Camera Evaluation for Astrophotography: A Field-Specific Framework

his journal is the first Austronomic Selected Topic journal. It develops a general, instrument-independent framework for evaluating cameras in astrophotography and astronomy-related video production. The central argument is that no single camera ranking is reliable across all imaging fields. Planetary lucky imaging, long-exposure deep-sky imaging, wide-field nightscape photography, and video production impose different, and sometimes incompatible, physical and operational requirements. A camera that is well suited to one field may therefore be limited in another. The framework defines 24 sensor and operational parameters, groups them into six engineering classes, and maps those classes to the imaging fields where they matter most. The quantitative treatment covers image scale, field of view, dynamic range, dark-signal accumulation, focal-ratio exposure efficiency, weighted field scoring, raw data rate, and the distinction between ISO, gain, and quantum efficiency. A source-class system is used to label each specification value as manufacturer-published, third-party measured, calculated, or mixed. Operating-state consistency is maintained throughout: values from different gain, ISO, HCG, cooling, or readout states are not combined unless explicitly labelled. The applied section demonstrates the framework through a seven-camera worked example. It compares the Canon EOS R50 with three Canon alternatives and three dedicated ZWO astronomy cameras across planetary/lunar/solar imaging, deep-sky imaging, wide-field/nightscape imaging, and general imaging/video production. The comparison includes parameter provenance, corrected dynamic-range treatment, field-specific scoring, and a winner summary. The journal concludes with a staged upgrade decision workflow. The framework is intended to be reusable for future camera comparisons; the specific products in the worked example serve as an illustrative application of the method.