Equipment Problems with SBIG and my SBIG STL-11000M

• I bought a new STL-11000M from SBIG in June 2009. I used the camera for about 10 hours in order to understand its operation. After feeling comfortable with the camera's operation, I made the 3.5 hour drive to my dark sky site near Blueknob PA. Images from that evening were terrible. After researching the problem I discovered that the CCD window had dewed because of bad dassicant that was delivered with the new camera. The STL-11000M cost between 6 and 9 thousand dollars. You would think for the money you would receive a functioning device!.
  
  
• Tear dropped shaped stars were another problem I encountered after correction the problem with dew. Apparently this is a common proplem with the STL-11000M camera. The solution which for some reason has been removed from the SBIG web site. It involves opening the electronics part of the camera and making an adjustment. Again you would think for the money that you would get a properly adjusted camera!
  
  
• The next problem I noticed was that the Camera Control Program crashed when attempting to save an image. This happened about one in four times and meant that 25% of my images were lost and needed to be retaken. SBIG e-mailed the solution, a problem that seemed to be known to them but not described in any of their manuals. SBIG implied that this was a Microsoft problem. I am not enough of a computer expert to understand why changing the "Theme" of an operating system would correct program crashes or why a program crash would occur under one theme and not under another theme.
  
  
• My next problem was with an extra filter wheel I purchased from SBIG. The filter wheel did not work. When I asked SBIG about the problem they acknowledged that there was some sort of mix-up with filter wheels that had received the proper paint to make them work proberly and those that had not. They had sold me one that had not been painted and thus could not work in the STL-11000M. I was instructed to return the filter wheel for replacement..
  
  
• My next problem with SBIG was getting them to replace the filter wheel I had returned to them. A month after sending the defective filter wheel back to SBIG and after not receiving a replacement filter wheel I contacted SBIG. SBIG claimed they never received it even though I had a USPS delivery confirmation. Even after giving SBIG the USPS delivery information, they still claimed they never received the filter wheel. Six!! weeks later they find the filter wheel and send me a replacement. I do not know how SBIG stays in business!.
  
  

E-mail: robertprice10 at verizon.net
all images copyrighted (c) Robert C. Price)