Okay Photographers, this is just way too cool.

[AndyS]

Total control of your camera via smartphone including tilt, pan and star track! I want one!

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/benropolaris/polaris-smart-electric-tripod-head?utm_source=kickbooster-direct&utm_medium=kickbooster&utm_content=link&utm_campaign=d0a3ffd3

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. You want one? I do too, but I'm not ready for that advanced tech level!

Looks great!

They didn't mention price..........

[AndyS]

2. Looks like expected retail price will be about

$1500 USD. Pretty cheap for what it does I think!

[CaliforniaPeggy]

3. That's not bad, not bad at all. sigh

[William Seger]

4. Looks like $599 for the timelapse version, $699 for the astro version

... during the kickstarter promotion, and it looks like they're nearly sold out. After that, $839 and $999.

[rdking647]

5. im not sure how well this will work for astro work

i dont see how it defeats field rotation.

normally telescopes have 1 of 2 types of mounts to track the stars. a alt az or an equatorial mount.
an alt az mount is a traditional left right up down kind of mount. an equatorial mount rotates aroung an axis lined up with the north star(actually slightly offset from that)

If you use a traditional alt az mount it will track the stars,keeping what your looking at in teh center of the field of view. however the object will rotate around the center. so in addition to the mount moving teh camera has to also rotate. thats why alt az mounts arnt good for long exposure astrophotography.

an equatorial mount by rotating around the polar axis means no field rotation.

the do make camera mounts that will track the stars using an equtorial mount that cost 3-400 or so. I used ot use one before i got my current mount

[AndyS]

6. I'm not sure about that as well.

The video does show image stacking to get deep space exposure but I'm not sure how long the exposures are or how/if the mount changes elevation as well as rotation. I'd want to see a demonstration of it's astro capabilities.

That said, it's still cool as heck.