The logical next step is to have a motorised EQ mount that automatically polar aligns itself or at minimum the ability to EQ mount it and change from AZ to EQ in the software
Actually given it has 2 cameras on board it should be pretty able to indicate on the app for polar alignment, but yeah it would be cool if it self-aligned.
I’m toggling in my mind between buying the SeeStar s50 or the Dwarf 3, from what I have seen, the images you get are rather similar and with the SeeStar , these seem to be straight out of the box, but there are features in the Dwarf 3 that aren’t available with the SeeStar. I am a total beginner and novice and want to get into astrophotography , but I find post photo processing daunting , frustrating and complicated, I have tried it on my ordinary photographs but I just can not get my head around it. I use an ipad now and this has a very basic but uncomplicated photo adjustment program built in. So what is my main deciding factor is, which is the most user friendly and needs the least complicated post photo processing to bring out the photographs to good acceptable standard … which in your view would this be?
SeeStarS50 is the most user friendly of the two and you can get great photos with an hour or two of exposure on many popular targets. I have a video coming out (maybe today, maybe the weekend) where I show more in-depth Astrophotography sessions of a few hours on various targets I’ve been doing over the summer. And the SeeStarS50 is available today. The dwarf 3 looks on paper to be very good, but its predecessor the Dwarf 2 is more a “beginner/intermediate” device whereas SeeStars50 is dead easy to use.
@@EmberSkyMedia Many thanks for your reply, I actually went with and ordered the D3 , from what I have heard from many sources the D3 will be as easy to use as the SeeStar, they have apparently made it a much more a user friendly ‘Click&Go’ unit with a lot more of the processing being done automatically in the D3 its self. The Search and find is going to be much easier for beginners and will be able to photograph much larger DSO’s whole ( which the SeeStar can’t do at the moment) automatically. I think they have looked at the SeeStar and thought “🤔hmm , we need to capture that novice market “… we will have to wait and see of course, especially me since I have one on order, but I’m crossing my fingers it delivers what has been said about it.
This improvement is great to see. I’m new to Astrophotography as a result of the cloudy solar eclipse experience (Niagara On The Lake, Ontario). I didn’t realize how expensive the hobby can be, as well as complicated. I was hoping to use one of my DSLRs and lenses, thinking I can do it for cheap, LOL. I’m currently in the process of building an OG Star Tracker (3D printed, open source software, about $230 Cdn spent). But, if an all in one, easy to travel with solution can be a gateway drug, and under $1K, it’s worth it. I’m hoping this update to the DWARF pushes for the next gen Seestar50, and get a bit more aperture and a slightly higher price, with the mosaic ability. Then I’ll get that.
Yeah, not sure ZWO’s next SeeStar is going to be, a lot of speculation of S70, S80 or S100. I expect 80mm but it could still be another year or two away as that big of optics will need heavier motor drive to operate.
I'm going to get the Dwarf 3. I was one of the early purchasers of the 2 - paid for it back in November of '22 and got it in February of 23. Had a lot of fun with it, but I'm sold on how the 3 has so many improvements. It's an absolute no-brainer.
I received another $50 discount from Dwarf Labs since I had purchased a Dwarf2 from them. A good upgrade and will gift the Dwarf 2 to a family member so they can enjoy the night sky. Does anyone know what happened to Astro-Dwarf Adventures? Haven't seen him online in quite awhile.
