23x WA eyepiece for 65 mm angled Diascope; it's a beauty! (1 Viewer)

Well, so far I've been happy with the zoom eyepiece, let's get that straight to begin with. I've used it in all circumstances, even seawatching, within the whole zoom range. At 45x it got dim, but I didn't mind that. It also got shaky views, and I did mind that.
I used it in all weathers, even downpours, without any trouble. Boy, did I love the good views I had with this thing.
Then I bought a new pair of specs, which was very necessary. When seawatching one day last week, I noticed a deterioration of the FOV. Even at mag 15 did I no longer have the wide view I was used to. Of course the cause was my new specs, with a much more robust frame than my old ones.

Sadly my new much more intellectual look had seriously handicapped my hobby, so I ordered a 23x WA fixed eyepiece online. Eye relief of the fixed eyepieces is better than on the zoom, I knew that much from Birdforum experts, and I reckoned it would be needed here.
It took a month before I received the eyepiece ( I was beginning to fear they had been discontinued by Zeiss, but apparently not ), but today I got it.
It's good, it's splendid, I got my old wide FOV back instantly. Edge sharpness is definitely better than on the zoom EP, the FOV reminded me of the old days with my old specs and the zoom on 16x. It got even better when I noticed that the view itself was sharper than on the zoom EP, and delightfully bright for an exit pupil of 2.82 mm.
I put the zoom back on instead and noticed the blurry edge of the 15x mag for the first time. Zooming in, the tunnelview was now very noticeable, only to get better above 40x, but at the high end the zoom is dim.
I put the 23x EP back on and enjoyed splendid bright views of leaves and branches, Starlings on rooftops, aeroplanes in the late afternoon sun. When the light faded in the early evening I could still see sharp details, though less bright of course.

The 23x EP is 11 mm shorter than the zoom EP, so I had to adjust the selfmade sighting device I had put on the scope ( see in the general Spotting Scope forum under " Make your own simple .... " by Kabsetz ), and the EP is also 100 grams lighter than the rather chunky zoom EP. Believe me, it's noticeable when carrying the scope on the tripod, it definitely feels lighter.

The pros and cons of a fixed eyepiece are a matter of personal preference. I think I can say after a short tryout that the 23x will be a permanent fixture on my scope, the quality of the view is that much better for me I don't care if there are times I might be going to miss the bigger mags of the zoom.
I will probably not be able to clinch ID's of very distant birds, but there's always the Zeiss tripler to put on my wishlist.

I'll get back on this thread if I decide what to do with the zoom EP; it won't stay in the cupboard.

Greetings, Ronald

Thanks for review, Ronald, and congratulations on your new eyepiece! I've just ordered the same eyepiece for my Diascope 85 and hoping to receive it today. Looking forward to comparing it w/ my 20-60X zoom.

Cheers,

Ronald,

When I bought my 85 mm. Diascope, I thought hard about which eyepiece. I am quite likely to meet "heat waves" from the ground when I use a 'scope; taking advantage of the highest magnification of a zoom requires a substantial or expensive tripod and I wear specs. Finally, there are still optical advantages of a fixed eyepiece over even the Zeiss zoom. With the 85 mm. Diascope, the eyepiece provides 30 power which I thought was rather useful. Therefore, I decided on that fixed eyepiece.

Happy bird watching,
Arthur :brains:

KorHaan said:

It took a month before I received the eyepiece ( I was beginning to fear they had been discontinued by Zeiss, but apparently not ),

Greetings, Ronald

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Hi Ronald!

Your suspicion seems to be correct: the 23/30 eyepiece is not in the 2007 catalogue anymore! So with all likelyhood it is discontinued.

I hope you have got it for a nice sell-out price.
I had it as the first eyepiece on my Diascope 65 and am still very happy with it. It's a splendid combination - quite light-weight and therefore mobile.

Happy watching,
Thomas

I hate to play spoilsport, but I received my 30X eyepiece today and have to say that I'm "really disappointed" in it. It 'has' to be a bad copy, because although its brighter than the 20-60X at 30X, it suffers from severe chromatic abberation at the edges. I thought it was me, but swapping the two sets of eyepieces I found the zoom eyepiece to be sharp at the edges with no CA, while the fixed showed severe CA at the edges. So I'm going to send it back and try to get another copy.

