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Nikon ED50 parts (1 Viewer)

JBT

Well-known member
Does anyone know where I can find parts for a Nikon ED50? I've called a few stores with no luck and I'm waiting to hear back from Nikon. I'm working on a project and I need the plastic housing for the ED50 and nothing else. If anyone knows where I can maybe find this please let me know.
 
JBT,

Hi there! The Nikon dealers across the nation do not stock accessory items and most cannot fix whatever problems you are having. The best way to go about this is send the scope into service and repair in El Segundo, CA. Call them first for instruction and if it is a manufacturer's defect they will send you a shipping form to send it out.

Please check over this website http://support.nikonusa.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/238. It looks like you can contact the parts department, but that may be more for cameras than anything else. Please let me know if you have further questions and best of luck to you.

Best,
Mike Freiberg
Nikon Birding Market Specialist
 
Thanks for the reply Mike. I'm not having any problems with my ED50 I'm just looking to modify it and need extra parts to do so. Basically all I need is the tube section of the body that threads into the objective. What does Nikon do if they receive a scope that is non repairable? There's got to be some ED50s out there that Nikon just can't fix. As long as the threads on the tube are still good I can use it.
 
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JBT,

In that case they are more likely to replace it with a new one if it is indeed unrepairable. It is hard for me to estimate how often they encounter products they cannot repair simply because I am not at that building. Either way they would accommodate you and try to get the issue taken care of. Thoughts?

Best,
Mike
 
Thanks for the reply Mike. I'm not having any problems with my ED50 I'm just looking to modify it and need extra parts to do so. Basically all I need is the tube section of the body that threads into the objective. What does Nikon do if they receive a scope that is non repairable? There's got to be some ED50s out there that Nikon just can't fix. As long as the threads on the tube are still good I can use it.

JBT:

It sounds like you are on your own with the modification idea. I suppose you
can just go ahead with your own ideas and go after it. I am thinking it will
be hard to find parts.

Remember, you will void any warranty if you take your scope apart, so
consider that. And so that means yours could be a donor parts scope you are looking for,
if it all goes bad.

Jerry
 
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20 years ago Nikon had a real Parts Department in the US that would sell you any parts you wanted. I bought the parts for an 8x30 E eyepiece to use as a telescope eyepiece. They were even accommodating enough to mail me exploded drawings of all the parts with parts numbers for the 8x30E and also the ED Fieldscope when I was thinking of using its objective lens to build my own scope. I'm afraid those days are long gone.
 
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So far no luck with getting parts through Nikon. Like Mr. Link pointed out the Nikon Parts Department isn't as good as it use to be. I bought the scope refurbished and if I remember correctly it only came with a 90 day warranty. Either way if I get this mod to work it will be worth it. I also finally found a part off EBay that should work. I didn't want to use my existing ED50 parts just in case I ever want to put it back together.

In a nutshell I took off the objective and attached it to a another body that I made which now allows me to use 1.25-2" astronomical EPs with it. It like a ED50 on roids. It won't be waterproof like the original ED50 but I live in AZ and I've never had any problems with my other non waterproof scopes.

I tested it agaisnt my Tak fs60 the other night using a 32mm 82 degree EP giving me approx. 8-9x with the Nikon and 11x with the Tak. I actually think I like my modified Nikon better then the Tak. When viewing the moon the Tak had a tiny bit of yellow tint at the edge of the moon while the Nikon had basiclly no false color. During the day I could also see more false color in the Tak especially in and out of fucus color. I thought it might be the prism I was using so I tried both scope without a prism and I got the same results. When it comes to clarity I can't tell a difference yet. In terms of brightness the Tak is a bit brighter. These are just my 1st impressions. I'll test it out more as soon as my new parts from EBay come in.

Needless to say I'm pretty excited with my findings so far.
 
With respect to warranty and such, refurbished equipment should still fall under Nikon's no-fault warranty in the USA ($10 repair + $10 shipping).

--AP
 
If I read this right the OP took the objective lens off his Nikon 50ED whether it was refurbished or new and mounted it in another tube of some sort to use 1 1/4" astro eyepieces. Sounds interesting if he was to use a 4mm eyepiece [280 f/l ] 70x on the night sky.
 
