Pentax SW 14mm v Ethos 13mm

[DRT]

I have a Pentax SW 10mm and a Televue Nagler 17mm and want to buy one EP to plug the gap.

The Pentax SW 14mm is £255 from FLO.

The Televue Ethos 13mm is £455 from Telescope House.

The Ethos has 30° more FOV than the SW.

Would I be paying £200 for the 30° or are there other benefits to the Ethos over the SW?

[alan potts]

Doug,

If it helps at all I did a review on all of the eyepieces you are thinking of and it is in the Memeber Equipment reviews somewhere, it was about 9 months back. I was not able to do a full check on the Pentax XW 14mm as I had sold it and the man came to collect before I had finished. In short this eyepiece is in my view not as good as the offerings from Televue and of them the 14mm Delos is the best. When I say this the differences are only slight, there is no black and white here.

Alan.

[John]

Doug,

If it helps at all I did a review on all of the eyepieces you are thinking of and it is in the Memeber Equipment reviews somewhere, it was about 9 months back. I was not able to do a full check on the Pentax XW 14mm as I had sold it and the man came to collect before I had finished. In short this eyepiece is in my view not as good as the offerings from Televue and of them the 14mm Delos is the best. When I say this the differences are only slight, there is no black and white here.

Alan.

Good advice from Alan here. 

It probably hinges on whether you want 100 degrees. Above 10mm the XW's are a different optical design and I believe the 14mm does show some field curvature. It's a top eyepiece though, no doubt about that.

I have the 13mm Ethos though so I'm biased. It was my first Ethos and I still feel it's one of the best eyepieces I've ever used

[russ]

Having looked through a 13mm Ethos i would love to own one. The view was mindblowing in an AP Starfire 152. And the 100deg fov was totally usable, i had visions of having really mash my eye into the eyepiece to see the outer field but not the case at all. It was perfect.

Just a thought but the true field of view in the 13mm Ethos very nearly steps on the toes of the 17mm Nagler. Very little in it. Which could render the 17mm obsolete in your set. Perhaps swap it for a 20mm?

[Stu]

Don't say that, the poor chap has only just bought it from me!!

The 17t4 is a lovely ep, so how about what Alan suggested and go for a 14mm Delos? Much cheaper at £250 ish and you won't get better quality. The eye relief is very comfortable too at 20mm

Stu

[russ]

Don't say that, the poor chap has only just bought it from me!!

The 17t4 is a lovely ep, so how about what Alan suggested and go for a 14mm Delos? Much cheaper at £250 ish and you won't get better quality. The eye relief is very comfortable too at 20mm

Stu

        opps

Definitely the 14mm Delos then. And a bargain at £250. Who needs a 100deg fov anyway, totally overrated.

[Stu]

:-) Funny :-)

Stu

[alan potts]

Russ,

it does not render the 17mm Nagler obsolete, there is such a thing as extra magnification which I agree has more meaning if you are a planetary man, or woman. Lord, most of my eyepieces overlap and if I looked at it your way, not that there is anything wrong with that, I could dump about 50% of my collection, now there's an idea.

Alan.

[russ]

Russ,

it does not render the 17mm Nagler obsolete, there is such a thing as extra magnification which I agree has more meaning if you are a planetary man, or woman. Lord, most of my eyepieces overlap and if I looked at it your way, not that there is anything wrong with that, I could dump about 50% of my collection, now there's an idea.

Alan.

I've never been one for large eyepiece sets, 4 eyepieces is the most i've ever had. So i'm always looking at reason to rationalise, a natural reaction when i saw the two eyepieces was to compare TFOV and see if one could be ditched. Just a habit. I've seen people post that they have a gap in their collection, what should i get to go between 14mm and 18mm?  To me there is no gap. Those focal lengths are too close, no gap exists.

[alan potts]

Russ,

Oddly I only ever head out with one scope at a time and rarely more than 3 eyepieces as I usually know what I am going to view. I think my rather large collection stems from two many good bargains coming up while last in England at once and me with money burning a hole in my pocket.

I guess having a few scopes also makes for problems but your approach makes more sense and would leave the Bank Manager with a smile on his boatrace. My little lot goes 17mm Ethos, 16mm Nagler, 14mm Delos and then 13mm Ethos, then it is wall to wall pocket emptiers right down to 3mm. My only defence is i have plenty of clear nights but I guess that would not wash with many.

Alan.

[Stu]

I've never been one for large eyepiece sets, 4 eyepieces is the most i've ever had. So i'm always looking at reason to rationalise, a natural reaction when i saw the two eyepieces was to compare TFOV and see if one could be ditched. Just a habit. I've seen people post that they have a gap in their collection, what should i get to go between 14mm and 18mm? To me there is no gap. Those focal lengths are too close, no gap exists.

Agreed, but I think there is space between a 10 and a 17, no?

