Nikon Fieldscope 40x/60x/75x Eyepiece (1 Viewer)

I am wondering if the Nikon 40x/60x/75x eyepiece (WA or DS) is worthwhile for the ED50 or any Fieldscope. Too limited in its usage due to vibration, focusing or light issues? Or a good eyepiece?

Charles Specht said:

I am wondering if the Nikon 40x/60x/75x eyepiece (WA or DS) is worthwhile for the ED50 or any Fieldscope. Too limited in its usage due to vibration, focusing or light issues? Or a good eyepiece?

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I have one, which my dad bought for astro use. When birding, I find the 27/40/50x more useful as a fixed high power eyepiece on the 78ED, and as a normal power eyepiece on my 50ED. Generally though, if I want higher mag than my usual 30x on the 78ED, I use the 25-75x zoom. The main use I've made of the 75x is to look at sunspots. For birding, the zoom is more versatile. The 75x is hard to use as such--FOV is narrow, DOF is shallow, and focus is hard to achieve with the collar focus of the 78ED or 82ED. It would work better as a 40x on the 50ED, but I'm never tempted because the increase in mag from my usual 27x is small and so generally of little practical consequence.

--AP

Charles Specht said:

I am wondering if the Nikon 40x/60x/75x eyepiece (WA or DS) is worthwhile for the ED50 or any Fieldscope. Too limited in its usage due to vibration, focusing or light issues? Or a good eyepiece?

Click to expand...

Charles:
I agree with Alexis, that fixed eyepiece would be pushing each of the scopes
to their maximum power, and that is often too much for general use.
I would start with a zoom, and then you would get a good idea of what
the scope is capable of, under varying light conditions.

Jerry

I don't disagree with the others in general. I have the 75x and use it on my Theron Mag82. I also have the Theron equivalent 25-75x zoom and the 30x wide angle. I certainly wouldn't use the 75x as my only eyepiece. As mentioned the zoom is more versatile as an all-around eyepiece. Personally I enjoy the 75x over the zoom at 75x because of the larger field of view. Since the sweet spot is very generous in the wide angle it makes scanning large areas much easier than the zoom at 75x.

I have typically been using mine lately to ID collars on Canada and Snow Geese. It certainly trumps many other scopes that are limited to 60x for this application.

I did try it on the ED50 and would agree that it pushes the scope pretty hard. The image, though probably more enjoyable than any other scope of this objective diameter and this magnification, is dimmer than I would like and with such a small exit pupil. I like it more in the 82 mm.

I have an old-style 40x/60x/75xw eyepiece which I found very useful as a longer-range alternative to my standard 20xw EP when I took my ED50 to Fuerteventura in the Canaries (helped no doubt by generally very good light conditions, i.e. bright sunshine for 90% of the time).

This eyepiece also works well at 75W on my ED82, significantly better than it did on my (now defunct ED60), possibly in part due to sample quality (?).

Overall, a good quality eyepiece for occasional use.

Cheers