Hi:
I wonder if anyone tried MaxIm DL7? There seems to be a bit more features. But does it worth the price?
CS
Tian
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It's not worlds better than 6.0 or 6.5 but it's the direction that MaximDL is going, so if you want continuing support/upgrades, I'd say "buy it" and don't if you can live with what you're currently running forever…This is a good time to go for it as MaximDL is giving some price breaks to switch.
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I am using it because I have ACP and will need to keep up with the software changes. Not that ACP requires this now but usually one upgrade will eventually require another.
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At this point in time I do not think that there are any features (in the acquisition portion of MaximDL) that NINA, which is free and open source, does not have. I would strongly suggest that you try out NINA. I use that as my acquisition software in combination with Pixinsight for processing. Maxim is unbelievably expensive and I just don't see the value proposition.
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I bought it because my planewave L-350 needed it for image capture during its point modeling. I think I wasted good money and have not used it since.
Why upgrade when Nina does just about everything. I never was able to see the value in it. Am I missing something?
Now with the latest drivers from planewave maxim is no longer needed.
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I actually agree with those recommending NINA; I just have gotten used to MaximDL and I was able to get a reasonable price for the upgrade, so I went with it. There are certainly free (or low cost) options that will do everything that MaximDL will do…Maybe over time I'll work on migrating, but right now everything works and I just want to keep it that way to manage my limited imaging opportunities.
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I purchased a Maxim DL 5 license back in the late 2000s. It was very expensive at the time (same current price, which means a lot more expensive in real terms), but I figured it was the way to go as it was a complete suite and extremely reliable. There were very few alternatives back then, and Maxim DL was the absolute standard for acquiring, stacking, and preprocessing images. It worked for me until very recently, but I eventually decided to move on to SGP, which provided much more functionality and ease of use. I am now using NINA, which is totally free and does everything I need for my imaging sessions. Maxim DL is a great piece of software, but I do not see any area where Maxim DL 7 might outperform NINA, PHD2, ASTAP or Siril, all of which are available free of charge.
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On MDL5, if you click the magnifier glass icon to zoom in, the zooming center will not be the center of the image. Rather, it will be the upper-left corner. If you want to zoom to the center of the image, you need to right-click the center of the image to bring out a menu and then zoom in. This is one of the poorest UI design that I have seen. Does MDL6 or MDL7 still behave like this?
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I tried the demo, ( im currently on 6.2 ) and it looks good, but i wouldnt pay for that upgrade. 6 still does everything i need. I love the free alternatives, such as N.i.n.a and others, but im so used to Maxim dl it's really hard to switch… the only thing i would really like is an upgrade to the planetarium. It's visually very basic and a bit buggy to navigate. I guess you could use another program for it, but it's so nice to have everything in the same app. Plate solving etc is so easy.
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I'm in agreement withe the above post. I bought MaximDL v4 in 2005. I now use v6.3. I also use SGP and have NINA downloaded, but don't really use it.
I looked at Defraction Limited description of v7 and was little to no difference. I'm not sure about the FFT feature.
I too have become very comfortable with using Maxim. I dislike SGP's GUI and no more fond of NINA. Maxim tracking is well done in my openion. I also like the stacking /calibration routine. DDP works well for me. Deconvolution as well as most post processing sucks and is antiquated. The planetarium software is terrible. I use the old Sky 6 instead. The focus roitin is out dated and limited.
For me personally, to shell out $250 I would need to see:
1. New filter sequence with options to refocus using temperature, time, Filter change or number of exposures.
2. New auto focus routine synced with filter sequence.
3. Automated multi sequencing on multiple targets through the night.
4. Dual camera control without paying $175 extra.
5. Obseratory automation of a varity of manufactures
6. Weather monitoring from verity of manufacturers other than their own
In other words, everything SGP and NINA does and more, in a complete bug free acqusition, stacking and calibration software package.
Then I would consider investing more in to Maxim.
Lynn Krizan
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I started off with Maxim DL 6, gave SGP a try and then moved to NINA 1.1. Even in the 1.1 release (NINA is now 3.1 as I write this), NINA is much more stable and full of must have features that Maxim lacks. NINA is both easier to use and more sophisticated. The advanced sequencer in NINA now abstracts almost everything that a person needs to do in an imaging session and does it with a GUI drag and drop interface. I've tried to crash the sequencer by stopping instructions in mid sequence, changing the order, starting, stopping changing parameters, these are all of the things that would hang or crash Maxim and NINA handles it perfectly. It's multi-threaded so you can be doing one task such as framing another target while it's imaging and the run-time performance doesn't change at all. I'm a software engineer myself and I'm impressed at what Stefan Berg and the other devs have accomplished. The plug-ins are also very useful and work well - Hocus Focus, aberration inspector and 3-point polar alignment in particular are gems. Great stuff.
