New CG-5 Mount

Has anyone tested out the new CG-5 mount? I have a CG-5 that came with my G8 I purchased two years ago, and have been reasonably pleased with it, as I am not doing any Astrophotography with it, but over time it has developed some issues that make it "interesting" to use at times. My main issue I have with it is that at times it will lose friction while moving in RA and I have to loosen and re-tighten my RA. I have not tried re-greasing it with better grease yet, and that may fix the problem, but I was thinking that if the new mount is alot better, I may purchase it instead.

I also use a TAL 100 Refractor with my CG-5 and have absolutely loved the views.

Are there any mounts in the sub $300 price range that are significantly better than the CG5 that I should consider as well.

Thanks for the advice

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It's still just a CG-5 (EQ-4) available with or without GoTo. I don't think that anything has been done to upgrade it from a mechanical standpoint. If you've got a CG-5 then buying a newer one could not be considered an upgrade except if your old one has degraded to the point that it's unusable

Might be worth pocketing the money and getting an HEQ-5 or EQ-6 at some later date. As far as Synta goes those two mounts are as good as it gets, and they are even highly regarded as far as any mount goes (particularly in light of their price tags).

I believe the new CG-5s have a better tripod, fixing one of the major problem areas on the old mounts. I don't know if they have finally decided to use grease instead of glue on the gears and bearings.

You might check out the SkyView Pro mount from Orion; I haven't used one, but I played with it in the store and it felt more substantial than a CG-5. The guy at Orion said it was more like a clone of the GP-DX, while the CG-5 is a clone of the GP, and it only costs a little more than the CG-5. There're also the Giro altaz mounts in the $300 range, which are worth a try if you're not sold on using a GEM.