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Lens Cell (1 Viewer)

Musoman

Musoman

PETE - Nikon/Sony Shooter
United Kingdom
Is it possible to buy just an ED lens cell ? I'm wondering if there's a SW 120ED cell available, but i think this could well be 3 times the cost of my whole scope. I know there is a SW 120ED scope, but its big money, and its massive..

I'm not too bothered if there isnt, as i'd like to go for a lighter , shorter Scope eventually. But if the 120ED cell was cheap enough, maybe.
 
One that I know of that sells FPL-53 ED lens cells is this seller on ebay. I've linked to his feedback page which you can see by clicking here. Looking at his feedback you can see some of his past auctions and the average price. An example is the 80mm f6 FPL-53 triplet which goes for £220 and the 110mm f6.6 triplet that goes for about £433.

Good prices when considering what a scope with those in would cost.

They don't have any cells for sale at the minute but it might be worth contacting them to see what they can get.

Paul.
 
This place (Nanjing Intane Optical) here has a 80mm f7 560mm focal length Apo triplet cell for sale. No price but they have an inquire button and say that individual orders are welcome.

They also list a 152mm F8 apo but no information when you click on it.

Paul.
 
There's also Intane Optics, a china manufacturer. They have three lens cells, a 60mm F/6, a 80mm F/7 and a 152mm F/8 all triplet APOs, no 120mm though.

Don't know much about them other than a side by side test of the 80 vs a canon 600 F4, and basically it blew the canon away.
 
No probs Fernando.

Surplus Shed in America is worth a look now and then. For example is this 155mm f1.25 195mm focal length apo triplet lens for $250. They also sell a mating part to extend the focal length. Might make an interesting scope.

They do a few other doublet telescope lens cells but not much ED stuff. Loads of other accessories though and they are cheap.

Paul.
 
I've used Surplus Shed a fair bit in the past and they've always been very good replying to emails, quick to post etc. Being outside the US all you need to do is ask for a shipping quote but I found shipping to be reasonable too.

Paul.
 
Paul Corfield said:
An example is the 80mm f6 FPL-53 triplet which goes for £220 and the 110mm f6.6 triplet that goes for about £433.

Good prices when considering what a scope with those in would cost.

Paul.
Click to expand...

Thanks Paul - have bookmarked that seller, but allowing extra money over the 110mm triplet at £433 for a 120 aperture...say £600 ..you'd have to factor in Import / VAT / handling, and this would push the price up to way too much IMO. A new UK SW 120 ED is about £1000 + http://www.365astronomy.com/skywatc...4.html?zenid=4fbab836f7f73374923e319691a08846 so it would actually end up being cheaper to buy this whole scope in the UK than to buy a cell from outside the EU.
Then again, i wouldnt get anything like near my purchase price for the 120mm i have here so if i had bought the 120mm ED before this one, it would be have been better value.

Mind you, i wouldnt want to lug that 120mm ED around - have you seen the size of it ?

Also, what happens when you put that 120mm ED lens cell into a much shorter 120 tube like mine ? ( Mine is the Short Tube ST if you dont remember ) Do the factors change .. FL or F ratio ?
 
Paul Corfield said:
This place (Nanjing Intane Optical) here has a 80mm f7 560mm focal length Apo triplet cell for sale. No price but they have an inquire button and say that individual orders are welcome.

They also list a 152mm F8 apo but no information when you click on it.

Paul.
Click to expand...

Interesting ... noted cheers
 
Paul Corfield said:
No probs Fernando.

Surplus Shed in America is worth a look now and then. For example is this 155mm f1.25 195mm focal length apo triplet lens for $250. They also sell a mating part to extend the focal length. Might make an interesting scope.

They do a few other doublet telescope lens cells but not much ED stuff. Loads of other accessories though and they are cheap.

Paul.
Click to expand...

Yep very cheap, but no ED cells like you say. I think they'd probably have exactly what i already have, if they sold a 120 cell.
Cant fault those prices though. Worth bookmarking for other stuff
 
I actually looked at that scope before ordering the TL APO, the cemented cell was one of the things that made me like it, it’s true the elements can’t be individually collimated, but they won’t go out of collimation too, witch could be very nice for our use, not that any of mine ever went out of collimation.
But as I knew nothing about it, not even the glass type so I skipped it, also I wanted a faster scope.

