Had any experience of 0.965" Pentax SMC XP EPs?

[Andrew*]

There's a Pentax XP-3.8mm SMC eyepiece on Astronomy UK just been reduced to £80.

Can't find any info on it. I was wondering if anyone could tell me something about it.

My guessing is it's not a bad deal, as the same one's being sold used in OPT's clearance for over $200.

It is Pentax, after all...

Andrew

[The Warthog]

There's a Pentax XP-3.8mm SMC eyepiece on Astronomy UK just been reduced to £80.

Can't find any info on it. I was wondering if anyone could tell me something about it.

My guessing is it's not a bad deal, as the same one's being sold used in OPT's clearance for over $200.

It is Pentax, after all...

Andrew

Yes, and it is .965". With your kit, it's going to be a PITA, no matter what. If I had £80, and a scope that was restricted to .965 eps, I'd save a little more and buy a decent scope instead.

[Andrew*]

Sorry WH, what's PITA?!?

And what's wrong with .965" eps?

Andrew

[Andrew*]

okay, found out what PITA means. I've also read some reviews to say that optically these EPs beat UO orthos, and though ER is limited, it's still usable. However, the review did take into account the price difference.

£80 for a small ortho with "XP" on it? ... Maybe I'll let this one go...

Andrew

[The Warthog]

Sorry WH, what's PITA?!?

And what's wrong with .965" eps?

Andrew

If the rest of your kit is 1.25", you have at least to find and fit an adapter everytime you want to use it, and may not be able to use a barlow, although with that short an ep, you may not want to. I would only recommend buying .965" eps to someone who didn't want to spend a lot more, and was stuck with a scope that only used .965 eps. Then I would suggest a couple of decent plossls. There is so much more variety in 1.25" eps.

PITA is a middle eastern flat bread that is delicious with a hot filling.

[Andrew*]

WH. The chap will supply a 1.25" adaptor with the EP, and then I just keep it in the adaptor all the time and treat it as a 1.25" EP.

Andrew

[John]

Hi Andrew,

I've not tried one of these but Pentax EP's generally have a great reputation and a few years ago the .965 inch Pentax ortho's were highly sought after as planetary eyepieces. My guess would be that it would be a fine performer. At £80 used it is not cheap though and it might be worth having a look at other options in that niche as well - Burgess / TMB Planetaries, and the new William Optics SPL's for a start - both are cheaper new than this Pentax and might offer benefits such as better eye relief.

John.

[womblemaster]

Zen say:

when is an eyepiece like a loaf of bread?

[E621Keith]

Pentax Japan listed the XP in their Japanese site but not the English site. Since it's a 0.965 eyepiece, it may be made for their domestic market only.

XP PENTAX

I ran a search on Google Japan and it returned a lot of results. Unfortunately I cannot understand Japanese nor the Google translation of those web pages, but I gather there were 5 eyepieces in the XP series 3.8, 8, 14, 24 and one other. Of these only 3.8, 8, and 24 remained in production. They seem to used the eyepiece for planets only, even the 24mm (from looking at pictures accompanying the text).

I am sure someone who understanding of Japanese will be able to make better use of that information.

[Kef9]

I have the 5mm XO which is excellent. I have no idea what the XP is like but I can bet it's quality.

[JeremyS]

I was amused by this thread as the question above referred to me, 8 years before I joined SGL. I was selling a Pentax XP 3.8 mm eyepiece in 2007 and I have regretted is ever since! I didn’t even get much £ from the sale. What a fool I was. This gave me the best ever views of Jupiter and Mars in my Tak FS 102. I was living in Singapore at the time and bought it there. I sold cos was mainly imaging.

Last week I had the opportunity of buying another of these little gems directly from  🇯🇵 
 

Happy days!

Of course it’s only 0.965-inch so I need to use in an adapter.

 

Edited August 3, 2021 by JeremyS

[JeremyS]

For amusement, here’s the Pentax XP 3.8 next to my Tele Vue Nagler 26 T5

[F15Rules]

On 03/08/2021 at 14:54, JeremyS said:

For amusement, here’s the Pentax XP 3.8 next to my Tele Vue Nagler 26 T5

Well,at least you won't need a handle to lift that little beauty, Jeremy..

Joking apart though, it looks to be in mint condition..I imagine the eye relief is tight, and fov small ( 30-40 degrees?), but I could also imagine it being a great double star splitter too?

Nice find!👍

Dave

[dweller25]

Nice eyepiece, did you get a middle eastern flat bread that is delicious with a hot filling with it 😂😂😂

[JeremyS]

3 hours ago, F15Rules said:

Well,at least you won't need a handle to lift that little beauty, Jeremy..

Joking apart though, it looks to be in mint condition..I imagine the eye relief is tight, and fov small ( 30-40 degrees?), but I could also imagine it being a great double star splitter too?

Nice find!👍

Dave

Yes ER is pretty tight, Dave, but the views are worth it (or at least they were to my 20 year younger eyes!)

Yup it’s mint condition 👍🏻
 

At the moment it’s sitting on the desk in front of me, giving me much pleasure looking at it and recalling the fun times I had with its predecessor all those years ago

[JeremyS]

I see there is a rare Pentax XP 24 available. But not sure the purpose of a 0.965 inch eyepiece of that FL 🤔

Please can nobody try to convince me that I need it.

[dweller25]

9 minutes ago, JeremyS said:

I see there is a rare Pentax XP 24 available. But not sure the purpose of a 0.965 inch eyepiece of that FL 🤔

Please can nobody try to convince me that I need it.

You don’t need it.

Where is it for sale please 😈

[F15Rules]

4 hours ago, dweller25 said:

Nice eyepiece, did you get a middle eastern flat bread that is delicious with a hot filling with it 😂😂😂

No?..that's a Pit.....y!!😋

Dave

[Louis D]

@Andrew*It's been 14 years since the original post.  Did you end up buying the XP from @JeremyS?  If so, how did you like it?  Did you keep it or sell it on?