wo98/110 flt vs sw espirit 100

[willcastle]

I can't help but feel the esprit 100 has a bad press for potentially no reason.one person here sent his back for a collimation issue that could have been sorted. And the only other reviewer said it was amazing all the way up to combining a mere 2 hours from the equinox with data from another scope... With a weak conclusion saying the equinox wasn't as sharp.... When to my eyes... His two hour stack was superb with some of the best colour I have ever seen.

So how about it? Any good experiences with the esprit? And any devotees of William optics?

[swag72]

There's plenty of WO devotees on this forum and others, but as you say, not a lot of good press about the Esprit. I suppose it only takes a couple of people not hapy with their scopes - Especially if they are new models - for a general consensus to develop that they are no good. If you do buy one, then get it from a reputable dealer who will take it back if you are not happy with it. Personally, for the price I would get a new WO, if only for the decent R&P focuser they are now using. Who wants a Crayford? .... They're pants in my opinion!

[willcastle]

Thank you for your reply. Now I'm wondering if I should go the whole way and get an esprit 120 which is genuinely superb going by reviews and results. I spoke in depth to a supplier who said avoid the 100 esprit due to the ease it loses collimation... Which can only be fixed back at the factory.... So that rules that out..... That leaves the 120 esprit vs the William optics flt 110. That bring said.... I have yet to see an amazing image taken through the 110 but I have seen the best Astro images I have EVER seen through the esprit... Excluding equally superbTakahashi results (and no I don't want a Takahashi )

[ollypenrice]

It is a tough call when spending a lot of money on an unkown scope. I take the craven view that I won't risk it. Apo refractors are very expensive and I want to know that they are proven instruments, so I have Takahashi and TEC and am a happy bunny. I'd buy from TV and AP as well, and maybe OS.

Don't put me down as a WO fan. They have produced some good designs but they have also produced a staggering succession of lemons. What is staggering is that they have got away with it. They have produced runs of scopes with focusers that do not work at all. They just don't work. OK, so they fix them later but what about the folks who have the lemons? They send out runs of scopes with lens clips sticking into the lightpath. They put out focal reducers with the wrong optics. The make Crayfords with rollers running on smooth anodized drawtubes. How do they get away with it? In my view they get away with it by making their scopes very pretty.

SW have shown that they can make fabulous budget optics. They have not shown that they can take on Takahashi at their own game. One big issue with the Esprit range is that they are nothing like cheap enough. They are too close to the premium manufacturers (Tak excepted) whose opticians are known by name and will respond personally to customers Emails. Optical Vision (who are they???) won't reply to you at all.

No, in my view an entry into the premium optics markets needs, amongst other things, a complete rethink of the customer service setup of the manufacturer. We know very well that FLO will look after their customers and a top class outfit they are too, but I have spoken to TeleVue opticians over the phone and had personal emails from Yuri Petrunin. It matters.

Olly