The Quest/Palomar camera is a 4 x 28 CCD array mounted on the Palomar 48" Oschin Schmidt. The camera can drift scan in 4 colors simultaneously, or take data in standard point-and-shoot mode. Each CCD is a thinned, back-illuminated device with 600 x 2400 13-um pixels. The total imaging area is 9.4 sq. deg.

The camera hardware was constructed by the Yale University Physics Department under the direction of Prof. Charles Baltay. The readout electronics were constructed by the Physics Dept at Indiana University Bloomington under  the direction of Prof. James Musser. The CCDs were manufactured by Sarnoff Corporation.