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Nikon ED50: MC vs. DS eyepieces (1 Viewer)

G

GGR

New member
Hallo,
I am seriously considering buying a small Nikon ED50 with 27x eyepiece as a secondary scope (beside my good old Leica Televid 77 with 32x WA).
I want a small scope to carry along when not primarily sea-watching or wader-spotting.
Apparantly there are 2 eyepieces with a very different price-tag: the 27x MC (smaller, light-weigth, cheaper, angle 1.7 degrees)
and the 27x DS (longer, 4 times as heavy, twice as expensive but with an angle of 2.7 degrees).
Does anyone have some experience with these two eyepieces?
Is the cheaper MC-model enough or not?
Thanx for your help,
GGR

PS: digiscoping isn't high on the priority list...
 
I guess you're comparing this:
http://www.warehouseexpress.com/buy-nikon-fieldscope-eyepiece-27x-40x-50x-wide-ds/p1005221
With this one:
http://www.warehouseexpress.com/buy...50x-mc-eyepiece_1002438&utm_source=googlebase
Rather than with this one:
http://www.warehouseexpress.com/buy-nikon-27x-40x-50x-w-mc-eyepiece/p1002442

If you want a really good view through the ED50 then either the new MC or the DS are very good. The older (cheaper and smaller) one is much less good. It works but you won't be getting anything like as much out of the scope.
 
Hi GGR,

I'm a user of the ED50A, had the zoom but changed to the 27x Wide MC (same as in link #3) above. (Incidentally, I bought it from a birder in Denmark!)
The 27x Wide MC is awesome on that scope and I don't find it heavy at all.
The field of view is extreme, which can't be said about the other 27x MC.

The Wide DS 27x is optically the same as the Wide MC 27x but lacks the twist-up eye-cup.

//L
 
The cheaper non widefield 27x MC eyepiece has an ER of 9.4 compared to 17.8 eye relief for both the MC wide and DS 27x/40x/50x eyepieces.

GGR welcome to BirdForum!!
 
When I first got my ED50 I had the MC 27x wide on it and thought it was the bomb. The 27x MC wide and the DS 27x EPs are very popular with this scope, and for good reason.

Now, having said that, I now prefer either the MC 20x wide or the DS 16x over either 27x EP. The 27 yields <2mm exit pupil, the 20 = 2.5mm exit pupil, and the 16 > 3mm.

The increased brightness, wider field, and exit pupil difference more than offset the increased magnification of the 27x, for me. Hands down.

If I could only have one EP for this scope it would be the DS16x. It also can do digiscoping fairly well with this EP.
BTW, I would also choose the same (only) EP for my ED82, and for the same reasons.

Fortunately I don't have to as when the bargains were flying, some time ago, I bought at least one of them all and two of some, and three of the DS16/24/30.
 
Last edited:
Some people find the MC wide eyepieces more comfortable to use than the DS (which I think is a little "fatter" due to the digiscoping collar and which lacks the twist-up eye cup), but optically they are the same. The 16x wide DS also seems to show up for sale more often, at least in the US (I think there are a few on eBay at the moment); You might have more luck in your country, but the only place I've seen the 20x wide and 27x wide that weren't out of stock was Amazon-Japan.
 
Last edited:
LabradorDuck said:
Some people find the MC wide eyepieces more comfortable to use than the DS (which I think is a little "fatter" due to the digiscoping collar and which lacks the twist-up eye cup), but optically they are the same.
Click to expand...

That's true, although I have no preference between the two for visual use.

Rick (RJM) has pointed out to me that Nikon makes a ring flange gizmo to (essentially) convert an MC wide to a DS for digiscoping duty. I've never seen one and some of Nikon's accessories exist more in theory and on a website somewhere than in reality. If one were interested in going that way I'd recommend finding the device first.
 
LabradorDuck said:
Some people find the MC wide eyepieces more comfortable to use than the DS (which I think is a little "fatter" due to the digiscoping collar and which lacks the twist-up eye cup), but optically they are the same.
Click to expand...

The 16/24/30x DS is not optically the same as the 24/30x MC (the other two DS eyepieces are the same as their MC equivalents).

--AP
 
Alexis Powell said:
The 16/24/30x DS is not optically the same as the 24/30x MC (the other two DS eyepieces are the same as their MC equivalents).

--AP
Click to expand...

I guess I'd never realized that there isn't a 16/24/30x MC, even though now that I think about it I should have noticed its absence in product listings.
 
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