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Robert Habolin:
I tried the demo, ( im currently on 6.2 ) and it looks good, but i wouldnt pay for that upgrade. 6 still does everything i need. I love the free alternatives, such as N.i.n.a and others, but im so used to Maxim dl it's really hard to switch... the only thing i would really like is an upgrade to the planetarium. It's visually very basic and a bit buggy to navigate. I guess you could use another program for it, but it's so nice to have everything in the same app. Plate solving etc is so easy. *I used to link Starrynight and MaximDL with no issues as the included planetarium is indeed pretty bad. I am not sure if there is a plugin anywhere around for other software such as CDC or Stellarium. Perhaps the server options. It would be great to know if that is possible.
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Guillermo (Guy) Yanez:
Robert Habolin:
I tried the demo, ( im currently on 6.2 ) and it looks good, but i wouldnt pay for that upgrade. 6 still does everything i need. I love the free alternatives, such as N.i.n.a and others, but im so used to Maxim dl it's really hard to switch... the only thing i would really like is an upgrade to the planetarium. It's visually very basic and a bit buggy to navigate. I guess you could use another program for it, but it's so nice to have everything in the same app. Plate solving etc is so easy.
*I used to link Starrynight and MaximDL with no issues as the included planetarium is indeed pretty bad. I am not sure if there is a plugin anywhere around for other software such as CDC or Stellarium. Perhaps the server options. It would be great to know if that is possible. I'll check that out, saw that the pro version has a Maxim DL plugin. Thanks for the tip!
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I use Maxim-DL 6.5 on my 17" PlaneWave because I also use ACP and ACP requires it. On my other setups I use NINA. ACP is fantastic software and Bob Denny's support is outstanding. I was using an SBIG STXL 16200 CCD camera, integrated SBIG guider/filter wheel and AO-X adaptive optics, all of which worked adequately. When I switched to a QHY 600 full-frame CMOS camera I was advised by Diffraction that to use my AO-X unit I needed to use their StarChaser OAG, so I bought it. The StarChaser is an OK OAG but overpriced for what it is and the chip has considerable amp glow at one edge. Worse, the AO-X guider function doesn't calibrate properly with Maxim-DL and this known issue as been around since about September of last year (or earlier) and never properly addressed. So I have a very expense AO-X unit that functions as a spacer. The reality is that the A0-X doesn't do a whole lot if you have a good well-aligned mount, so it's not a big loss, but I would have gone with another OAG and removed the AO-X if I had known what I know now.
In my opinion, Maxim-DL has become unnecessarily bloated software that should just function to interface with SBIG or ASCOM cameras/guiders and leave image processing to other software. With regard to Maxim 7, unless you have one of the new megabuck A4040 SBIG cameras (and there are a LOT of problems there), I can't currently see a need for Maxim 7. Most of the changes are just going to 64-bit and a prettier interface. I suppose eventually ACP will require me to update.
I like the folks at Diffraction but I wonder about their future. ZWO, QHY and others produce far superior CMOS cameras with much larger chips for much less money.
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I use Maxim-DL 6.5 on my 17" PlaneWave because I also use ACP and ACP requires it. On my other setups I use NINA. ACP is fantastic software and Bob Denny's support is outstanding. That's exactly where I am. ACP's Scheduler boosted my system's productivity many times over. Once it's properly set up, you don't need to do anything on a given night, just wait for the images to come in. If there's a problem, ACP sends me an email so I can log in and take a look. Since ACP requires Maxim, I've invested in DL7. Not much difference in functionality (as someone said above, I mainly use it to drive the equipment and not for processing) but under the hood it's now fully 64-bit, so I guess it's faster.
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Harry Karamitsos:
I bought it because my planewave L-350 needed it for image capture during its point modeling. I think I wasted good money and have not used it since.
Why upgrade when Nina does just about everything. I never was able to see the value in it. Am I missing something?
Now with the latest drivers from planewave maxim is no longer needed. Harry, Just to clarify, PW4 has been upgraded so that MDL is no longer needed for sky modeling. I used MDL in the past but the 90’s called and they wanted it back so I moved on to more modern software. NINA is one good example… John
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Yes, thats why I never used it again. I do all my modeling via PW4. I was wondering if anyone buys it….
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