The ST-7 has performed flawlessly since its purchase in November of 1995. I would recommend it highly to anyone doing imaging or photometry.

The only maintnence I routinely perform on the camera is the baking of the dessicant canister. It is baked at 350 degrees F for 4 hours. This is done every six months. Refer to the ST-7 users manual for the exact procedure.

The KAF-400 chip has low blue light sensitivity and requires long exposure times if using a blue filter. Other filter options, such as the VRI filter may be a better choice for use with the KAF-400. B filter exposures need to be about 3 times longer than V exposures to get the same results.

SBIG has chosen to release to the public the ST-7/ST-8 Driver Library which enables C programmers to write programs to directly ocntrol the camera without using the SBIG CCDOPS software. This is what the HCRO software does. The library is very well written and documented and contains all of the camera functions. It was quite easy to write software to control the camera. Without the C software library from SBIG, this project in its present form, would not have been possible.

SBIG customer service has also been very responsive to one telephone call and one e-mail to answer and resolve the problem I encountered with the filter wheel.