I know it's hard to give an opinion or offer a suggestion without being just a little bit biased towards a certain product. . .
but I have pretty well narrowed my choices down to 2 different mounts.
I was seriously contemplating getting the HEQ5 with GoTo but have today found out the horrendous cost of getting this mount in Synscan V.3 configuration!!!
If the existing HEQ5 Pro version is available in V.3 I will consider it coz Bintel advertises them for $1799 but doesn't say whether it is the V.2.05 or V.3.
I can get a stock standard HEQ5 (no drives at all) at a good price but I want to spoil myself for a change and get GoTo.
Other than the HEQ5's, the 2 mounts I have chosen are the Celestron CG5-GT and the LXD75 with Autostar. Both are flash upgradable. I want the mount for Astrophotraphy using my ED80.
There are differences between these 2 mounts and not knowing anything about mounts it has me a little bit confused.
The CG5 has autoguiding but no PEC, whereas the LXD75 has PEC but no Autoguiding, and any other differences members may be aware of.
I have read many many reviews on both and it has made splitting the 2 even harder! Some reviews say they are both useless, others say they are both great.
There is only about $200 difference between the 2, so that doesn't come into it.
Any unbiased help would be truley appreciated. I will be sussing these mounts out at camp in 2 weeks time (if both versions are there) but it's nice to get help from more people. (Unless there are other options under $1500 that I haven't discovered yet)
Thanks in advance.