The table below lists the drivers that are included with the current release of MaxIm DL, as well as some drivers available from third-party sources. Additional third party drivers may be available but not listed; please consult the equipment manufacturer for more information.
Third-party plug-in drivers are normally installed by placing their files in the MaxIm DL program installation directory and then restarting MaxIm DL. The manufacturer may provide an installation program for adding the files to MaxIm DL. Please refer to the documentation included with the driver for additional installation and setup information. Also please note Diffraction Limited cannot provide technical support for third-party plug-ins.
Some plug-in drivers have been declared obsolete since the devices in question are no longer manufactured. These plug-ins are no longer actively maintained, but are still available by downloading the Obsolete Camera Driver pack. Please note that support for ISA bus and parallel port interface devices has been discontinued.
Depending on the software level you purchased, you may only be able to run some of the listed cameras. Please see Product Levels for more information.
If you wish to write your own driver, you can use the ASCOM Standard camera interface, or request our native MaxIm DL API through technical support (use Help menu Technical Support).
If you encounter problems with camera equipment, please contact the manufacturer for assistance. Also please review the Camera Troubleshooting section.
Camera Model |
Installation |
Select in MaxIm DL |
ASCOM compliant cameras |
ASCOM Platform and any drivers supplied with the camera must be installed. See manufacturer's instructions for more information. |
|
Andor Technology |
Plug-in is included. Manufacturer's drivers must be installed; see http://www.andor.com/ |
Andor Tech for all models. |
Apogee Instruments |
Plug-in is included (provided by manufacturer). Manufacturer's drivers must be installed; see http://www.ccd.com/. Apogee AP, KX, and SPH are supported via the optional Obsolete Driver pack. |
Apogee Alta for Alta cameras |
Atik |
All drivers are supplied by the manufacturer; see http://www.atik-cameras.com/ |
For Atik-16 consult manufacturer's instructions. For 8-bit cameras use Video DS driver. |
Canon EOS |
Plug-in is included. Manufacturer's drivers must be installed. |
Canon EOS II (Canon EOS 1 for older models) |
Celestron Nightscape |
Plug-in is included. Drivers are installed automatically from Windows Update. Also on AstroFX CD-ROM. |
|
DTA |
All drivers are supplied by the manufacturer; see http://www.digitaltechnologyart.com/. |
Consult manufacturer's instructions. |
Fishcamp Engineering Starfish |
All drivers are supplied by the manufacturer; see http://www.fishcamp.com/support.html. |
Consult manufacturer's instructions. |
Finger Lakes Instrumentation |
All drivers are supplied by the manufacturer; see http://www.flicamera.com. |
Consult manufacturer's instructions. |
Lumenera |
Plug-in is included. Manufacturer's drivers must be installed; see http://lumenera.com/ |
|
Meade DSI series (all models) |
Plug-in support via the optional Obsolete Driver pack. Drivers are supplied by the manufacturer; see http://meade.com/. |
|
Meade LPI |
Plug-in support via the optional Obsolete Driver pack. Drivers are supplied by the manufacturer; see http://meade.com/. (The LPI can also be operated as a webcam through the Video DirectShow driver.) |
|
Meade 208XT, 216XT, 416XT |
Plug-in support via the optional Obsolete Driver pack. |
|
Nikon DSLR |
Plug-in is included. Manufacturer's drivers must be installed. |
|
Olympus DSLR |
Plug-in support via the optional Obsolete Driver pack. Works under Windows XP only. |
|
Opus I |
Plug-in is included. Manufacturer's drivers must be installed. |
|
Optronics Macrofire |
Plug-in is included. Manufacturer's drivers must be installed; see http://www.optronics.com/ |
|
Orion Parsec (all models) |
Plug-in support via the optional Obsolete Driver pack. Also requires driver from http://ftdichip.com/Drivers/D2XX.htm |
|
Orion StarShoot G3 |
All drivers are supplied by the manufacturer; see http://telescope.com/. |
Consult manufacturer's instructions. |
Orion StarShoot Deep-Space II, Pro and Mono III |
Plug-in support via the optional Obsolete Driver pack. Drivers are supplied by the manufacturer; see http://telescope.com/. |
|
Orion StarShoot Deep-Space I |
Plug-in support via the optional Obsolete Driver pack. Drivers are supplied by the manufacturer; see http://telescope.com/. |
|
Orion StarShoot Solar System |
Drivers are supplied by the manufacturer; see http://telescope.com/. |
|
Orion StarShoot Autoguider |
Plug-in is included. Drivers are supplied by the manufacturer; see http://telescope.com/. |
|
QHY |
All drivers are supplied by the manufacturer; see http://telescope.com/. |
Consult manufacturer's instructions. |
Quantum Scientific Imaging |
All drivers are supplied by the manufacturer; see http://qsimaging.com/. |
|
Roper (Princeton and Photometrics models) |
Plug-in is included. Roper cameras are supported using the Roper PVCam software, provided with the camera. This software must be installed and configured before you can link to the camera. |
|
SBIG |
Plug-in is included. SBIG provides drivers for all cameras that are currently in production, except for the special-purpose SG-4 and AllSky cameras. The SBIGDriverChecker, supplied with the camera, is used to install and update the drivers. It includes a built-in download facility. If you do not have this installed, you can fetch it from ftp://ftp.sbig.com/pub/SetupDriverChecker.exe. Obsolete serial port cameras including the ST-4, ST-5, ST-6 and STV are supported via the optional Obsolete Driver pack. |
SBIG Universal for all USB and Ethernet cameras. SBIG w/AO when using an AO tip/tilt guider option. |
SACImaging |
8-bit cameras are supported via Video DS. The 16-bit SAC10 is supported via the optional Obsolete Driver pack. |
Video DS for 8-bit SAC cameras that support DirectShow capture. |
Sigma |
Drivers are available from the manufacturer at http://www.nova-ccd.de/ |
Consult manufacturer's instructions. |
Simulator |
Useful for testing purposes, this selection emulates the operation of a camera. No drivers are required. |
|
Starlight Xpress |
Plug-in is included (provided by manufacturer), but an updated version may be available directly from the manufacturer; see http://www.sxccd.com/. The Obsolete Driver pack includes "native" drivers for most of the older USB 1.1 cameras; however we recommend updating the firmware and using SX Universal instead. |
SX Universal including AO support.
|
Video DirectShow |
Plug-in is included. Video sources such as webcams, VIVO video cards, frame grabbers, and FireWire inputs are supported using this interface. Manufacturer's drivers must be installed. |