No idea unfortunatly to the fate of Astro-Dwarf. Yes I'm going to gift my Dwarf II to a family memeber once I get some side-by-side comparisons done between the units,
Took my dwarf2 back had it 6 months it won't turn on at all but when I put power to mains battery lights flash as charging,anyhow ended up doing a straight swap 4 the dwarf3 when it arrives in August
@@EmberSkyMedia (sorry for my bad english i'm italian) Thanks for the answer :) i think yes, but in this months i think people for the summer buy Seestar o another smart telescope. This moment, in my ingorance, is a perfect moment to buy smart telescope because summer is near and the evenings are perfect to see the stars with friends or better to make public nights with a lot of people (i personally organize two or three public nights in my town). I hope that not miss this perfect moment to ship and sell Dwarf III
@@Paolo14984 Yes, it would be ideal to have the Dwarf III in our hands now vs. later in the Summer. That is always the case but as you learn in this hobby, there is always something new coming up in the east :)
Lots of words but no actual side by side real photograph comparisons. Or did I miss that as I kept fast forwarding through all the specs and talking? What l want to see is something like a photo of Orion nebula that's as spectacular as what I've taken with 2, and then be blown away with the Orion nebula taken with 3. Simple. If it doesn't do that, and it still can't do planets, then for me it's not worth upgrading.
Units have not been released yet, I’ll be getting a unit for review (hopefully) by the end of the month. At which time I’ll be doing side-by-side live streams of the units and more in-depth review. Orion Rises into the sky around late September (unless you like imaging at 4am in the morning then start of September) so I’ll be doing side by side of nebulas like Trifid or Lagoon Nebulas.
There are apparently 2 built-in filters and it should come with moasic mode. I’m hoping moasic gets some integration into Dwarf II, at the very least a basic system so it will take the overlapping photos but I doubt it will stack them in camera for the Dwarf II due to limited computing power.
Can you really get photographed pictures like that from just a small telescope?? I don’t believe it. Until I actually see it for myself. It’s pretty cheap price for something that takes such…well pictures like that.
It does a surprising good job for the price, I have a series of videos on the Dwarf 2 (as I'm waiting on the Dwarf 3 to arrive) and you can see all the various shots I've gotten with that one. I will have a video out soon as I got some preview images from DwarfLabs to talk about but best would be to wait a bit longer for when I have the unit in my hands as I'll be doing all sorts of videos.
Well when you consider how small a camera lens aperture is, even on say F3 , and some of the amazing astro photographs have been taken with some dslr’s , I imagine you probably can tbh.
That is going to be an interesting test (or mod) is to have it setup 24/7 (or as close as possible to that) which basically needs to ensure the unit is water resistant enough. It won’t be waterproof as it should never be emerged in water. But rain… hopefully it will be able to handle some of that.
Jupiter/Saturn are “okay” but you really need a larger higher magnification telescope to get photos like you see people post with some frequency. For Planetary imaging I lean on my 8” EdgeHD.
I'm very curious, but cautious about this company. They seem to have discontinued the dwarf 2 even though the 3rd version isn't out yet. If I buy the dwarf 3, how long will i be able to use it before the company cuts off support for it in favor of a new version?
I'll have an update video soon, but they have switched over to manufacturing the Dwarf 3, which is an improvement over the Dwarf 2, so my guess is there may be a few along the production route but they are no longer manufaturing the older model. They continue to update the Dwarf 2 firmware and software app, we just got an AI Enhance which I've been testing. So it sounds like they are commited to bring as much as possible to the Dwarf 2 as they can from the Dwarf 3 development.
@@johnsmith-rd9rr yeah the seestar S50 caused the Dwarf II re-sale price to drop. I don't think the 3 had a signficant effect except that more people are trying to sell this week and last, and maybe a blip in September when the units are in people's hands.
@@EmberSkyMedia Yep, the D3 promise’s the same ease of use and better images than the SeeStar, and a wider F.O.V, which is why I have just pre-ordered the D3 instead of the SeeStar tbh, so I reckon the D3 will snatch up a large chunk of the SeeStar s50 market, but it will probably force their hand into releasing another version of the SeeStar with all the bells&whistles of the D3, maybe early next year, but I didn’t want to wait that long really.
I’m guessing (I don’t know) but that should improve the weatherproofing not having ports for the batter and the miniSD card. Now the only “port” is the USB.
