Celestron Regal F-ED65 (8 Viewers)

[FrankD]

Steve,

Actually, as you mentioned, once you get the procedure down then you end up wanting to test all of the optics you can get your hands on.



..and, FWIW, I did get a chance to look through the Kowa 883 yesterday while up at Hawk Mountain for their optics day.


I would have loved to have placed the Celestron next to it. The Kowa rep was very accomodating so he probably would have let me.

 

[UTCbirder]

new zoom zooms!

recieved the replacement CFED 65 from big orange yesterday, apparently a spanking new model, scope and EP, judging by the looks of it. once again hats off to Celeston customer service. They kept in touch w/ me via email, let me know when the new unit was on the way, followed closely by a tracking number. very pleased. total about 2 1/2 weeks turnaround time.

i can only echo my earlier comments about how i think the scope performs, and underscore what has been posted here about the quality of the bundled EP in particular. i was able to spend a bit of time comparing it to a baader zoom, widely considered it seems, and with good reason, as a template for quality variable power eyepieces. i can verify the scope will not reach infinity focus w/ the hyperion, but i managed to draw a clear bead on a few objects closer in, between about 20-30 feet distant.

physically, the oculars are about the same dimensions, with a bit of extra heft and dimension in the hyperion column. fit and finish of both were comparable, again w/ perphaps a slight not going to the baader. the twist up eyecup on the baader is very smooth, somewhat more so than the celestron model. i have to say also they are about equal in terms of power change smoothness, but the hyperion's click stops are a very neat feature. there is a difference in the amount of reflected light from the surface of the eyelens in the celestroon, whereas the baader's highly touted "phantom coatings" do seem to throw back less light toward the eye. interestingly the eyelens is a bit larger on the Celestron model, and it does have marginally longer ER. the hype's afov is larger, but not significantly so in my view. overall the hyperion is a notch above the CFED's EP in terms of build robustness and "feel".

however, the real surprise for me at least was the overall closeness in optical performance. under the cloudy, fading light conditions with as similar sized an image as i could dial up in both, i was hard pressed to tell much, if any difference in overall resolution of fine detail. the virginia creeper berries i was resigned to scope out, showed the same amount of wrinkly detail, and the fine attachment stems were clearly rendered in both. as frank d has mentioned, the celestron performs very well at hight power, with an over all dimming of the image, but no increase in ca and no real smearing of the view. both were about equal in terms of contrast produced, and i could not see indications of reflections or muddying of the image in either thruout the zoom range.

i hope to be able to do a more complete eval later, but right now i am mightily impressed.

maybe at retail, this EP might go for, oh i dunno, $150 or maybe a bit more; included with a spotter of this quality for $430 and change it is quite an achievement, at least the way i see it.

well done celestron!

regards,
utc

 

[FrankD]

Thank you UTC. I look forward to seeing further comments when you have the chance to tinker with it a bit more.

 

[FrankD]

Gentlemen,

Because of financial concerns I am now forced to sell the Celestron 80 F-ED. It is on E-bay at the moment. If you have any interest then let me know.

Thanks.

 

[lulubelle]

Frank, PM sent!

 

[FrankD]

Thank you Laura.

 

[Matt_RTH]

Sorry if this is somewhere else in the thread but how tight is the coarse focus and the fine focus? I tried one where the coarse was very tight. I had never had that problem with any other scope I tried.

On another note, what is it with these manufacturers taking the tried and true design of building scopes which are light and then filling 'em with lead! William Optics and others are doing the same thing. These things should weigh half as much as they do. Even if they are optically better than say a Pentax PF65, if twice as heavy that defeats the purpose more than a barely perceptible difference in performance...

 

[FrankD]

Both the 65 mm and the 80 mm have very freely moving fine and coarse focusing knobs. I do not have an issue with either the tension or the speed of either adjustment.

As for the weight...I believe they are utilizing aluminum frames (it was mentioned somewhere earlier in the thread) which would account for quite a bit of the weight.

