New GS52 owner - question for eyepiece (1 Viewer)

Hi folks,

received my GS52 a few days ago and am very happy with it. Anyhow, I´m not absolutely pleased with the HDF 12-36 zoom for its eye relief becoming very short when zooming in and the impossibility of getting a crisp and sharp image at mag. over 30x. Narrow fov is an issue, too. May be I´m not the typical "zoom-type". So I`m considering a fixed wide angle eyepiece. Has anyone experienced how the 24x WW (Opticron 40858G) or the 28xWA (Opticron 40859G) performs with the GS52 scope? Thanks for your help,

Peter

Hi Peter,

I prefer fixed mag myself. I use ES80ED with 23x with 32x as back up but I seldom need it. I sold the HDf zoom (same as yours) that came with the scope. I much prefer the wider fov and brighter image that fixed mag gives.

I would imagine that with your 52mm objective these factors would be more important considerations than with my 80mm.

I tried the ED52 last summer at a shop. It had a fixed e/p on it but I forget which one. Either the 24x or 28x. I was very impressed.

I think if I were you I'd go for the 24x as I am happy with my 23x and almost never need higher mag.

Peter,

I would advise contacting Opticron directly and asking their advice. I have done this before and found then extermely helpful and knowledgeable. We have the GS52 and understand what you mean with the eye relief. What we do is to use the twist down eye cup to allow the eye to move closer which helps improve the eye relief.

Hi Peter,

Given the choice I would go for the 24xWW eyepiece. It achieves a wider FOV when coupled with the GS52: 49 metres as opposed to 43 metres on the 28xWA (both at 1,000 metres range). The differences in eye relief are marginal: 17mm on the 24x and 15mm on the 28x.

The 24x has a twist type eyecup and the 28x has a fold down eyecup.

I’ve attached an image below of the two eyepieces alongside the HDF zoom for comparison (from left: 28xWA, 24xWW, 12-36x Zoom).

Hope this helps.

Brian

www.birders-store.co.uk

First I want to thank you for your helpful and detailed answers.
I have to admit that up to a certain point my own stupidity (and complemental a certain lack of information provided by the eyepieces manual) was causal to my impression. At a wonderful morning yesterday I walked through our nature park with my binos and the GS52 watching birds. One year ago I owned a Swarovski ATS 65 with fixed 30x eyepiece and while watching some geese in the pond with my GS52 I regretted having sold the Swarovski.
Haptics, dimensions, "feeling" of the Opticron GS52 - with all of that I felt so pleased if it wasn´t for this disappointing view in higher magnification for which I charged the eyepiece. Once more I examined my GS52 and so I realized that there is another ring to be twisted above the focussing ring, and having done this that tiny gap between the upper and the lower ring which prevented my spectacle glass of getting closer to the lens disappeared suddenly. The next look was a revelation in kind of easy of view and fov. In other words – I formerly looked through the scope while the eyepiece was in a position which might be suitable for looking without spectacles, but not for me having my specs on. As I said – my own fault and stupidity.
As you might have noticed I´m not a native speaker (I am German) and to my regret now Opticron is nearly unknown in Germany. I was looking for a scope which suits my purpose of doing excursions with my bike and so I ended up with a Nikon ED-50 and Opticron GS52. What for heavens sake is “Opticron”? The only reputable german optics forum is severly oriented to the big four (Leica, Nikon, Swarovski and Zeiss in alphabetical order) and is mainly occupied with optical mathematics and physics (which one does REALLY perform best and how could we prove it in formulas?) Sometimes I think how poor this behavior is because nobody seems to have a look at the object of our interest itself: the nature and its beings.
For short I made up my mind, let my inspire of this forum and its very positive reference of Opticron and started up with writing an E-mail to them because I could not buy Opticron in Germany. Within a few hours I got answer to any of my questions (thanks to you, “Opticron”-Michaela !). That way encouraged I got the phone and had a nice call to someone and ended up with an order of scope, eyepiece and case on Friday. Monday mornig the whole stuff was here – I´m not shure if this could have happened in Germany…
I just want to state that I had the same impression of all those users who claimed for Opticron having an excellent service – yes, that´s exactly what I had experienced.
Now that I handle the twisted eyecup as it should be I am very happy with this bright and sharp image. On my walk yesterday I missed nothing compared to my former Swaro ATS 65 (okay, it was a bright and shiny day) and sometimes I thought that nobody who isn´t a professional needs “more” scope than this.
Nevertheless I want to buy a fixed mag and I would like to ask you, Brian, whether I could get a 24x mag. from your shop (I hope this question is okay here…).
Sorry for this sermon, but I´m really overwhelmed by the value-for-money of my GS52…thanks for your replies.

