Looking for a damaged Hyperion zoom - am i mad?

[cplee42]

I have a hyperion zoom that has a damaged (slightly scratched) internal lens. Rather than throw the zoom away I thought it would be easy to call up Baader and get a replacement lens ( for a fee) which i could then install myself. They don't/ won't do this as they say it must be optically aligned etc etc and this would cost more than the zoom lens itself (circa £190). Is this likely to be true? Do I really just have a piece of junk 'cos of the damaged lens? or should I look out for a damaged zoom on classified etc and then pop out the lens i need and substitute?

Thanks...

[Mark at Beaufort]

Chris I can understand your frustration. I have the Mk2 Hyperion zoom and it has some dust on the inside which is distracting when I view the Sun. I thought I would send it away for cleaning but I expect the fee to be more than the original EP which at the time was about £120.

I hope you find a damaged zoom but I think you will be lucky unless someone puts an old model on eBay.

Mark

[E621Keith]

The eyepiece was made in China and shipped to Europe as a complete eyepiece. It's unlikely they will keep any spare parts here. For them to sell you the lens, they would need to strip it from another Hyperion zoom or get it from their subcontractor in China. The lenses were probably custom made to Baader's specification in batches. It's questionable whether Baader will allow the subcontractor to keep spares parts, because there is a risk of the subcontractors making clones from the Baader spares and undercutting Baader.

If the eyepiece was assembled in Europe, then it's reasonable to expect the have access to spares at their local factory, but unfortunately this is not the case for the Hyperion zoom.

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Replacing a lens should be possible, but especially with zoom lenses, getting everything aligned properly is not trivial. As others have said, Baader probably does not have spares.

[Moonshane]

presumably a damaged internal lens was always there from new? I presume you have not had it a short enough time to claim a replacement from the supplier?

[cplee42]

Moonshane, no the damage was caused by myself. I had the same problem as Mark - a piece of flake in the field of view (in my case dead centre) that was off putting for solar viewing and since I do outreach it effectively killed its use. I tried various remedies to remove this. No success. The zoom is 5 yrs old so I decided to take the thing apart and which point I did indeed remove the dust problem. I then forgot the exact lens sequence for the internal train and so had to guess this then stripped it apart when I realised I had an error ( based on Baader diagram I found for normal hyperion). This second operation was the problem. Two lenses in the centre train are actually touching when inserted but to do so one is 'dropped' onto the other through the tube and in the processs ( despite no obvious concern when I did this) a small scuff x2 has appeared where they 'kissed'. This is much less distracting than the flake but still irritating. I have good vision nonetheless so the optical alignment for me was no real issue. All I now want to do is replace the scuffed lens and reinsert the train.

I had not thought about the fact that they are constructed in China but a pity the zoom must now remain in a draw...

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

I hear some Hyperion zooms seize up. Maybe there are defective ones out there that you could try to take apart and scavenge for parts (I bet you will not get the lens order wrong after your experience!)