xf or xw, help out the newbie (1 Viewer)

Hi all,
Great site. I have been lurking for quite sometime and am getting ready to buy a PF65 EDA II. I have been researching and wanting one for quite some time. I have read all the posts I could find here regarding the xw, xl and xf eyepieces. I have decided against the zoom. It seems that the xw14 is the eyepiece for this scope. My question though is how will this eyepiece at only 28x be at long distances like a mile or so? I know this is not a hunting forum but I will be using this scope for sheep hunting and need to be able to resolve horns at long distances. I'm thinking the xw14 as the go to eyepiece and maybe the xf 8.5 on ocasions where the conditions will allow higher magnifications. With the xw 14 would the xf 8.5 be a waste of money? I don't really want to have to purchase or carry two xw's.
Thanks for any help.
Perry

BTW, on a birding note. Last spring/summer I had 2 cedar waxwings in nesting in my tree here in downtown Fairbanks Alaska. I read that they are very rare in interior Alaska. I know they were cedar waxwings. I watched them with my Pentax 10x43 DCF SP's for several days at distances of less than 100 yds. I love those binos. We came home one day and raven was squaking up the tree where they had the nest. He must have got the nest because after that we never saw the waxwings again. Bummer. I do have some yellow rumped warblers this year though along with the regulars.

The XF's are very good eyepieces -- they don't have the field-of-view of the XW and aren't as sharp out to the edges, but the image quality in the center of the field is outstanding. If the higher powered eyepiece is only going to be used for occasional long-distance spotting, then you definitely don't want to carry around a second giant XW eyepiece.

The XF 8.5 would probably serve you fine for long ranges. However, I will caution you that with this 65mm scope, increasing magnification beyond the 28X that the XW14 provides will probably not increase resolution, it will just make things a little bigger. Frankly, there aren't many situations where going above 30X on this scope provides that much additional detail -- most of the time it just muddies up the picture because you magnify the turbulence or haze in the air.

In an ironic way, I've found that extra magnification is sometimes *worse* for long distances, because all you are doing is magnifying all that air in between you and the target, which is really the weak link in the optical chain at those distances.

If you do buy the XW14 and the XF8.5, I would recommend buying somewhere you can return it in case you decide you don't gain anything extra from the second eyepiece. I've played with numerous combinations, and I ended up selling my TMB/BO 9mm and 7mm eyepieces as well as an XL 10mm because I found that, in practical usage, I couldn't actually see anything that I couldn't see at 28X. If you need to sell, the classifieds at astromart.com are a great place and you can usually recoup 80%+ of the value of a high-quality eyepiece.

I would recommend looking into a lighter-weight zoom like the Vixen as a second eyepiece instead of the XF. As a main eyepiece, I found I preferred the bright, widefield views of a fixed eyepiece, but if you are trying to resolve a detail like horns at great distances, sometimes it's helpful to use the zoom to "dial in" the appropriate magnification that the current conditions allow. Maybe you could see a little more than at 28X, but the 46X of the XF8.5 is too much. But with a zoom, you might find a sweet spot at, say, 35X on that particular day.

Good luck!

Thanks for the input. I have read about the vixen zoom. I hadn't really considered a zoom as a second "just in case" eyepiece but that makes good sense. I'll have to look in to the price and weight

What do you think of the baader hyperion fixed power ep's? I have read some positive reports from the astronomer crowd.

It seems that they are like Pentax in that they are a very high quality eyepiece but at less than half the price of the XW's. Kind of like a Pentax 65 ED compared to a Diascope 65.

Thanks again.

Snyd said:

What do you think of the baader hyperion fixed power ep's? I have read some positive reports from the astronomer crowd.

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Baader Hyperions are considered to be slightly better than the Orion Stratus ep's that they are somewhat clones of (really, both are clones of the Vixen LVW). They are all considered to be excellent, probably the best bang-for-the-buck widefield ep's out there. Several people on this forum really like Orion Stratus, and the Hyperions are basically identical with slightly superior coatings.

A couple things to be aware of:

1. With the 13mm Hyperion/Stratus or larger, the protective case for the Pf-65 will not zip closed completely. I think the 17mm Hyperion barely fits.

2. The Hyperion 8-24mm zoom does not reach focus in the PF-65. Stratus's seem to be fine, and I would assume the Hyperion fixed ep's are also fine, but just to make sure I would buy from somewhere you can return it in case it doesn't reach infinity focus.

The astro guys will tell you that the Stratus/Hyperion ep's will give you 95% of the performance of the Pentax at 1/3-1/2 the cost.

Just so you know, the Vixen 8mm - 24mm Lanthanum ( http://www.adorama.com/VXLAZ.html ) works fine with the PF-65A and the case does zip up OK. As far as performance, to my eyes it keeps its sharpness just about up to the highest magnification. Only trouble I have had is that at very lowest mag, it causes the blackout problem if your eye isn't positioned perfectly (this is with glasses and the eyecup rolled down). Zooming in slightly gets rid of the problem.