[Sout Fork]

As I said in a previous post I got a Pentax 10 mm ep to help with my
long distance field work.

My typical situation is to be set up at some vantage point and look for
raptors and/or waterfowl at distance. Typically more than .25 miles.
Usually I'm scanning the distant horizon for birds in flight either with
my bare eye or with binos and, when found, identify them in flight using
a widefield scope. So I'm constantly going from bare eye or binos to
scope and back again.

Anyway I sent the Pentax ep back for refund.
The sweet spot on the ep was just too sensitive for my purposes. I found
that I was missing identifications simply because it took too long to
bring the bird into my field of view using this ep. I think the military
have a good phrase for it- fast target acquisition. Eventually I reverted
back to using the 13mm stratus which has a very easy fast view and none
of the problems of the Pentax

At first I thought it might be simply a problem of using a high power
ep. But using the XW zoom at comparable power gives me no such problems
even considering the much narrower field of view of the zoom. The zoom
may have other problems but it has a fairly easy view at high power.

This is saying nothing about the other qualities of this ep but slow
"target acquisition" is a deal breaker for the kind of use I typically
put a scope to.

A THOUGHT: standard 1.25 inch eps are essentially narrowly developed for
the specific needs of the amateur astronomy market. I think with the
increasing interest in terrestrial wild life observation the ep makers
may be missing an important commercial opportunity by not developing
ep's specifically for the large terrestrial birding-nature observation
market. I wonder what kind of eps Pentax or Televue would come up with
if they developed eps specifically for the birder?

Good birding folks.

[FrankD]

Sout Fork,

You may have just saved me a great deal of time and money. I was planning on investing in an XW 10 to compliment my XW 20 for almost the same type of application as what you mentioned. I think, based on your experiences, that I could cross it off of my list.

I was going to ask if you felt another, less magnification, XW eyepiece might suit the application better but judging by the rest of your post I would guess not?

[Sout Fork]

Originally Posted by FrankD

Sout Fork,

You may have just saved me a great deal of time and money. I was planning on investing in an XW 10 to compliment my XW 20 for almost the same type of application as what you mentioned. I think, based on your experiences, that I could cross it off of my list.

I was going to ask if you felt another, less magnification, XW eyepiece might suit the application better but judging by the rest of your post I would guess not?

I've messed about with many different eps for both my 80 and 100mm
scopes.

I'm nothing if not practical. I like actual empirical in the field
evidence of what works for me and what does not. I'm not overly
impressed with purely abstract "objective" technical evaluations of
optics. Birding puts particular demands on optics because of the special,
and often, less than ideal, conditions of field use. Also I use none of
my eps for digiscoping.

So having said that I have a simple rule of thumb that seems to work well for me for field eps:

1. 13mm or longer buy Stratus
2. Shorter than the above buy Burgess/TMB Planetaries.

Finally both of the above series have the added advantage of not being
excessively expensive.

Just one man's opinion.

SF

[medinabrit]

Strange that you got that impression of the 10mm XW . I have the 10 ,14 , & 20 xw,s also have the 5 , 8 ,13 ,& 17 stratus for my 65 80 & 100 pf,s although the stratus are good value for the buck,I much prefer the XW,s Especially for the comfortable eye cup
& the usefulness of being able to remove the eye cup & attache a camera to the ep threads. The XW,s are definately my faves . I sold my nagler 6,s to buy thr XW,s
Still different strokes .Would be a boring world if we all liked the same thing.
I do look forward to your posts soutfork they are always very informative.
Especially to other pentax pf users.
Brian.

[Sout Fork]

Originally Posted by medinabrit

Strange that you got that impression of the 10mm XW . I have the 10 ,14 , & 20 xw,s also have the 5 , 8 ,13 ,& 17 stratus for my 65 80 & 100 pf,s although the stratus are good value for the buck,I much prefer the XW,s Especially for the comfortable eye cup
& the usefulness of being able to remove the eye cup & attache a camera to the ep threads. The XW,s are definately my faves . I sold my nagler 6,s to buy thr XW,s
Still different strokes .Would be a boring world if we all liked the same thing.
I do look forward to your posts soutfork they are always very informative.
Especially to other pentax pf users.
Brian.

Another way to look at it...

...I have 6 eps. 3 Stratus and 3 TMBs.
Average price 100 bucks.
Total cost $600

On the other hand:
6 XWs at $300 a pop = $1800

A difference of $1200

You mentioned using your XWs for photography so...

Pentax DSLR camera $400
Pentax SLR camera adaptor $360
Manfrotto Long Lens gimbal fork mount $180
Manfrotto 3246 tripod $225
Total=$1165

Is it really worth the difference? Only you can say.

SF

[medinabrit]

Originally Posted by Sout Fork

Another way to look at it...

...I have 6 eps. 3 Stratus and 3 TMBs.
Average price 100 bucks.
Total cost $600

On the other hand:
6 XWs at $300 a pop = $1800

A difference of $1200

You mentioned using your XWs for photography so...

Pentax DSLR camera $400
Pentax SLR camera adaptor $360
Manfrotto Long Lens gimbal fork mount $180
Manfrotto 3246 tripod $225
Total=$1165

Is it really worth the difference? Only you can say.

SF

Soutfork,I take very few pictures .I have a nikon 4500 but i dont have much success with photography, using spotting scopes .
I have better luck using a kodak p712 & a 1.4 telephoto lens from kodak .
I got the XW,S for my takahashis before i had the pentax pf,s
Got the stratus,s to try out & because i travel a lot the wouldnt be so much of a financial loss if they dissapeared on one of out trips .
I,m definately no expert ,but do prefer the XW,S over all the other ep,s i have had .
They just seem to have a build quality that none of the others had.
kind of like a chrysler 300 will do the same job as a rolls royce . But the rolls has that something extra .
By the way i worked at the rolls body plant in the UK for two yrs ,& 30 yrs at Chrysler USA. luckily i,ve been for the last ten yrs .
Hope you understand what i mean .
Happy viewing Brian.

[medinabrit]

Originally Posted by medinabrit

Soutfork,I take very few pictures .I have a nikon 4500 but i dont have much success with photography, using spotting scopes .
I have better luck using a kodak p712 & a 1.4 telephoto lens from kodak .
I got the XW,S for my takahashis before i had the pentax pf,s
Got the stratus,s to try out & because i travel a lot the wouldnt be so much of a financial loss if they dissapeared on one of out trips .
I,m definately no expert ,but do prefer the XW,S over all the other ep,s i have had .
They just seem to have a build quality that none of the others had.
kind of like a chrysler 300 will do the same job as a rolls royce . But the rolls has that something extra .
By the way i worked at the rolls body plant in the UK for two yrs ,& 30 yrs at Chrysler USA. luckily i,ve been for the last ten yrs .
Hope you understand what i mean .
Happy viewing Brian.

Forgot to mention . I have the TBM 4 & 6 MM,s great EPs but only use them in the Tak

[Sout Fork]

Thought I'd throw this in for the heck of it-it's not as if this forum is overwhelmed with posts...

...been messing about with a short tube 102mm f5 500mm fl Celestron Achro. Got it for $175 deliverd to my door. Includes a finder scope. two eps, and a correct image prism.

So I set it up for prime focus close focus photography using an extension tube.

You can see for yourself what it can do. Not bad at all in my opinion and way better than I have a right to expect for what is essentially a 100 buck OTA. For this price/performance I'm afraid the Chinese will be dominating world trade in ten years.

SF