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13mm Ethos.

ollypenrice

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Scott

Scott

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great report on one of the best eps ever made?....love mine on many objects and its faultless IMHO.

Is that the one you had down hersty Calvin?. the one that made me fall forward..the one that almost made me go back to visual? .....Almost :D

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John

John

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Quite cost effective flushing other people's cash away :D

But it's not a waste. Buy it used, try it and then sell it if it's not for you at little or no loss. For just a few quid you get to try one of the finest eyepieces around  :grin:

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alan potts

alan potts

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Olly,

A very well witten and interesting report, I got the impression the other day reading something that you used to be an English Teacher, the one guy at my school I should have taken more notice of, if that is correct you can tell in the way you have constructed this, I like the style, almost as good as the Ethos.

Alan

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michael.h.f.wilkinson

michael.h.f.wilkinson

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Mmmm!

14" glass sounds good.

But,

I wonder if eyepieces, with all the various makes, designs and touchy feely attraction, are becoming a bit of an obsession these days.

There are so many threads where eyepieces are discussed, mulled over, and categorised, it starts to get very confusing, especially for

novices. I think like many other products in this modern age, a lot of the hype is sales oriented.

I am not an expert by any means, and I'm aware that many guys on the forum would fit the expert category.

However, when I see images of some Eyepiece collections, I have to suppose there could be some one upmanship going on.

They look damned pretty for sure, but are they all needed, and are the differences in performance justifiable, considering the cost of them?.

EP discussions can be tedious, and I have often stated that EPs are for looking through, not at (it does of course give us something to do when the skies are cloudy).  The length of some threads reflects the luxury problem we have, i.e. that of choice. When I started out you could get Huygens, Ramsden, Kellner, symmetric, Plossl, orthoscopics, and Erfle EPs (and some rare beasts like Brandons, Konig etc). The Nagler did not exist. Scopes were also generally slow (F/8 and slower, as a rule), so these EPs performed quite well. Even when I got my C8, choice was quite limited, although the Nagler was available (for astronomical prices over here). As scopes (fracs in particular, but the popularity of Dobsonians also had a huge impact) became much faster, we started to need better EP designs. The Erfle wide-field design was simply outclassed by later super-wide angle and ultra-wide angle designs on scopes around F/5. I have two Erfle design EPs (a 22 with cross-hairs and an Antares 25mm). In my C8 their performance at the edges is not bad at all, but in the F/5 finder scope astigmatism is really visible (not a huge problem in a finder). My 24mm MaxVision is simply miles ahead of that.

Another thing driving this is that scopes have never been cheaper. Prices have dropped massively since I started, even without taking inflation into account. This means there is a larger market, meaning more players can enter, which in turn causes fiercer competition, which drives innovation. This increased choice means more discussion on panels like this to help people in the complex choices they face. Where discussion like this cannot help is deciding whether the increment in quality is worth the additional money. That is a decision each of us makes individually.

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ollypenrice

ollypenrice

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I deliberately made my review subjective and impressionistic in order to get away from the long drawn out minutiae of EP scrutiny. For me it is dead simple: the 13 Ethos gives the widest, sharpest and most contrasty views I've ever enjoyed and it really is overwhelmingly better than a basic EP. It is also supernaturally 'invisible,' something I didn't mention. That's as technical as I want to get. What really matters is that the view through this EP is thrilling. That's the important bit.  :hello2:  :blob5: 

:grin: lly

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michael.h.f.wilkinson

michael.h.f.wilkinson

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I deliberately made my review subjective and impressionistic in order to get away from the long drawn out minutiae of EP scrutiny. For me it is dead simple: the 13 Ethos gives the widest, sharpest and most contrasty views I've ever enjoyed and it really is overwhelmingly better than a basic EP. It is also supernaturally 'invisible,' something I didn't mention. That's as technical as I want to get. What really matters is that the view through this EP is thrilling. That's the important bit.  :hello2:  :blob5: 

