[Bassnut (Fred)]

Originally Posted by LightningNZ

The only thing I think I might be able to offer here is that if you're budget constrained, it's better to spend as much on the mounting. My EQ3 is a really pretty terrible mount, but on occasion it can just manage to give me a reasonable shot of something through my 102mm F/5 achro and Canon 300D (mod). If I'd saved up hard and spent say $1500 on a 2nd hand CCD instead of a $200 2nd hand DSLR I wouldn't have any better pics but I would be a lot more frustrated. The Canon will keep me going for a while when I upgrade my mount, so I can gain some experience before moving on to a (relatively) expensive CCD.

Wise words