I do like changing ep's to frame the object as best I can and get a good dark background where possible

Stu

[Stu]

Russ,

Oddly I only ever head out with one scope at a time and rarely more than 3 eyepieces as I usually know what I am going to view. I think my rather large collection stems from two many good bargains coming up while last in England at once and me with money burning a hole in my pocket.

I guess having a few scopes also makes for problems but your approach makes more sense and would leave the Bank Manager with a smile on his boatrace. My little lot goes 17mm Ethos, 16mm Nagler, 14mm Delos and then 13mm Ethos, then it is wall to wall pocket emptiers right down to 3mm. My only defence is i have plenty of clear nights but I guess that would not wash with many.

Alan.

I guess my collection comes from similarly having a number of different scopes with quite different focal lengths. Planetary eps in the mak are DSO/widefield in fast refractors!

Stu

[John]

It would be useful to have a sort of counter built into the eyepiece case that registered each time an eyepiece was used. At the end of, say, 6 months you could check out the statistics and use them to rationalise your EP collection

Or, like many of us, you could ignore the data and keep the eyepieces anyway because you have a soft spot for each and every one of them 

There is always room for another nice eyepiece ....... 

[russ]

I guess my collection comes from similarly having a number of different scopes with quite different focal lengths. Planetary eps in the mak are DSO/widefield in fast refractors!

Stu

Russ,

Oddly I only ever head out with one scope at a time and rarely more than 3 eyepieces as I usually know what I am going to view. I think my rather large collection stems from two many good bargains coming up while last in England at once and me with money burning a hole in my pocket.

I guess having a few scopes also makes for problems but your approach makes more sense and would leave the Bank Manager with a smile on his boatrace. My little lot goes 17mm Ethos, 16mm Nagler, 14mm Delos and then 13mm Ethos, then it is wall to wall pocket emptiers right down to 3mm. My only defence is i have plenty of clear nights but I guess that would not wash with many.

Alan.

Perhaps i should have said "only a 4 eyepiece set per scope owned".  That would leave the door open for 20+ eyepieces.       

And i told a little white lie too. Back in 2005 i think i had the best part of 18 eyepieces. The picture is probably still in the "whats in your" thread. But i am reformed now

[Stu]

Might need to learn some lessons from you Russ, given the size of my collection! I will probably need to sell a 'biggy' soon but can't decide which....

Stu

[russ]

Stu, Looking at the eyepieces in your sig i don't think i would want to sell any. And it really is crying out for a 14mm Delos to complete the set.

[DRT]

Some great advice above, thanks all.

My conclusion is that I now need to buy a 13mm Ethos and a 14mm Delos to test the various hypothesis and report back

[Stu]

Stu, Looking at the eyepieces in your sig i don't think i would want to sell any. And it really is crying out for a 14mm Delos to complete the set.

STOP IT!!

That's the kind of thinking that got me where I am today ;-)

I don't want to sell any as it is, might have to in the short term but will replace when funds allow.

Cheers,

Stu

[jetstream]

STOP IT!!

That's the kind of thinking that got me where I am today ;-)

I don't want to sell any as it is, might have to in the short term but will replace when funds allow.

Cheers,

Stu

A bit off topic Stu,but how do you like the 17mmEthos?A favorite of mine...

[Stu]

A bit off topic Stu,but how do you like the 17mmEthos?A favorite of mine...

I bought the 17 and 21 as a pair, thinking I would sell one (the 17) quite quickly but have never been able to let it go. Not sure I could choose between them but I do agree the 17 is fabulous. I probably do use it more out of the two.

I may have to sell one in the near future but know that I will re buy when I get the chance.

Stu

[alan potts]

I like the 4 per scope maths Russ, maybe I just need to buy some more scopes then. I am thinking very seriously about getting rid of some eyepieces that do not get used very much. Apart from anything else it is a way of paying some money into my UK account which after a renew passport at 148 quid is almost empty.

The difficult thing is making my mind up on which to keep, I firmly believe the only place they need to be clustered together is at the short end.

Alan.

[DRT]

After my first experience with my Nagler 17mm I have decided this gap will be plugged with a Televue

[Joves]

Personally, I would choose the higher mag every time if I was getting the same TFOV with two differing EP's. So yep, there is certainly a place for 100 degree AFOV ep's in my book!

That's just me though.

[Charon]

I have only had the opportunity to use my 13mm Ethos once since buying it third hand, it is an amazing piece of kit.  Though conditions were not perfect it still showed me what it will be capable of doing on those clear nights we all grave.

[alan potts]

I find it funny all the talk about gaps in our eyepieces and no one is right or wrong. I have had nights when I consider there is a gap between 6mm and 5mm and at really short F/Ls sometimes I wanted a .25 increase, thank God for the Nagler zoom 3mm-6mm.

At the longer end though I am looking very hard and wondering whether to off load some, the trouble is I can't make up my mind which, maybe I will let you all have a stab at helping me.

Alan