Gear Review - First Impressions Move Shoot Move Rotator / Tracker

I have been a dedicated stacker since I learned the technique in late 2016. My workflow both when I’m out shooting and post-processing is built around it. I have never been all that interested in trackers but when I saw the Move Shoot Move I was intrigued. Not only can it be used for tracked espouses but it doubles as a rotator, for just over $200.

I pulled the trigger a week ago and it showed up in the Saturday mail. So I charged it up, figured out how to get it mounted (in the daylight, in my driveway as you should do with every new piece of gear) and got ready to try it out. My plan to shoot Friday night had been changed to Saturday so it worked out perfectly.

I got out a little early so I set the Move Shoot Move up as a rotator to capture some time-lapse as the Milky Way began to rise. This is a fairly simple process of mounting it on your tripod and then placing your ball head on top of it. I made sure the tripod was level, otherwise the sequence would quickly become slanted. At the recommendation of another user on the MSM Facebook group, rather than set it up to move a certain degree after every shot I simply used the tracking mode which moves at the same speed as the earths rotation. With 20 second exposures any motion in the foreground is undetectable.

After letting it run for about 45 minutes I moved to my second location and setup my first tracked images. Two issues stand out that are easy fixes. First have a good second ball head to mount the tracker on, I have an older one that isn’t quite as sturdy or user friendly as my new one. Secondly, make sure that the star you are aligned on is actually Polaris. You can get results by lining up on a star near Polaris but they won’t be as good as they should be.