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ZWO · China

ZWO Seestar S30 Pro

The S30 keeps its body, its weight and its 30 mm, and changes what is inside: a sensor four times larger, four lenses instead of three, and a rebuilt wide angle.

Ask for a price The specifications Manufacturer site
The Seestar S30 Pro at three-quarters on its black tripod. The body is white, four red indicator lights are lined up on the front panel and the black optical tube is raised to the right.

At three-quarters on its tripod, tube raised

≈ €749

List price recorded in 2026, excluding promotions and accessories. It is not an offer. The price offered to you arrives in writing.

This device can be ordered from me. No basket and no online payment: the price, the lead time and availability arrive in writing. I have never had it in my hands. That is written further down this entry, and I am not going to tell you otherwise in order to sell it to you.

The device photographs are the manufacturers' official images. UST is an authorised reseller for all five brands. No image comes from a competing reseller.

not tested In this catalogue: no shots at all. Entry built on public sources.

0 · aucune donnée de première main

0 towards 165h · hours I have logged with this device, this is not a rating

For the image the l'Origin makes in 1h, it takes 5h 48m here.

This equivalence says nothing but speed. It says nothing about resolution, about the field, or about optical quality. f/2,2 on 152 mm and f/5,3 on 30 mm do not photograph the same objects. The calculation takes nothing but the published focal ratios, with sensor, sky and target held identical.

Rapport d'ouverture : the focal length divided by the diameter, written f/, and the smaller that number, the faster the image forms.

Back to the comparison
Aperture
30 mm (telephoto) · 3.4 mm (wide angle)
Focal length
160 mm (telephoto) · 6 mm (wide angle)
Focal ratio
f/5.3
Sensor
Sony IMX585 (telephoto) · Sony IMX586 (wide angle)
Resolution
2,160 × 3,840 px on the telephoto (8.3 Mpx)
Mount
Motorised altazimuth, equatorial mode supported
Weight
1.65 kg
Software
Seestar (iOS, Android)
Indicative price
≈ €749

Monture azimutale : it moves in altitude and in rotation, but the field turns during the night. Monture équatoriale : one axis set on that of the Earth, so that the field no longer turns.

The device

Seen from closer up

The other images published by ZWO for this device.

The Seestar S30 Pro seen in profile on its tripod, tube drawn back into the white body.
In profile, tube drawn back into the body
The Seestar S30 Pro seen from the front, folded on its tripod. The black panel carries four red indicator lights in a row and the power button.
From the front, folded
The Seestar S30 Pro seen from behind on its tripod. The S30 Pro marking is printed on the white base.
From behind, the model marking visible

Where it excels

What it does well

The same targets as the S30, with room to crop. The dual-band filter stays standard, and the wide angle opens up the Milky Way and star trails.

Strong points

  • The telephoto sensor goes from 1/2.8 inch to 1/1.2 inch. ZWO quotes a light sensitive area four times larger than that of the S30.
  • 8.3 Mpx instead of 2.1: four times as many pixels, and room to crop.
  • Apochromatic four element lens with ED glass, against three elements on the S30.
  • The wide angle is rebuilt: the S30 already had one, this one gets an IMX586 and goes to 2,160 × 3,840 px.
  • Dual-band filter still standard: oxygen III over 30 nm, hydrogen alpha over 20 nm.
  • 128 GB of onboard storage, twice the S30.
  • 1.65 kg and 21 × 14 × 8 cm folded, like the S30: it still goes into a rucksack.

Weak points

  • 30 mm of aperture, like the S30. The diameter does not move: it is the sensor that changes, not the light gathered.
  • The focal ratio goes from f/5 to f/5.3. It is the slowest in the panel, and so the one whose exposure runs longest.
  • Equatorial mode asks for a compatible Seestar mount, the TH10, sold separately. ZWO writes that without it the mode cannot be switched on.
  • 6,000 mAh battery quoted at six hours, as on the S30. A whole night still asks for an external battery.
  • It costs €350 more than the original S30 in the same shop, €749 against €399, for the same aperture.
  • Nothing can be changed and nothing added: neither optics, nor sensor, nor mount.

In practice

Starting out, observing, setting up

  1. 01

    The focal ratio printed here is the one ZWO publishes, f/5.3. The calculation on the published 30 mm and 160 mm lands on it.

  2. 02

    Equatorial mode is not the starting setting, and choosing it in the app is not enough: polar alignment calls for the manufacturer's TH10 mount. Without it, ZWO writes that the mode does not switch on at all on the S30 Pro.

  3. 03

    The field of 4.6° is almost twice that of the S30, which quotes 2.46°. The focal length has gone up all the same: it is the large sensor that widens the frame.

  4. 04

    The three internal filters are the dual-band, an ultraviolet and infrared cut, and a dark field filter for the calibration frames. The solar filter, for its part, is magnetic and external.

  5. 05

    The price printed here is the one from the manufacturer's European shop, in euros, shipped from Germany, VAT included. A reseller can do it for less: Astroshop was showing €699 at the same recording.

Images made with this device

No images: it has not been tried

This device has never been used to make one of my images. The photographs above show the device, and they come from the manufacturer. No sky image is borrowed to fill the space. Its entry rests on the published sources, listed further down. Its integration time scale therefore stays at zero.

Temps d'intégration : the total exposure time, the sum of every exposure stacked on an object.

I publish 10 photographs, 2 of which are of equipment. None of them appears on this entry, and that is deliberate: not one of them shows this device, and an image placed there would amount to a claim.

Compare it

Head to head with another device

Each page sets the two entries line by line and works out the differences. It writes at the top which of the two was used to make my images.

Getting hold of one

Order this Seestar S30 Pro

≈ €749

Market price recorded in 2026 from the sources cited below. It is not a selling price, and it does not constitute an offer. Your price, your lead time and availability appear in the written reply.

Say what you want to photograph, and from what sky. The answer says whether this device suits. If not, it says which one suits better. Are you looking for a second-hand one, or do you have a device to trade in? Write it in the message. The answer will be straight, including when it is no.

Ask for a price for this device

Sources

Where these figures come from

The prices are indicative and recorded in 2026. A specification wrong or out of date? Report it. The field of view and the sampling are not published here. The physical size of the sensor is not part of the project's sourced data, and those two values cannot be estimated.

Some of these sources are the pages of resellers selling the same device as me. They stay cited: that is where the figure comes from. Removing them would make this entry impossible to check. I refuse to do that.