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Vixen LVW 30mm vs Panoptic 27mm


Tiki

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I was wondering if anyone has experience of this EP at f5.4. It's a good bit cheaper than a 27mm Panoptic but how does it compare generally? I hardly ever see LVW's second-hand so i assume they must be decent. Any insight appreciated.

BTW, i don't wear glasses.

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I was wondering if anyone has experience of the LVW 30mm at f5.4. It's a good bit cheaper than a 27mm Panoptic but how does it compare generally? I hardly ever see LVW's second-hand so i assume they must be decent. Any insight appreciated.

BTW, i don't wear glasses.

(Quick edit)

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Vixen LVWs have a very good rep. Mr. Spock has the 42mm and is very pleased. Like the Panoptics, the LVWs are slightly older designs. The 30 mm is officially an NLVW (there was no 30mm in the LVW line up). Apparently this is a new design. I have seen a brief report suggesting the 30mm is very sharp to the edges in an F/7 scope, but that is not a very severe test.

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The NLVW 30 is a 'new' design. The eye relief on all LVWs are 20mm, but the 30mm has 22.4mm which suggests it has a different design. As such what is said about the LVW series may not apply to the NLVW30. The LVW entered the market before the Chinese started making widefield designs. They were popular but they were considered to be a cheaper alternative to Pentax's XL, trading performance for a more favorable price tag.

When the low cost Chinese designs flooded the market, the LVW would've loss its market to its clone. Those would could afford it continue to buy Pentax and TV, but those who can't afford these premium brands went to buy Hyperions. The NLVW was created after the Chinese started selling widefields, so very few bought the 30mm NLVW.

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I dont know anything about the Vixen LVW, but I can recommend the Panoptic 27mm, look out for one second hand.

I agree, the 27mm Pan is, IMO the pick of the Panoptic range, and a real corker of an eyepiece. I have no hesitation in highly recommending one. :)

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I have viewed through the 30mm Vixen and it is stunning on DSO's, ultra-sharp. My main experience with LVW's is the 13mm a stunning ep, as I imagine most are in the series, I don't think you can go wrong with the Vixens to be honest.

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Sorry to throw it in the mix, but as you don't wear glasses, I don't think you need to look at long eye relief eyepieces at all. Any TV/Pentax eyepiece will do fine at F/4.5, and you don't need to worry about eye relief :).

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Thanks for all the replies so far.

I have viewed through the 30mm Vixen and it is stunning on DSO's, ultra-sharp. My main experience with LVW's is the 13mm a stunning ep, as I imagine most are in the series, I don't think you can go wrong with the Vixens to be honest.

Thanks for passing on your experience. Can you recall with the 30mm if the stars don't degrade towards the edge and which scope was on the end?

Thanks.

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Here is a little report I did for the forum comparing the Vixen LVW's with the Hyperion equivalents:

http://www.firstlightoptics.com/news/vixen-lvw-vs-baader-hyperion-review.html

I personally owned an LVW 22mm and found it a gem of an eyepiece. It was replaced by a 24mm Panoptic but, aside from the 3 degrees additional FoV, the optical performance was no better.

The above covers the 1.25" format eyepieces only though.

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Excuse me. I didn't realize that 'it' was an NLVW 30mm that i should have put in the post title. I am happy to hear more about the LVW's though.

The NLVW is part of the LVW series. There was never a LVW30, the longest 1.25" LVW was 22mm and the 42mm was the only 2" LVW until the introduction of the NLVW 30. The LV (no W) 30 is more common and was part of the LV series until the LV series was replaced by the NLV series. Vixen discontinued the 2" LV 30 when they moved to the NLV shell. It is possible they modified the LV30's design and moved it up to the LVW series, but the chances are the LV30 and NLVW30 will be different. That's why I wanted to check when Robin and philj talk about 'Vixen 30' they meant the NLVW 30 which you are interested, rather than the LV30.

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I was talking about the NLVW (fat boy, as I call it) which is the one I have viewed through, I don't remember any distortion at the edges Tiki, we were looking at a galaxy and the splayed arms were very clear, I think it was the Pinwheel, if I remember correctly, and not many stars in view.

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  • 5 years later...
On 11/11/2017 at 14:28, 25585 said:

My 30mm NLVW is in the post. I have a 35mm Panoptic to pit it against, in the 2 inch bag. Both eps have better eye relief than a 27mm Panoptic. 

I will be interested to hear how much usable eye relief the 30mm NLVW has considering the mentioned French comparison stated it has a 28mm eye lens which is recessed below a non-adjustable eyecup.  I have a 27mm Panoptic which has a 25mm eye lens and a measured 14mm of usable eye relief.  I also measured the AFOV at 71 degrees, so slightly wider than claimed.  The 30mm NLVW should have a maximum of 22mm of eye relief before accounting for the recessed eye lens.

The 27mm Panoptic is well corrected to the edge and has a nice dark sky background across the field.  My only real gripe with it is the rather short eye relief and the exposed metal retaining ring at the top that will scratch eyeglasses if you push in too close and too hard.  I tend to pull back a little and live with a 60 to 65 degree AFOV to avoid scratching my eyeglasses.  My 30mm ES-82 (original style) with its 30mm eye lens shows a much wider field without having to push in as much.  Correction-wise, I'd have to go with the 27mm Panoptic, though.  Stars are much more pinpoint everywhere than in the ES-82.

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A bit of an old thread this one going back 5 years but the 27mm Panoptic is just about the only longer eyepiece I would buy at the moment, I haven't seen a S/H one for years people that have them know the secret as to how good they are. Still fancy a few De-lites to use as planetry sharpshooters 5-3mm should do nicely

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31 minutes ago, alan potts said:

A bit of an old thread this one going back 5 years but the 27mm Panoptic is just about the only longer eyepiece I would buy at the moment, I haven't seen a S/H one for years people that have them know the secret as to how good they are. Still fancy a few De-lites to use as planetry sharpshooters 5-3mm should do nicely

Still LVW eps for those fl for sale. 

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On 23 October 2012 at 09:02, E621Keith said:

The NLVW 30 is a 'new' design. The eye relief on all LVWs are 20mm, but the 30mm has 22.4mm which suggests it has a different design. As such what is said about the LVW series may not apply to the NLVW30. The LVW entered the market before the Chinese started making widefield designs. They were popular but they were considered to be a cheaper alternative to Pentax's XL, trading performance for a more favorable price tag.

When the low cost Chinese designs flooded the market, the LVW would've loss its market to its clone. Those would could afford it continue to buy Pentax and TV, but those who can't afford these premium brands went to buy Hyperions. The NLVW was created after the Chinese started selling widefields, so very few bought the 30mm NLVW.

The eye relief is correct glass to eye, but any advantage is lost due to immersion into its jacket. No black outs or kidney beans but wearing specs the whole FOV is not possible. Very comfortable to use and well protected with its golden armour. 

IMG_20171117_185209.jpg

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