Peter

Hi Peter,

I've sent you a private message.

Best wishes

Brian

Hello Peter D

Good to hear that you had a good experience with Opticron. Im thinking of buying this scope and reading you comments has been helpful.

Your sermon was good to read. Please continue to post your views on the website as it is nice to hear from other people around the world and how bird-watching plays a part in their lives.

What is the birding like where you live in Germany.

Regards

Richard

I've just got GS52 GA ED version and I got the SDL zoom eyepiece which gives the same mag 12x - 36x but I felt had a better fov than the HDF. Plus the SDL is totally waterproof
Put the scope up against my Kowa 823 and was amazed at how bright the image was in the GS52. At dusk there was hardly any difference between the two scopes.
I also bought a pair of the Opticron Aurora 8 x 24 binoculars and am equally as impressed by them. A beautifully bright, sharp image across the whole field and a 7.2 degree fov at that.
I'll join Peter in heaping loads of praise on Opticron and the money saving optics that they produce.
I'd originally gone into the shop with a view to getting myself a pair of Swarovski bins, but was impressed by the Auroras, at roughly half the price so was able to buy the GS52 and eyepiece and still be under the budget I'd got for the Swarovski bins.

You guys that have tried the GS52 with different eyepieces, do you recommend the SDL zoom or is the 24ww a better choice?

I'll be interested to hear the views too Kristoffer. Why? Well, we sell the vast majority of GS52s with the HDF zoom as that bundle seems to offer good price/performance ratio.

But we also know that there are a good number of Opticron 80mm scope owners that have bought the GS52 as a second scope and so take it without an eyepiece. This means we don't get a good feel for which eyepiece is most often used by those that chose the GS52 as a travel scope/second scope/bino companion scope/partner scope

BTW, if you're looking for an eyepiece for digiscoping with this scope, the 13x ww (40810) or 18x ww (40809) will serve better than the 24x.

Cheers, Pete

Hi Pete, no I will not digiscope with this one, I have a bigger scope for that. But both the 18x and 24x looks interesting, also does the zoom. Lets hope we get some more input.

pete_gamby said:

I'll be interested to hear the views too Kristoffer. Why? Well, we sell the vast majority of GS52s with the HDF zoom as that bundle seems to offer good price/performance ratio.

But we also know that there are a good number of Opticron 80mm scope owners that have bought the GS52 as a second scope and so take it without an eyepiece. This means we don't get a good feel for which eyepiece is most often used by those that chose the GS52 as a travel scope/second scope/bino companion scope/partner scope

BTW, if you're looking for an eyepiece for digiscoping with this scope, the 13x ww (40810) or 18x ww (40809) will serve better than the 24x.

Cheers, Pete

Click to expand...

Is it big difference between the SDL and the HDF zoom, other then that the SDL is waterproof and has larger fov? The SDL seems to have a far more complicated construction with 8 elements.

The SDL stays in focus across its zoom range which the HDF doesn't and the eye relief/eye cup set up is found more comfortable by some people. But you really need some input from other owners.

Best thing to do, if you can, is to try them both.... of course!

Cheers, Pete