first though.

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the_blair2mo ago

...and yeah that sounds like the exact same headache I had with an ASI1600 a while back. I ended up calling ZWO support direct, not email, and just told them flat out the sensor was trash. They asked for some sample frames and a copy of the receipt, then sent me a replacement unit within a week. The new one's been solid for two years now. Might be worth skipping the forum rabbit hole and just hitting them up by phone.

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