If I read this right the OP took the objective lens off his Nikon 50ED whether it was refurbished or new and mounted it in another tube of some sort to use 1 1/4" astro eyepieces. Sounds interesting if he was to use a 4mm eyepiece [280 f/l ] 70x on the night sky.


Yes this is what I did except I can also use 2 inch astro EPs as well. I finally think I found the right parts to make it work like I want it to. Right now the objective is held on with some electric tape. It works this way but I'd like to have something a bit more durable. So far the lowest focal length EP I've use is a 7mm. I'll try to post pics of it when I get the chance so people get a better understanding of what I'm doing.
 
So far the lowest focal length EP I've use is a 7mm.

Not worth the effort IMO. 7mm is the focal length of the Nikon 40x Wide MC/DS eyepieces. I seriously doubt there are ANY astro eyepieces made now that are optically superior to these. If you use shorter focal length than 6mm, you are in the sub-1mm exit pupil range where your vision now becomes the limiting factor with no detail gains during the day and only useful for splitting double stars at night.
 
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I'd love to see photos, sounds really interesting, like Dr. Frankenstein with bits of dead optics making a new monster...;). About a year ago there was some guy on ebay selling two damaged ED50's, one had split in two at the seam and could have been re-glued, maybe.
 
Not worth the effort IMO. 7mm is the focal length of the Nikon 40x Wide MC/DS eyepieces. I seriously doubt there are ANY astro eyepieces made now that are optically superior to these. If you use shorter focal length than 6mm, you are in the sub-1mm exit pupil range where your vision now becomes the limiting factor with no detail gains during the day and only useful for splitting double stars at night.

Actually it's the low powers I'm interested in. Right now I got a 2 inch EP that has an 88 degree FOV with a mag of 9.3x. That's close to 500 ft @ 1000 yards and the view is bright and sharp. For my daytime viewing I still think I prefer the 72 degree FOV over anything else. The 80+ degree EPs cause too much eye strain for me but hopefully over time my eyes will adjust and get use to the wider FOVs.

I'm also going to try and put a multi-switch barlow this scope. Either the Denk or Earthwin. The Denk has 3 mags a 1.8x, 2.2x and a 3.2x. The Earthwin also has 3 mags a 1.3x, 1.8x and 2.5x. This way I can use a 72 degree EP and with a flip of a switch I can zoom in on whatever I'm looking at without switching EPs. I tried a Siebert power mag wheel but there was too much vignetting on the lowest mag setting when I used it with my 80+ degree EPs.
 
Actually it's the low powers I'm interested in. Right now I got a 2 inch EP that has an 88 degree FOV with a mag of 9.3x. That's close to 500 ft @ 1000 yards and the view is bright and sharp. ...

I am all for tinkering as long as it makes an improvement over the OEM product BUT this certainly is not. I mean the ONLY reason to buy a Nikon ED50 is because it is so darn tiny and light weight. A 2" ultrawide field eyepiece will weigh nearly as much as the complete scope! More so when you consider the diagonal needed, of which there are no decent 45deg RACI-capable made.

FWIW, a Nikon 10x35 EII will give you 400ft FoV that will certainly be as bright and sharp during the day as anything you can make with the added benefit of binocular vision. Certainly at a lower price point than what you must be spending on this project.
 
To each their own I guess because in my eye it's a huge improvement over the original scope. Weight had nothing to do with why I chose the ED50. The only reason I chose to get the ED50 is because it had the lowest power 72 degree EP I could find. I originally had the Nikon ED60 and choose the ED50 over it because I like the lower powers I could get with it.

I'm blind in one eye and prefer scopes over bins. My goal is to make a scope that has mags like a bino. It's basically going to be a do it all piece of optical equipment for me. I can't wait to see how much magnification I can get out of it when I use a mirror diagonal.
 
Thanks for the link Mr. Link. I almost bought one of those off Amart awhile back but got a Tak fs60 instead. Have you ever used a Borg before? If this Nikon project doesn't work out I might give the little Borg a go. Also looking at maybe trying out the 50mm and 80mm finder scopes from Stellarvue but they probably both have a bit to much false color for taste.
 
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