Pentax scope, which eyepiece????? (1 Viewer)

There are an endless number of 1 1/4 inch eyepiece on the market, i know scopetronix makes a couple specifically for digiscoping with the coolpix, but i have yet to see any examples taken with these eyepieces, i've seen some taken with the williams optics eyepiece that look good, but nothing spectacular, i have seen some spectacular pics taken using the pentax XL-28 eyepiece which i believe is 18x when used with the pentax 80ed, so should i just get the pentax. I like the idea of screwing the eyepiece to the camera, but if there is a better eyepiece i'd just assume make an adapter, i'm crafty.

Still haven't bought a scope yet, but soon.

You're comparing two different categories of eyepieces. The W/O is a relatively cheap eyepiece at only $79 (with an adapter built-in!). The Pentax is roughly $200 more. Also, magnification-wise, the XL-21 compares more closely to the DCL-28 (21mm vs. 24mm), these are by no means in the same category. The DCL has an AFOV of 52 degrees, compared to the XL-21's AFOV of 65 degrees. This would be like comparing a standard plossl to a super-wide. For a sub-$100 eyepiece the DCL is great, but there are most definately higher quality choices at a much greater price. Why not try a Radian, or a Panoptic, or a Nagler. (One of each will only set you back about a $1000!:'D) To make a long story short, if you're going for ultimate sharpness and money dosen't matter, get the XL. Or there are many others to get crafty with, like the Meade super-wide or ultra-wides.

Good Luck,
Dennis

Dennis Hoffman said:

Why not try a Radian, or a Panoptic, or a Nagler. (One of each will only set you back about a $1000!:'D) To make a long story short, if you're going for ultimate sharpness and money dosen't matter, get the XL. Or there are many others to get crafty with, like the Meade super-wide or ultra-wides.

Good Luck,
Dennis

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You are To right Dennis, i have looked at some of the more expensive eyepiece by nagler, but wouldn't feel comfortable spending $400+ on an eyepiece without seeing photo taken through it. I think Jim L's post on birdpix.com forums made up my mind for me, he couldn't decide so he purchased both eyepieces and then tried to sell me the dcl-28 , i'm just going to get the xl-28 and make or buy an adapter.

Xl-28 ?

Paulyoly,

Which eyepiece did you finally get? the XL-28?

What adapter did you get for it? How's it working out?

thanks,
Linda

Paulyoly said:

There are an endless number of 1 1/4 inch eyepiece on the market, i know scopetronix makes a couple specifically for digiscoping with the coolpix, but i have yet to see any examples taken with these eyepieces, i've seen some taken with the williams optics eyepiece that look good, but nothing spectacular, i have seen some spectacular pics taken using the pentax XL-28 eyepiece which i believe is 18x when used with the pentax 80ed, so should i just get the pentax. I like the idea of screwing the eyepiece to the camera, but if there is a better eyepiece i'd just assume make an adapter, i'm crafty.

Still haven't bought a scope yet, but soon.

Click to expand...

I have just discovered this forum and was glad to see a section dedicated to the Pentax scope especially since I just bought one !! I have a Canon G5 camera that I wanted to hook up to the pentax so I searched for an adapter and bought the Maxview 40 from scopetronix that they have specific for the pentax scope.

I'm not sure of the actual "x" power it provides on the scope but I can say that it is a very brite, very wide view. I just took a series of 4 images, the first 2 are the camera only, full wide and full zoom, the second pair are on the scope with the Maxview 40, of these 2 shots the first one is with the camera zoom ajusted for max image briteness on the lcd and the second shot is with full camera zoom.

I have not altered the images at all except to resize them to 640x480. The first 2 shots are blurry due to being hand held with no flash and a long shutter speed.
These images are at a range of about 25 feet to a magnet thing on the front of my fridge.

P.S. I cannot get a good ID on the bird swooping in to the coke machine!

Mike G.

I have the Televue 25mm Plossel for use with my Swarovski AT80HD and Eyepiece Adapter.Quality wise I see no difference when compared with my Swarovski 30x and it's cheaper. The other types of Televue eyepieces are probably not suitable for digiscoping as they don't have much Eye Relief. The only reason I don't use it much is that the Swarovski adapter doesn't lock and it keeps coming loose when pull my camera off.

I had forgotten about this thread, but as a Pentax scope user let me offer my two cents' worth. I own and use both the "cheap" WO DCL-28 and the premium Pentax XL-28 eyepiece. I have digiscoped fairly extensively with both and I see no significant difference in the finished images. The William Optics eyepiece is an excellent bargain for Pentax owners, and unless you want to get the Pentax eyepieces for use in viewing through the scope I don't recommend spending all that money.