I'm thinking about buying a tracking mount - any suggestions?

[PakledHostage]

I'm thinking about buying a tracking mount for my camera. I've used Deep Sky Stacker a fair bit to stack frames to yield a longer effective exposure, but I am limited by the quality of the images that I stack. Garbage in, garbage out, as they say. It doesn't take a very long exposure before you get star trails when you're using a long lens.

The tracking mount that I am considering getting is the Sky Watcher Star Adventurer. It seems to get good reviews online and it is in the $350-$500 range depending on accessories. And it can be used with a small telescope (up to 5kg) as well as a camera.

Anyone here have any other suggestions? Or maybe someone here even has a Star Adventurer? I know that there are better tracking mounts (i.e. multi-axis mounts or "go to" mounts) out there, but I don't want to spend thousands of dollars. I'm looking for the best value mount rather than "bells and whistles". Maybe there's even a cheaper option?

[cantab]

This is a new one so I don't know much about it.

The main thing to consider is what you're putting on it. A relatively modest focal-length camera lens won't require anything like as robust and precise as a big heavy telescope.

[ZedNova]

At first i thought this was a tricked out fishing pole spooler.

[cantab]

Oh yeah, the "cheap option" is a homemade "barn door" mount. Couple of pieces of wood hinged together, and a bolt that pushes them apart when it's turned. They work well for shorter focal length imaging, you should find plenty of details online.