Built in, given it’s only an 8MP camera that’s plenty of space and you just download the footage off the camera from time to time and transfer it to your mobile or computer for further processing.
@@EmberSkyMedia I own the Dwarf II but DwarfLab offered an incentive loyalty discount so I have bought the Dwarf III, delivery expected starting end of August in time for the cooler clear nights of autumn (UK weather however is unpredictable). I will have a Dwarf II deluxe with 3 batteries for sale in time for Xmas for some lucky person.
In all honesty, as a Dwarf 2 owner looking at the specs, its a AVOID. Why? It has MINIMAL improvements compared to the Dwarf 2 and pales compared to the Seestar, for the same money. It will be nice to see a real review from a non-paid Dwarf Labs content creator.
Just to be clear, Dwarf Lab didn't pay me to make this video (they didn't even know I made it until after), or any of my videos (they did send me a review unit to review but they didn't pay me to say anything in my videos). Improvements are not "MINIMAL" as larger optics + better sensor + EQ Mode 60 seconds should add up to significantly better images. And the ability to use the wide field camera as well is a nice bonus. Should Dwarf II users upgrade, that's a harder question to answer, depends on how much of an improvement it ends up being and if the SeeStar S50 is more your flavour. But honestly the Dwarf II is quite capable and if you own one be happy to use it and not worry about "should you upgrade" until we see some hands-on comparisons, then decide what direction is best for you.
Of course, model 3 is better, and if you buy it as your first device, then of course it’s better to choose model 3 than model 2. But if I already have Dwarf 2, then of course I won’t buy Dwarf 3.👎
Actually the 3’s upgrades are pretty significant it might be one of those rare times where upgrading is truly worth it. But the question becomes how much can you sell the Dwarf II for and right now I’m seeing $250 but by the time the Dwarf 3 is in your hands… resale of the 2 might be like $150 so it is an additional investment.
@Grigorych's comment pretty much sums it up. If you have the Dwarf 2, then wait for upcoming models. Otherwise, the Dwarf 3 is good, since it is more of incremental upgrade to the Dwarf 2. You have to factor in the loss you'll incur by selling the Dwarf 2 and see if that "extra cost" is worth the price of a new Dwarf 3. But hey.. if you have disposable income, please keep supporting DwarfLabs 🙂
@@ntt2k True, its not a completely new telescope that it totally different, it's a solid improvement though. I'm planning to do side-by-side comparisons and then for me at least, a family member has expressed interest in the Dwarf II.
No,its not a significant improvement. And why havent you mentioned anywhere that taking 60 sec subs with the 3 will make the final stacked image even worse than the 2? Field Rotation errors.....@@EmberSkyMedia
At a point, optical design and element size will limit performance. Especially if you want fine details on your targets. Otherwise I’d just use my wide f1.2 lens all the time.
Thanks, but no thanks! Dwarf buggy app needs to be fixed before lunching a new hardware. Have both Dwarf 2 and Seestar S50 and S50 works flawless and I wish Dwarf app would work as good. I wouldn't mind pay way more for smart telescope with at least 70mm aperture, 280-350mm FL, and 8MP and with optional software feature built-in to mount to proper use it in equatorial configuration. Maybe Dwarf 5 Pro or Seestar 70EQ Pro?
@@EmberSkyMedia It might be sooner that we expect. ZWO will certainly not wait for their competitors to win this race. They have re$ources and experience under their belt to come up with nice smart scope. Fingers crossed...cheers!
@@EmberSkyMedia Certainly, S80 with a 320-400mm FL would be a dream for a portable smart scope. I'm down for that! However, I don't even know if these specs could be achievable without compromising its portability and price accessibility to most hobbyists. Let's see what ZWO team are capable of.
@@gloomiehoodie I'd expect the price to be just over double the S50 and it to be "portable" in terms of one can carry set it up etc, but I'd expect its more a "rolling case" then the foam briefcase for size.
