Spent 2 hours picking a star tracker, went with the cheaper one and now the photos are wobbly messes

I was torn between the Sky-Watcher Star Adventurer GTi and the iOptron SkyGuider Pro for my trip to Big Bend last month. Ended up saving $200 on the iOptron and the RA motor sounds like a dying cicada past 60 seconds. My 3 minute exposures came out with star trails so bad I could have just shot untracked and moved on. Still mad at myself because the guy on the forum warned me about the clutch slipping, but I figured it was just one bad review. Has anyone else gotten a dud tracker and had to shell out again for the reliable one?

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anthonyh8528d ago

The dying cicada thing got me because I almost convinced myself the same way, that one bad review was just noise. I used to be all about saving money on gear, figured a tracker is a tracker, right? But after borrowing a friend's GTi once and seeing how steady it held, I realized I was just cheaping out on the one thing that actually matters. Now I'm in the same boat, staring at a $200 mistake and trying to decide if I eat the cost or just save for the real deal.