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Can't decide Pentax PH65 ED or Nikon Fieldscope III (2 Viewers)

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youngtrout

Member
Hello, location limits me from really looking through either, but I did get the chance to look the fieldscope in a store a couple months ago.

Just can't decide between the 2. For the Pentax I'm looking at the PH65 ED II, and the Fielscope III I'm looking at the NON-ED one. Researched them both, and both do fall into the price range I wanted to stay with.

Just wondering if anyone has looked and used them both. Mainly will be used as a walking, packing scope so weight is a issue.

Are there any others I should be looking out for? The Pentax is going to be 200 dollars more so I really wanted to know if the ED glass is going to make that much of a difference?

Thanks for any input!
 
youngtrout said:
Hello, location limits me from really looking through either, but I did get the chance to look the fieldscope in a store a couple months ago.

Just can't decide between the 2. For the Pentax I'm looking at the PH65 ED II, and the Fielscope III I'm looking at the NON-ED one. Researched them both, and both do fall into the price range I wanted to stay with.

Just wondering if anyone has looked and used them both. Mainly will be used as a walking, packing scope so weight is a issue.

Are there any others I should be looking out for? The Pentax is going to be 200 dollars more so I really wanted to know if the ED glass is going to make that much of a difference?

Thanks for any input!
Click to expand...

ED glass will make a difference. I have looked through the pentax 65. It is a good scope for the money. If weight is a big issue- have you looked at the nixon ED 50? :cat::cat:
 
I'd go with the Pentax over the non-ED scope.

Among my reasons:
- Eyepiece options and availability including more favorable eye relief and better prices
- Comes with case ( I believe the FS does not)
- Very, very light!
- ED glass (the 65ED isn't the finest ED scope available but it's very usable and will be more satisfying for digiscoping if you should go that direction)
- 65 is still slightly brighter than 60mm (I presume this is the one you're looking at?)


Keep an eye on a certain famous auction site and for "refurbs" as well. Those 65EDs can sometimes be found very reasonably. Do a shopping search for pf-65ed on Bing (what kind of name is that anyway) and you may be pleasantly surprised.
 
I have a Pentax PH65 EDII body in the mail, I still need the eyepiece, looking for a zoom right now.

Looks like the Vixen or Pentax's zoom. Are there others out there I should be taking a look at?



Thanks again





Matt_RTH said:
I'd go with the Pentax over the non-ED scope.

Among my reasons:
- Eyepiece options and availability including more favorable eye relief and better prices
- Comes with case ( I believe the FS does not)
- Very, very light!
- ED glass (the 65ED isn't the finest ED scope available but it's very usable and will be more satisfying for digiscoping if you should go that direction)
- 65 is still slightly brighter than 60mm (I presume this is the one you're looking at?)


Keep an eye on a certain famous auction site and for "refurbs" as well. Those 65EDs can sometimes be found very reasonably. Do a shopping search for pf-65ed on Bing (what kind of name is that anyway) and you may be pleasantly surprised.
Click to expand...
 
youngtrout said:
I have a Pentax PH65 EDII body in the mail, I still need the eyepiece, looking for a zoom right now.

Looks like the Vixen or Pentax's zoom. Are there others out there I should be taking a look at?



Thanks again
Click to expand...

Try this thread. The Vixen is great. Not perfect but as a zoom, among the best.

The pinnacle for the 65ed is the fixed 14mm XW14. There are some other great options for fixed when you get to that point.
 
I've looked at that post, and whatever else pops up in a search. Thanks for all the input!!

Really my quick summary for the Pentax: WO has some great reviews, can't seem to find a vendor to buy one from.

Vixen and the pentax zoom seem about on par with reviews,with the Vixen maybe a bit higher, but either way the vixen is 100 cheaper so thats that.

Tele Vue, seems to be the best in terms of quality, but a bit $$

Then you have the Meade 4000, and a few other lowe priced 8-24's,,, I read one post that said it was made by the same company who makes the vixen, it just gets rebranded??

Going back to the Vixen, which is in my price range, and has good reviews. Does anyone know what the top end of manification would be? Also, does anyone now if the Vixen is waterproof, or at least water resisitant?

Thanks again, boy, picking the scope was easy compared to all the options for eyepeces. I have looked at some fixed ones as well, I will most likely test them out down the road but for now need something that will cover all the bases.

Would still love to hear about any zooms I've not mentioned that would be worth a look

Dave
 
Well, after another hour or 2 of searching the Vixen is taking the lead,,,,one question, from the above post, what would the max magnification I could expect out of the setup,,,,and lastly, is there a optical advantage to the click stop over the regular zoom??

