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Best combo SS+Ep. Fixed for you? (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter Granpoli
- Start date
Hermann
Well-known member
Most modern scopes are only available with zoom eyepieces. There are some exceptions, for instance Nikon still makes a fixed WA for the Monarch scopes. Modern zooms are so good that the limiting factor is always the quality of the scope: If you get a cherry, you'll have excellent optical quality. If you get a lemon, you won't. Welcome to the scope lottery ...
Maybe. But like I said, it's the quality of the scope (more precisely: the individual specimen, you attach the eyepieces to) that determines the quality of the whole combo.
Hermann
I have the Monarch ED 82, and no matter how much I like the zooms (I have both) I always gravitate back to the 38x WF for its immersive view and long eye relief.
I'm lucky. I just repeated a star test today with the 30-60x WF zoom, and got perfect concentric circles at 60x, both sides of focus. As Hermann, said it's the scope itself. My EP choice may seem contradictory, but the 30-60 zoom works best with my PhoneSkope adapter.
The 38x WF just gives me the wow factor.
Cheers
I'm lucky. I just repeated a star test today with the 30-60x WF zoom, and got perfect concentric circles at 60x, both sides of focus. As Hermann, said it's the scope itself. My EP choice may seem contradictory, but the 30-60 zoom works best with my PhoneSkope adapter.
The 38x WF just gives me the wow factor.
Cheers
A fixed focal length eyepiece would always have the potential to be better corrected for aberrations than a zoom eyepiece, however the differences may be so small that the flexibility of the zoom might prevail.
Nikon state that the MEP-38W (30/38x for the 60 & 82 mm Monarch Fieldscopes) "effectively corrects curvature of field and astigmatism, realising uniformly high resolution all the way to the periphery." This applies to the 30x W on my Swarovski ATM65 HD. I cannot detect any loss of sharpness at the field edge and it has 65° AFoV and 20 mm eye relief. In addition the scope itself is diffraction limited, so for a 30x scope of this size it comes as close to perfection as anyone could wish.
On a 1951 USAF test chart the 25-60x zoom on my Kowa 883 shows a little astigmatism at the field edge but I doubt that anyone could see it under field conditions. The AFoV at 25x is very acceptable at 57° and improves to 69° at the higher magnifications and eye relief is adequate for glasses wearers.
A fixed focal length eyepiece on a larger scope would preclude the (infrequent?) use of higher magnifications, but conversely makes sense on a smaller scope, where the window between adequate magnification (>20x) and image brightness (exit pupil >2 mm) limits the range of usable magnifications.
John
Nikon state that the MEP-38W (30/38x for the 60 & 82 mm Monarch Fieldscopes) "effectively corrects curvature of field and astigmatism, realising uniformly high resolution all the way to the periphery." This applies to the 30x W on my Swarovski ATM65 HD. I cannot detect any loss of sharpness at the field edge and it has 65° AFoV and 20 mm eye relief. In addition the scope itself is diffraction limited, so for a 30x scope of this size it comes as close to perfection as anyone could wish.
On a 1951 USAF test chart the 25-60x zoom on my Kowa 883 shows a little astigmatism at the field edge but I doubt that anyone could see it under field conditions. The AFoV at 25x is very acceptable at 57° and improves to 69° at the higher magnifications and eye relief is adequate for glasses wearers.
A fixed focal length eyepiece on a larger scope would preclude the (infrequent?) use of higher magnifications, but conversely makes sense on a smaller scope, where the window between adequate magnification (>20x) and image brightness (exit pupil >2 mm) limits the range of usable magnifications.
John
