Bresser SA Barlow or ES focal extender... or powermate.

[sheeprug]

Hi All,

Apologies for yet another barlow thread, but has anybody got any experiences to share with the Bresser SA barlows?  Also, are there any UK suppliers for the ES focal extender,s which I gather are well thought of?      

I hate buying things twice, so I'm sort of tempted towards a 2.5x Powermate, but that's a lot of extra budget if the alternatives do a good job.  My other lenses are ES 24,11,6,7.

SR

[Dave In Vermont]

You may find this thread enlightening:

http://stargazerslounge.com/topic/186159-bresser-sa-4-element-barlow/

Checking prices on the web, I'm finding the TeleVue 2X only about £10 more than the Bresser 2X. The quality of the TeleVue is beyond repute. As for the PowerMate, that is another bunch more £'s.

Clear Skies & Optics,

Dave

[sheeprug]

You may find this thread enlightening:

http://stargazerslounge.com/topic/186159-bresser-sa-4-element-barlow/

Checking prices on the web, I'm finding the TeleVue 2X only about £10 more than the Bresser 2X. The quality of the TeleVue is beyond repute. As for the PowerMate, that is another bunch more £'s.

Clear Skies & Optics,

Dave

Thanks Dave, 

Interesting thread.  

As I read it though, the Bresser  SA and the ES focal extender operate on similar principles to the Powermate and so are not simple barlows.  So i'm sort of looking at them as Powermates on the cheap.

So if they work well then why spend more - though i do admit that were money no object TV throughout would be nice.

Peter 

[Piero]

The Bresser SA is a tele-extender although wrongly called Barlow. It has four lenses and works very well. 

It is a solid piece of equipment. The only slightly weak part is the screw possibly, but this might be only my opinion.

If you plan using it with a Newton, I believe a TV Barlow 2x works very nice too and possibly it is a bit better.

[John]

I've used an Explore Scientific 1.25" 2x Focal Extender and a Meade 2" 2x TeleXtender. They do work very much like the Powermates and maintain very good quality images without impacting the focal position or vignetting wide field eyepieces, as barlows can do.

Personally I do tend to go Tele Vue (currently a 2" 2x Powermate) but you won't be missing much if you went for an ES FE or Meade TeleXtender. I can't speak for the Bresser incarnations as I've not tried them.