Zoom eyepieces - any good?

[Oat]

Are they any good or is it best to steer clear? I don't have a specific one in mind but if they are good i would consider one and would look out for one at the show this weekend.

[keithatrochdale]

You will find many, many threads on zooms if you try a search.

[Schorhr]

Seben Zoom eyepiece 8-24mm costs 49€, for that price it's okey. I have the TS Zoom (21-7mm). Both suffer from a narrow view at the higher focal length. Even more expensive one have this issue. Even for 50-60€ you get two nice eyepieces with wide angle view.

[E621Keith]

How much are you willing to spend for that goodness? There are cheap zoom under £50 that will be awful and there are expensive zoom over £600 that can beat some of the best fixed eyepiece.

[Grotemobile]

http://www.ebay.co.u...096713477&ps=54

This is the one i have got.It is not bad for the

price.The only thing with zoom EPs, they

are a bit of a lump.

Steve.

[Schorhr]

Looks a lot like http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Seben-Super-Zoom-Plossl-6-Linsen-Okular-8-24mm-31-7mm-/200564265019?pt=DE_Foto_Camcorder_Okulare&hash=item2eb28fd03b :-)

[Naemeth]

Almost invariably the zooms aren't quite as good as the individual eyepieces. When they do start to become as good as individual eyepieces, you start to pay a silly amount of money for them.

http://www.apm-telescopes.de/en/product.html?info=3100&xf88e8=610fe99b086976784dcd962409f1259b&xece83=7cc6ec39157a1457135df770c1ae5fd2

The Nagler 2-4mm and 3-6mm zooms are great though, but they don't cover a wide range, unlike the Leica Zoom.

[alan potts]

I think it just comes down to how much money you are prepared to spend. I have a 3-6mm Nagler, one of the best but untested by me at the moment, these are not cheap. Many sing praises to the Baader Mk3 but I have also read problems with them 2-3 on this forum. I have also read good reports for Meades 8-24mm offering and this will not leave you needing to sell the house to fund it. So it is really a case of how much money do you have for us to play with? Alan.

[Stargazer_00]

I think there is a zoom for all budgets, which is a good thing really.

[Niels]

The trade off for the zooming is apparent field of view - most zooms have a roughly 40-60 degree range from the long to short fl. so it also depends on the use - on a driven mount looking at the moon and planets this could be ideal. But non-driven star hopping for dso it feels narrow at 40, so need to use a wider ep as a finder, and then it can still be good for setting the right magnification to optimise contrast. I have a nikon spotting scope zoom (21-7mm, 38.5* at the long fl), which is optically good but narrow at 21mm. I got lucky with a good deal on a Leica zoom which has a wider angle (58-78*), and is useful for some star hopping and finding the optimum mag/contrast on galaxies, and I'm very happy with it, but v expensive new. The Baader Mk III is said to be very good optically, and medium expensive.

[Grotemobile]

Looks a lot like http://www.ebay.co.u...=item2eb28fd03b :-)

I think that the optics, in the Celestron

one, are a bit better.

[Schorhr]

There have been a lot of discussions, I've read a few threads where it was speculated that both are clones of the Vixen LV 8-24mm.

The two cheap ones are probably out of the same factory, and labeled with different logos :-) But who knows.

Also the Orbinar/Seben has good reviews considering the price range of these zooms, so it's certainly not bad, and I doubt there is noticable difference other then the usual variance in the production process of inexpensive parts.