Pentax PF-100ED General EP Viewing (1 Viewer)

[coxhaus]

I am looking for a bird viewing eye piece for my Pentax PF-100ED. I have a Nagler 7mm I use for long range bullet holes. The 7mm is too much magnification for general viewing in my opinion. I now need a general purpose eye piece for viewing. Where is the sweet spot for this scope? Should I be looking at a Pentax 20XW or 14XW?
What EP do have and for what purpose?

 

[mooreorless]

The 7mm Nagler would be 90x and the 14mm would be 45x at 630 focal lenght. A lot of people use 30x in 60mm -80mm spotters. If your scope takes 90x I would think the 14mm would be ok to see sausages at 400 yds. You could always buy a cheaper eyepiece in that range to try.

BTW Welcome to Birdforum!

 

[gcole]

I am looking for a bird viewing eye piece for my Pentax PF-100ED. I have a Nagler 7mm I use for long range bullet holes. The 7mm is too much magnification for general viewing in my opinion. I now need a general purpose eye piece for viewing. Where is the sweet spot for this scope? Should I be looking at a Pentax 20XW or 14XW?
What EP do have and for what purpose?

I have used both the XW14 & XW20 eyepieces. I still own the XW20 & many here will agree that when these eyepieces are used on any scope that will focus properly, the view will be outstanding .... gwen

 

[billb9430]

I think a lot depends on the type of birding you plan to do. Coastal viewing (i.e. sea watching) requires higher magnifications. For arboreal birding at closer distances, a lower power wider field view is an advantage. The 20 XW at 31.5x and a 2.2˚ field used to be my "leave it in the scope" eyepiece until I went to the even wider field 2" 26mm SWA at 24x and a 2.9˚ field. (See 2" eyepiece thread.) If you haven't tried a 20 XW in your big PF-100, you're in for a real treat. With a 3 mm exit pupil you can nearly "see in the dark" for early morning, late evening, and overcast day viewing. - Bill

 

[coxhaus]

I am now thinking a Pentax 20XWwould be the way to go. I guess the 20mm is the widest you can use with 11/4 EP. The 2 inch EP seems to require a modified scope tube and pulling your 2 inch lens apart.
We have a place in the mountains of New Mexico at 9000 feet with tall trees. I would like to sit on the front porch and view a little farther than binocs will go. I have a Gitzo 410R tripod with a Arca swiss monoball head with quick release head. The monoball allows you to set a drag so the scope does not dump on you. It seems to work fairly well with the Pentax 100 scope.
I probably missed it this year as we won’t be up there again until after it gets cold and birds are gone.

 

[DRodrigues]

I guess the 20mm is the widest you can use with 11/4 EP.

No. Widest FOV can be obtained with a Baader Hyperium 24mm or a Vixen NLV 40mm. Almost as wide as these 2 solutions you have the TV Panoptic or ES 68º 24 mm models (but with pincushion...), most plossls 30 or 40mm, and Telescope Service/Celestron/Meade/other producers 25mm 60º AFOV eps...
I would always want a zoom and there is the 3x 40-60º models of many producers, the new Pentax zoom has 2º more (the Baader zoom doesn't reach focus) and I hope the new Nikon NEP30-60W zoom will reach focus on Pentax scopes...

 

[jogiba]

I also like the 20mm XW in my spotting scopes and the widest FOV I get is with my 20mm Widescan III 1.25" eyepiece with 84 deg AFOV but it does not reach infinity focus.