:grin: lly

Great way of describing optics. Really good EPs (or optics in general) can give thrilling views that cannot be explained in a technical way. I remember switching from a Yashica 135/2.8 lens to a Carl Zeiss Sonnar 135/2.8 lens. The Yashica was very nice indeed, and produced lovely photographs, but the Zeiss was (is) awesome. When I projected a slide  taken with the Zeiss showing a waterfall in Wales, you felt your hands would get wet if you reached out into the image. It gave a sense of depth, a sense of being there rather than looking at a photograph that the Yashica never quite managed. That is what great EPs also do. The ultra-wide field helps you to forget about the scope's presence. My first view through the Meade UWA 14mm gave such a jaw-dropping experience. With the whole of the moon fitting in the FOV easily at 145x, I realised this was like the image the astronauts would have seen when they were 2600 km from the moon. A real space-walk experience.

That does not mean you cannot have jaw-dropping experiences with cheaper kit. My first view of Saturn was every bit as stunning, despite using a 70mm achromat with Huygens EP.

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ollypenrice

ollypenrice

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Aha, now the lack of a visible field stop in normal use may well explain the 'invisible' feeling this EP gives. I hadn't thought of that. I'd put it down to coatings, which may help, but, yes, there is nothing to say you're looking through a scope.

Olly

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Psychobilly

Psychobilly

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The problem with optics is that wringing out the extra few % performance comes at a price...

It's down to personal preference if you want to pay for it and can appreciate it...

I guess if truth be told most of us would be prepared to pay the premium if money were no object....

Peter...

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Stu

Stu

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Nice review Olly! I totally agree about the eyepiece being 'invisible'. With these eps, the field is so wide you forget the eyepiece is there! No matter if you can't see the field stop all the time, that makes it all the more immersive.

My highly technical reason for buying Televue is 'I like them and enjoy using them!' Everything from the design and feel, the colour scheme and, of course, the views. I know I could get similar views with others for lower cost, but with TV I know I have the best and it avoids being wracked with indecision all the time! As has been said, eyepieces are to look through, if you forget they are there, then they are doing a great job!

Stu

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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ollypenrice

ollypenrice

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Personally, I think they're also pretty nice to look at as well, but perhaps I'm just weird like that! :)

I think I'm the oddball since I don't care two hoots about marked barrels etc and I discard brass compression rings from most focusers because they distort, tangle and, once, caused an EP to snag then hit the ground.

(I do care about that!!)

Olly

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michael.h.f.wilkinson

michael.h.f.wilkinson

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Nice review Olly! I totally agree about the eyepiece being 'invisible'. With these eps, the field is so wide you forget the eyepiece is there! No matter if you can't see the field stop all the time, that makes it all the more immersive.

My highly technical reason for buying Televue is 'I like them and enjoy using them!' Everything from the design and feel, the colour scheme and, of course, the views. I know I could get similar views with others for lower cost, but with TV I know I have the best and it avoids being wracked with indecision all the time! As has been said, eyepieces are to look through, if you forget they are there, then they are doing a great job!

Stu

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Couldn't I tempt you with a Pentax :D

Zeiss also does some passable EPs, as do Leica and Nikon (OK, none of them are cheap options)

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michael.h.f.wilkinson

michael.h.f.wilkinson

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I think I'm the oddball since I don't care two hoots about marked barrels etc and I discard brass compression rings from most focusers because they distort, tangle and, once, caused an EP to snag then hit the ground.

(I do care about that!!)

Olly

Totally agree, hence my mantra: Eyepieces are for looking through, not at

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Stu

Stu

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Couldn't I tempt you with a Pentax :D

Zeiss also does some passable EPs, as do Leica and Nikon (OK, none of them are cheap options)

You certainly could Michael! I really liked my 5 & 7 XWs, which were only sold to help the Vixen purchase, and which will hopefully be replaced by a Leica ASPH 8.9 to 17.8mm zoom :-)

Stu

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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michael.h.f.wilkinson

michael.h.f.wilkinson

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You certainly could Michael! I really liked my 5 & 7 XWs, which were only sold to help the Vixen purchase, and which will hopefully be replaced by a Leica ASPH 8.9 to 17.8mm zoom :-)

Stu

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

The Leica is tempting, as is an XW 5mm that is on ABS-UK at the moment

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