ZWO has a marketing focus problem with the S50. This is a very low cost device (for doing astrophotograhpy), targeting the consumer market. So it would make sense to put the accent on ease of use, think point-and-shoot cameras vs. professional cameras. So people with minimal to no experience in astrophotography. So the average Joe buys the S50 on impulse, then he waits for a clear night, places the S50 on the ground and within minutes he take beautiful pictures of stars, nebulae and galaxies that he can show to his friends and blow their minds up. But then he discovers that good nights are few and far between and taking anything beyond a simple 5-minute exposure can be a frustrating and sleep derived exercise. The expectation that the average consumer will spend many sleepless nights phone in hand manually selecting targets and starting and stopping every exposure is a pipe dream, it's not going to happen.
But the first adopters seem to be people genuinely interested in astrophotography but not able or willing to invest the time and money this hobby requires. People willing to do their own stacking, postprocessing and mosaics. These people are attracted by the S50 hardware, which is exceptional for the price, but are shackled by the SeeStar app, which seems intended to bar any use of the S50 other than what ZWO seems to decide it should be. The list of suggestions that have been repeatedly asked for in this forum over the last year is quite long, mosaic mode, planning/automation, support for equatorial mode, remote control of the S50, opening up the API, integration with Stellarium, an S80 with a better sensor to name just a few. Out of all these we got a subpar mosaic mode and the S30 and it took nine months. And you still have to not sleep all night if you want to make any kind of pictures.
Don't get me wrong, I am impressed by the S50, I think it is exceptional value for what it costs but at least for me, the SeeStar app is holding me back from doing what I really want to do with this telescope. I have not given up on ZWO yet, I really like the S50, but life is short and I cannot wait another year, so I have ordered the Dwarf 3 in the hope that I will be able to do astrophotography without ruining my health due to sleep deprivation.