 

[UTCbirder]

More on the CFED- 65

Matt:

unlike frank's experience, on my version(s) of the 65mm, both the original one where the zoom froze up, and the replacement model expeditiously forwarded by celestron, the coarse focus knob was, well, coarse. stiff, actually, requiring some effort to spin. the second unit was just a bit easier to turn.

yes this scope is a handful, although i have not compared it to others besides the pentax 65. at 62 oz., about the same as my Nikon 82ED, and does require a sturdy tripod. i certainly would have appreciated some effort to bring the wt of the scope down to around 40oz or so.

i have had some additional field time w/ the celestron 65, and some further comments for those perhaps considering the purchase of the spotter.

i remain quite positive in my views of the overall optical performance and mechanical fitness of the celestron. i was able to try out the zoom at a local wetland area for an extended period; up to about 35-40X there seems only minor degradation of the image, w/ just a hint more of CA and softness, but again not a major issue. from around 40 to 48, CA does increase and is ever so slightly noticable for the in-focus image.

in comparing the hyperion 13mm to the zoom at 30X, the baader is, to my eyes, clearly the superior choice with a brighter, sharper, more contrasty image, as well as a larger AFOV. Viewing Anhingas at 100+ yards, for example, the whitish-buff breast feathers drew fine, detailed chevron arrow-head points into the blackish belly plumage clearer w/ the baader ocular, and spots on the undertail were more cleanly rendered. of the choices available to me, this is the most satisfying single-power EP for the C-FED 65.

i do, however, continue to note a very small residual aberration of some type that i am unconsciously trying to focus out to no avail, which seems to place the celeston just a tad, although a noticiable one, behind both the big and little nikons insofar as absolute sharpness is concerned. both of those scopes have a more sure "snap-to" focus. w/out benefit of a direct comparison, i doubt this mild shortcoming would be visible.

regards,
UTC

 

[jk41]

New F-ED

My spouse and I are newly energised birders, and, after recently kitting up with new bins, thought that a scope would be a valuable additional birding tool. I ordered this Celestron Regal 65 F-ED spotting scope after reading a number of positive reviews on the Net, and on this forum. The combination of ED glass and eyepiece versatility at this price was the clincher.

We are not optics experts, and though we haven't used scopes much previously, we have some decent glass: spouse has Leica bins, mine are Zen-Ray ED2. We are quite impressed with the Celestron Regal: views seem bright with good contrast and colour through the zoom range with the supplied eyepiece. Build seems good, though only time will tell, and the dual focussing and zoom operate smoothly.

A day or two after its arrival, spouse and I went out to a local nature reserve inlet for a spot of late afternoon birding. Approaching the hide, we could see a fair collection of birds on a stony strand about 50 meters away: several white-faced herons, pied stilts, spur-winged plovers, and oystercatchers. And a collection of about a dozen shags on their roost about 80 meters away. Across the inlet, about 1.2 km away, with the scope, we could just make out a few royal spoonbills amongst the gulls.

A few smaller birds, barely visible to the naked eye, arrived on the strand. We took these to be banded dotterels, until spouse spotted through her bins what she suspected was the male shore plover (a rare endemic and a first for us; after 1880 it disappeared from the NZ mainland and its population was confined to the NZ offshore islands and estimated at 70 pairs; it is now bred in NZ only in protected reserves). A few sightings through the scope clearly showed the male shore plover. Despite the difficult conditions – poor light, flimsy tripod, shaky hide, small active distant targets, and inexperienced operator - I managed to take a few photographs of the bird through the scope. The local Conservation Authority advised us that these photographs represent the first confirmed sighting of this bird in this area. A few local twitchers have since visited and have made additional confirmed sightings.

Not bad for starters. Not necessarily a demonstration of quality, but hard to beat for a demonstration of value; a rewarding acquisition.

 

[mooreorless]

Hi JK, I am glad you like this scope and welcome to Birdforum! These Regal scopes seem like best bang for the buck right now. I am also glad the scope helped to identify the rare endangered Shore Plover.
Another scope I would like to get.
Regards,Steve

 

[woodhornbirder]

can we get this stickied? )

 

[soultime]

Does it come with a functional stay on case or is it just a carrying case? If it's a carrying case, does anyone have any suggestions as to an alternative stay on case from other manufacturers that will fit?

 

[jk41]

The case appears to be intended for “stay-on”. It zips open at one end to reveal the eyepiece, and additionally has a second longer zipper that reveals the objective and runs under the scope to allow access to the tripod foot. So the case can be left on the scope, but access to the focusing screws is a bit restricted.

I usually use it with the case off.

 

[soultime]

Thanks. I've got one in the post at a knockdown price so i'm inclined not to worry too much about getting a case, the weatherproofing should do just fine.