Musoman said:
Mind you, i wouldnt want to lug that 120mm ED around - have you seen the size of it ?

Also, what happens when you put that 120mm ED lens cell into a much shorter 120 tube like mine ? ( Mine is the Short Tube ST if you dont remember ) Do the factors change .. FL or F ratio ?
Click to expand...

You wont be able to focus. Or you could focus but you’ll need 300mm of extension tubes.
To get infinity focus, you’ll need the same distance from lens to sensor as the focal length of the lens, that is 900mm FL to 900mm scope length.

I wouldn’t mind one of those, having the scope I have now I’m set when portability is needed, so having a real big scope too would be nice. But I’m more towards a 115mm F/7 triplet like the TS (kunming optics) or the 102mm triplet.
 
Thanks Fernando - so in fact, there's no point in my even thinking about a 120mm ED cell, at least not one from the SW 120 ED, if thats 900mm FL. I guess i would need a 120mm ED Cell from a 600mm scope ?
 
'Mind you, i wouldnt want to lug that 120mm ED around - have you seen the size of it ?"

From I what I can find, it might be 32" long without the sunshade ext. and weigh about 11- 14 lbs. I have the Orion 100ED and it weighs about 7 lbs. and tube length is 36" long and my heavy Bogen tripod and Bogen 501 handles this very well.
 
FernandoBatista said:
Yes...and those wont be exactly easy to find ;)
Click to expand...

OK ;)

I'll probably just save up and buy a short FL like youself. 460mm / 500mm / etc

Trouble is with those short FL scopes, is that they all seem to have small F ratios... f6.6, f7, etc. I had a Sigma 150-500 OS for a while and even that was nearly as bad ( max aperture at 500mm was f6.3 )

It loved the light of course. Got some great shots with it, but show it a dull day and it would sulk.
 
mooreorless said:
'Mind you, i wouldnt want to lug that 120mm ED around - have you seen the size of it ?"

From I what I can find, it might be 32" long without the sunshade ext. and weigh about 11- 14 lbs. I have the Orion 100ED and it weighs about 7 lbs. and tube length is 36" long and my heavy Bogen tripod and Bogen 501 handles this very well.
Click to expand...

Thats sounds about right. Just looking at the photos of that SW 120ED and it seems like one end of the scope is in a different post code. ( zip code to you Steve ) And the weight.. the 80ED and the 120 ST weigh 7.5LBS and 8.5LBS respectively. I dont want to go any higher than that. In fact i want to go lower eventually :t:
 
Musoman said:
OK ;)

I'll probably just save up and buy a short FL like youself. 460mm / 500mm / etc

Trouble is with those short FL scopes, is that they all seem to have small F ratios... f6.6, f7, etc. I had a Sigma 150-500 OS for a while and even that was nearly as bad ( max aperture at 500mm was f6.3 )

It loved the light of course. Got some great shots with it, but show it a dull day and it would sulk.
Click to expand...

Actually the F ratio maybe small but the light transmission (Tstop) is far better than an objective.
I compared the Nikkor 300mm F/4 with the ED70 and the difference in light was slightly bigger than ½ a stop. That is to say the exposures from the ED70 were the same as the 300 F4 stopped down to about F/4.8.
I made the same test with the 300 F4+1.4TC (420mm F5.6) against the ED80 and the Nikkor was 1/3 of a stop brighter, putting the ED80 with the same light transmission of the 300 F4 at F/6.3.
I've repeated this tests with a lot of lenses and the results have been very consistent, roughly a scope lets in about ½ stop more light than an objective with the same aperture, that's due to the various glass elements inside objectives. The Nikkor 200-400 F4 for example as a real T/stop of 5.11, according to some reviews, if you put a TC on it that's T/7.154 at 560mm, the same as any of these scopes.

And if you take into account that most objectives need to be stopped down to get better quality, the F ratio of the scope doesn't look so bad anymore. Even the 300 F4 naked was noticeably better stopped down one stop, on zooms like the 150-500 there's no comparison, you can stop it down as wish but it would never be comparable to a scope, not to mention the beautiful bokeh a scope provides.
The only reason to stop down a scope is DOF, not quality.
 
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