Pinewood said:

taking advantage of the highest magnification of a zoom requires a substantial or expensive tripod and I wear specs.

Happy bird watching,
Arthur :brains:

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Hi Arthur,

Good point; as I used to carry heavy tripods I got less willing to take the scope out, to the point it nearly always stayed at home.
Then I purchased a lightweight Velbon carbon fibre ( expensive, yes ) that was so much easier to carry. Unfortunately I have to raise the center column for the most part ( I'm 6'4'' ) so big mags are inevitably also shaky.
Not so with 23x, I find it quite relaxing. But I'll elaborate on that in a next post.

Greetings, Ronald

ThoLa said:

Hi Ronald!

Your suspicion seems to be correct: the 23/30 eyepiece is not in the 2007 catalogue anymore! So with all likelyhood it is discontinued.

I hope you have got it for a nice sell-out price.
I had it as the first eyepiece on my Diascope 65 and am still very happy with it. It's a splendid combination - quite light-weight and therefore mobile.

Happy watching,
Thomas

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Hi Thomas,

Looks like I was just in time!
I don't think € 255.- is a sell-out price, but I'm not bothered with that.
Bummer though they should decide to discontinue it.

Greetings, Ronald

jourdaj said:

I hate to play spoilsport, but I received my 30X eyepiece today and have to say that I'm "really disappointed" in it. It 'has' to be a bad copy, because although its brighter than the 20-60X at 30X, it suffers from severe chromatic abberation at the edges. I thought it was me, but swapping the two sets of eyepieces I found the zoom eyepiece to be sharp at the edges with no CA, while the fixed showed severe CA at the edges. So I'm going to send it back and try to get another copy.

Click to expand...

Really?! I didn't notice any CA at all, but maybe I'm not very sensitive to it.
Or maybe there is sample variation in these eyepieces, I don't know.
I sure hope you will get a better copy this time.

Today I went out to my local patch, a marshy bit a few miles long next to our most ancient nature preserve Naardermeer; it was already late in the afternoon and an overcast day.
My only concern with this new 23x EP was: would it be sufficient mag for such open countryside or would I dearly miss my zoom with its 45x mag? I hadn't brought the zoom EP to test the 23x mag.
Well, it performed splendidly, distant birds I could ID with little effort. The ultimate test came when I spotted a bird sitting on an electricity pylon about 800 meters away with my bins. I pointed the scope, thinking it could be a Peregrine, and when it turned its head I saw it was a Carrion Crow.
Shovelers some 400 meters away on the water I could easily ID, which I found a bit strange for such low mag. But I think it's the brightness combined with the wide FOV and the steady image that does the trick.
Goldfinches feeding on thistles 100 meters away showed colourful details.
Geese in flight I found easy to track.
I use the scope with my left hand only on top, index finger on the focusser. I removed the pan handle so I can scan and focus with my left hand this way. My right hand is down on the tripod leg, or holding a cigarette or a can of beer. If it weren't for my looks I could be mistaken for a rock singer on his microphone in this posture. I used to do this with the zoom EP on as well, but thank heavens I'm released from zoom duty now. That's a comforting thought as I'm tracking a bird, I don't have to decide anymore when and how to change mags. I can actually concentrate on the view better.

All this is highly personal, but it also shows why I'm happy with the 23x eyepiece. It's also the lightest setup as a whole I had in ages; carbon fibre tripod, lightweight fluid head, 65mm scope and 23x EP. Total weight about 3.2kilo's.

I'm really looking forward to go seawatching, that will be something to enjoy.

Greetings, Ronald

Forgot to mention my only gripe with this eyepiece, well, it's a minor one: the lens cap is a bit difficult to remove. It tends to get stuck behind the rear rubber rim of the eyepiece, designed this way probably so you don't loose it when carrying the scope, but when you want to take it off you also pull out the eyecup, and as a specs wearer I have to push it back in. That's a bit troublesome in rain, when you have to do a lot of on-off moving of the cap.
To counter this I have the little cylindrical bag in which the eyepiece comes put on the scope with elastic thread and am using that as eyepiece cover. I leave the original rubber eyecap at home. Works well.

Greetings, Ronald