The DENIS (Deep European Near-Infrared southern sky Survey) 
instrument is made up of a 3-channel camera built of commercially
 available detector arrays by the Observatoire de Paris and with 
major contributions from other European Institutes, notably: the 
IAS in Frascati, the Observatoire de Grenoble, the University of Innsbruck, the
Observatoire de Lyon, and the IAC in Tenerife. The instrument was used for the DENIS
survey at the ESO 1.0 meter telescope at La Silla, Chile.  

Instrument characteristics:

                                       I         J          Ks
Central wavelength (microns)          0.8       1.25      2.15
Array manufacturer                 Tektronix  Rockwell  Rockwell
Size in pixels                     1024x1024   256x256   256x256
Pixel size (microns)                  24        40        40
Pixel size (arcsec)                    1         3         3
Average array quantum efficiency      0.65      0.81      0.61
Read-out noise (e-)                   6.7       38        39
Read-out time (sec)                   2.98      0.13      0.13
Exposure time (sec)                    9        10        10
Achieved limiting magnitude     
   (point source, 3 sigma)            18.5      16.5      14
Magnitude of saturation                9.5       8.5      6.5


For more information about the DENIS instrument see Epchtein 
1997.

Epchtein, N., DENIS:  A deep near infrared southern sky survey, 
from New Horizons from Multi-Wavelength Sky Surveys, B.J. McLean 
et al. (eds.) (printed in the Netherlands), 106-108, 1997.