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Better View Desired - Pentax 65mm review (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter RedBishop
- Start date
mmdnje
Jose
High John.
I have both the Pentax 20-60 zoom eyepiece and a XW 20mm. The zoomeyepiece has 20mm eye relief and is very comfortable. However, due to the shrinking FOV as you zoom in, I have moved to the 20mm fixed EP almost all the time. I use mainly for birding. I think for the price of it I would get the fixed EP. Other brands of EP work well on the pentax scope. I have been using an Orion Stratus 13mm (half rpice than pentax EP) and works well for birding, I managed to digiscope some pictures with this EP and you can see them in my gallery.
If you have more questions about the EP let me know. Jose
I have both the Pentax 20-60 zoom eyepiece and a XW 20mm. The zoomeyepiece has 20mm eye relief and is very comfortable. However, due to the shrinking FOV as you zoom in, I have moved to the 20mm fixed EP almost all the time. I use mainly for birding. I think for the price of it I would get the fixed EP. Other brands of EP work well on the pentax scope. I have been using an Orion Stratus 13mm (half rpice than pentax EP) and works well for birding, I managed to digiscope some pictures with this EP and you can see them in my gallery.
If you have more questions about the EP let me know. Jose
henry link
Well-known member
John,
According to the Pentax specs the AFOV of the Pentax SMC zoom varies from 38 degrees at the lowest magnification (24mm) to 60 degrees at the highest magnification (8mm), about the same as the Nikon (about 40 degrees to 60 degrees). The fixed focal length XW eyepieces have 70 degree fields. The eye relief sounds good, but I wouldn't rely on the eye relief specs for zoom eyepieces. They seem almost always to be too generous, especially across the middle of the zoom range.
Henry
According to the Pentax specs the AFOV of the Pentax SMC zoom varies from 38 degrees at the lowest magnification (24mm) to 60 degrees at the highest magnification (8mm), about the same as the Nikon (about 40 degrees to 60 degrees). The fixed focal length XW eyepieces have 70 degree fields. The eye relief sounds good, but I wouldn't rely on the eye relief specs for zoom eyepieces. They seem almost always to be too generous, especially across the middle of the zoom range.
Henry
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henry link said:
My experience with the SMC was that the effective e.r. dipped to about 11 or 12 mm in the middle.
Another negative aspect of the SMC 8-24 mm zoom for me was that the eye piece has a very large diameter and I found that I was constantly bumping my nose into the side of the eyepiece to view the image. The xw 14 is a magnificent e.p. , but I found that the magnification was just a bit too high and shaky for use as my primary e.p (37x in the 80 angled, I believe). The wide field was sufficient however, and its too bad there's not a xw17 for the 80. In the 65 however, it would probably be great. Note too that the ocular glass surface on the xw is very large, about 32 mm, and was too large for me to hand hold my digital camera to, which was the other reason i sold it.
Chris C.
Cheers,
Chris C.
John Fleet
Finally reached 300!
Meade 5000 UWA lenses
Has anyone any experience with the above lenses on the PF65? There's a couple going on eBay (UK) at the moment, and the specification looks good...
John F
Has anyone any experience with the above lenses on the PF65? There's a couple going on eBay (UK) at the moment, and the specification looks good...
John F
John Fleet said:
Yes, I briefly owned the 5000 uwa in the two shortest focal lengths (4.6 and 6.3? mm). I bought them as part of a package deal with no intent on keeping them. I did try them both out in the pf-80a before selling them, though. Optically, they were good, especially given the high magnification, but I found the advertised eye relief to be much too generous--I had to really squeeze my face up the ocular to see the whole field of view. The result was a unrelaxed viewing experience that overwhelmed the benefits of teh wide afov. The longer fl meades may be better though, i don't know.
BTW a good place for eyepieces is astromart.com classifieds. I've bought and sold a number of things on this site and its free.
Cheers,
Chris C.
mayoayo
Well-known member
swaroski zoom
I dont know how many of them are around in the secondary market or if its possible to get new ,but i was able to get an Swarovski astronomy 7.7-23.1 zoom eyepiece to use with the pf 65 ed.Is a killer combo,although it needed a little bit of modification in order to reach infinity focus.Actually ,does anybody owes the swaro zoom?...i would have a question...
I dont know how many of them are around in the secondary market or if its possible to get new ,but i was able to get an Swarovski astronomy 7.7-23.1 zoom eyepiece to use with the pf 65 ed.Is a killer combo,although it needed a little bit of modification in order to reach infinity focus.Actually ,does anybody owes the swaro zoom?...i would have a question...
henry link
Well-known member
I have both an old type Swarovski zoom (the original one on the AT/ST-80 with the very long barrel) which I have adapted for 1.25" tubes and the current one, for which I have a 2" adapter.
mayoayo
Well-known member
swaro zoom
The one i own is the astronomy version of the older style.It was sold both with the swarovski brand and also with the Meade brand on it (it was the first 4000 series zoom ,but they couldnt keep up with production).I had problems to reach infinity ,and i had to carve a small niche at the end of the barrel(to fit the stop in the eyepiece socket)and replace the compression ring in the scope to allow the eyepiece to get as closer to the scope as possible.it finally worked fine but i was wandering about why the eyepiece has access to a screw through the barrel.Would that screw possibly adjust the focal lenght?after all the eyepiece was made to be used with different telescopes ,and such feature would make sense.henry link said:
henry link
Well-known member
I don't know what that screw is for. You might be able to adjust the position of the moving field/Barlow element by loosening the screw. I doubt that the eyepiece was ever designed to allow a large adjustment. Perhaps a little tweeking in the final assembly to assure that the magnification was close to spec.
