• Welcome to BirdForum, the internet's largest birding community with thousands of members from all over the world. The forums are dedicated to wild birds, birding, binoculars and equipment and all that goes with it.

    Please register for an account to take part in the discussions in the forum, post your pictures in the gallery and more.
ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

27 or 37 X magnification (1 Viewer)

punkmorg

Member
I am looking at buying a fixed magnification Pentax xw ep for my 80mm scope,but cannot decide on the 14 or 21.( 37 and 27 X magnification)
Do Any of you have both eye pieces and if so which would you recommend. Will I lose a lot of fov and light by going for the higher magnification ep?
 
I can't help with your particular circumstances, but I have a Nikon ED82, and had both 30x and 38x wide angle lenses at one time. I found that the 38x was fine, but dof and fov was better when using the 30x - I sold the 38x and kept the 30x. There are a lot of factors which may result in different opinions (I wear glasses for a start), but 30x in most circumstances is fine. You could add a high magnification e/p at a later point if required (I also have a 50x WA) or alternatively look at a baader hyperion zoom, which offers a range of magnification as well as being relatively wide angled.
Hope this helps somewhat!
 
I cant really comment as I only ever used a couple of Pentax eyepieces on a friends astronomical scope many years ago so don't know how they would perform on a spotting scope. The field of view and eye relief was good on both though-I think one was the 21mm, the other might have been 10 or 14mm.
However I used to use my old 78mm Nikon scope with a 38x eyepiece and found it worked very well, bright well detailed images, but the field of view was rather small for picking up birds in the sky, on the sea etc. Added to which of course the low light performance suffered some what.
Unless you really need the high magnification I think the 27x would be my preferred choice.
 
Hi,

if we get into astro EPs with many hundreds or even thousands of different models, only some general considerations are valid.

Apparent field of view - with 14mm there is plenty of 1.25" ultra wide angle EPs with 80 or more degrees of apparent field of view available. Not so with 21mm as the field stop for UWA EPs longer than around 17mm will be too wide for a 1.25" barrel. for 20mm you'll probably find 70 degree afov EPs but no wider.

The Pentax XW EPs are all very well regarded, have decent eye relief for use with glasses and will of course work perfectly with your Pentax body, but they're not really cheap and wider options than their 68 deg afov are available in 14mm at least.
Other astro EPs might work too but of course you'll have to check the focus point as spotting scopes usually have a quite limited focus range and don't come to infinity focus with some EPs...

Joachim
 
Thank you all for your replies. Think I may go for the 21 mm
I have a zoom ep for anything too far away to see with that ep, but 27 X should be sufficient for general use
 
For most active birding situations, I find 30x wide-angle a much more enjoyable magnification than a 40x wide-angle.

--AP
 
I have XWs in 20, 14, and 10mm. The 10mm gets the most use. I am using 10X binoculars so getting 25X from my scope, to me, isn't that much more useful.

The 20mm (not 21mm if we are talking about XWs) gets used more than the 14mm though. Primarily for scanning large flocks.
 
Hello Punkmorg,

I have 30x fixed eyepiece, which suits me. The higher the power. the sturdier and heavier the necessary tripod. I would pick 27x.

Happy bird watching,
Arthur Pinewood :hi:
 
Do tell us how you get on! I use a 13mm ultrawide in my 66mm astro refractor giving 30x which is a good compromise for most conditions. I use the same power in my 70mm binoculars too. Useful to have at least a higher power for the occasions when you want a bit of extra reach.
Peter
 
Why not get both? I have a PF80 and an XW20, expensive. I also have a 15mm BST starguider.
Only £49, not the widest fov, but pin sharp and at £49, highly recommended.
 
Why not get both? I have a PF80 and an XW20, expensive. I also have a 15mm BST starguider.
Only £49, not the widest fov, but pin sharp and at £49, highly recommended.

The biggest reason for me to stick with the XW is the fact that they are waterproof. My scope is frequently used in poor weather conditions. Most astronomic eyepieces are not waterproof, as there is little stargazing done in the rain.
 
Sorry for not seeing this thread earlier.

We have the 80mm and 65mm Pentax scopes. In the 80mm scope we use a Televue Delos 14mm eyepiece giving about 37x. In the 65mm scope we use a Televue Delite 11mm eyepiece giving about 35x. We frequently use the scopes on reservoirs, ponds, fields and mountain peaks some distance away (watching raptors ride thermals).

We did compare the Pentax XW10mm against the Televue Delos 14mm in the 80mm scope. Pentax = 52x Televue = 37x.

Our binoculars are 10x (Zeiss and Swarovski 10x32).

In the scopes we like the slightly higher powers of 35x & 37x to be able to look at detail. We didn't feel that 52x (10mm) provided that much more detail to warrant adding it to the kit. The 10x binoculars provide the wider field of view when needed. By the time we are using the scopes we want to see individuals or count smaller groups.

We need a setup with 20mm of eye relief. When comparing the Pentax XW 14mm against the Televue Delos 14mm on the Pentax 80mm scope, we felt the eye placement on the Televue was easier and more comfortable than on the Pentax XW. Much of that will be personal preference. The Pentax XW provided a very nice image, but the Televue edged it out. The Televue is flat and crisp edge to edge. The downside is that you give up the water resistant feature of the Pentax XW line.

With the right fixed eyepieces the Pentax scopes really are up there with Alpha brand optics.

We don't mind the reduced exit pupils of 10x32 bins and slightly higher magnification eyepieces for the scopes. We live at altitude in an arid environment, and it is very bright. The smaller exit pupil helps stop down the light, which helps with eye comfort when out for a full day.

Regarding the Televue Delos and Delite lines... They are fantastic eyepieces in these scopes with one exception. The Delos 14mm works perfectly in the 80mm, but is not the best choice for the 65mm. In the 65mm the Delos 14mm will just come to focus at infinity, but will not focus past infinity on the 65mm. The Delite line works great in both scopes, focuses past infinity, but has a very slightly narrower field of view (2ft less @ 1,000 yds with 8-9mm eyepiece, up to 16ft less @ 1,000 yds for 17-18mm eyepieces).
 
Last edited:
The biggest reason for me to stick with the XW is the fact that they are waterproof. My scope is frequently used in poor weather conditions. Most astronomic eyepieces are not waterproof, as there is little stargazing done in the rain.

That’s correct, they are not waterproof or water resistant for that matter, however, are £49 the are unbelievable value for money.

I'm not sure that eyepieces need to be waterproof unless they are being used under water, which is unlikely. A high degree of water resistant should suffice.
 
I'm not sure that eyepieces need to be waterproof unless they are being used under water, which is unlikely. A high degree of water resistant should suffice.

Sealing from the atmosphere is useful, as in fog resistant, which comes along with a waterproof design. Especially if moving quite bit in elevation which I suppose isn't much of a concern in the UK.

I used to have a Gios Torino myself. That is a beautiful blue :t:
 
Warning! This thread is more than 4 years ago old.
It's likely that no further discussion is required, in which case we recommend starting a new thread. If however you feel your response is required you can still do so.

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top