Thanks again
 
I live in Alaska and the scope is going to be multipurpose, thats why I want the zoom. It will go out on mountain backpacking trips, salt water boat rides, and will have a greater range of distances, from feet to miles. And right now just want to spend the money on 1 eyepiece, I will add others down the road after I have more time with the scope

Right now on the list all in 8-24mm or close
Tele Vue
Vixen lv
Proxima (advertised as being the same as the WO Zoom)
Meade

Its also a bit confusing because (at least online reading) it seams that a few of these scopes are identical and just branded differently?

Also still trying to figure out which ones are waterproof to some degree

Thanks
 
Last edited:
maybe i should clarify something.....

"and will have a greater range of distances, from feet to miles. " no it wont.

Because you will find that below 11mm focus length wont work well on the scope. THey might work on a 100mm scope, but not on 65mm. The limiting factor is the amount of light passing through to the eye.
at 18mm-21mm on the zoom the fov will be 40-45degrees. which will make it hard to find anything, especially if its moving! for moving targets, fov is critical. YOu dont want anything under 50deg for nature viewing, makes life so much harder.
The 60deg fov you get at 8mm is useless because the image is too dim, with this size of objective lens.


NO zoom costing under £400 will outperfrom a £180 fixed mag, because a zoom compromises image quality for so called convenience.

FAr as i am aware only decent zoom worth buying is swavorski, and they wont fit in a pentax i dont think)

You use the focusing knob on the scope to help you see things, feet away or miles away.
ALso depth of field is another factor, but lets keep this simple)

so in summary buy a lens with between 13mm-18mm(fixed) focal length, 60-70 fov, and either lanthanum glass or ED glass, and FMC.
A zoom with min fov of 50deg may be worth looking at. Maybe the televue has that?
 
Last edited:
Zooms might not fit stargazers but for birders zooms are very practical. Almost all birders I know use one eyepiece, a zoom. It is more versatile. However I have heard that the Nikon fieldscope zoom has a very small fov, so in that case it might be a bad choice. Im spoiled with Swarovskis very good 20-60x zoom.


woodhornbirder said:
http://stargazerslounge.com/archive/index.php/t-84637.html

useful thread for u.

again imo dont waste ur money on a zoom, you WILL be disappointed with the fov.

I know people who have used scopes for 30-50 years and they all have 30x wide angle lens.

BUt its free world, we all have the options to waste money )

read this one.

http://www.excelsis.com/1.0/entry.php?entryid=127&sectionid=22

excellent document:

http://cloudynights.com/documents/zooms.pdf
Click to expand...
 
RJM

I picked up my Pentax 65EDII for under 500, body only

In terms of a eyepiece, I was wanting to keep it under 250.....Even if that meant watching the used market. Pretty much every zoom I've listed comes in under that. Its basically the pentax zooms that are over that amount.

Point taken on the fixed eyepieces, I do think I could get by with 2, say something around 7 and 11 ish. Who should I be looking at for fixed that has decent optics at about 125 apiece?

Thanks
 
Well that was a quick decision! I would have suggested a better value package deal from Celestron that still would have been under $500 but you have already taken the leap.

The Pentax XP zoom is not very good. There are also no zoom eyepieces for the Pentax that will be completely waterproof so take that as a warning. The old non-clickstop Vixen zoom is probably your best bet. It is what I used with when I had the Pentax ED65.

The Tele Vue is basically the exact same eyepiece but with clickstops. I have not seen the latest Vixen clickstop zoom so can't comment on its optical qualities. Celstron also makes an inexpensive zoom that may be similar.

There is another choice if you have handyman skills, and that is the Nikon MCII zoom sold on Ebay for ~$70. It has superb optics. You will have to make a 1.25" nosepiece adapter to use it though. BORG sold rather expensive adapters but they have been discontinued and are sold out.

good luck,
Rick
 
RJM

I'll have to look into that nikon, thats pretty cheap.

I did pick up a SA 7.5-21mm zoom tonight, got a great deal on it, and at least I'l have a eyepiece for my scope when it gets here! I've read it takes a similar modification like the WO zoom to get into focus but since the WO seems unavaliable I went with the SA

I'm still going to be on the lookout for some fixed eyepieces, I've looked into the pentax fixed ones, they get some great revies but at 170ish apiece... I'll keep a lookout.

Are there fixed eyepiece out there that are of the same quality as the fixed pentax, without the pentax price?
 
I used a Pentax 65 scope up until very recently. 20x60 zoom cuts out to much light on the 65mm scope. The 30x wide field fixed eyepiece released by Pentax last year does an excellent job. The difference in sharpeness between my old Pentax scope with the wide field eye piece and my Swarvoski scope with a 30x eyepiece is only marginal. Only the extra light is making a difference.

finno
 
I am going to keep my eye out for a XW10 or a XW14, I know these will preform better in the scope. One reason, at the start of this thread with going with the pentax was the ability to use different eyepieces, always figured I'd end up with more than one
 
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