Meade 4000 8-24 Zoom... any opinions

[Fozzie]

Afternoon all,

As title really, anybody had any experiences?

I'm predominantly looking at it for my F6 72mm ED travel GnG scope, probably mostly white light work in the HW.

Any other options in the Sub £100 category.. I've seen one for £60 new and i'm tempted.

Thanks

Fozzie

[Highburymark]

As a zoom fan I've often wondered how good this eyepiece is. When I bought my ETX - maybe 15 years ago - it was incredibly expensive. Maybe the current model is inferior - after all, Meade has gone through some pretty drastic changes since then. But the reviews look good - and at £60 you can't go wrong.

[Fozzie]

I've seen a review from "chuckhawks" website that put it nearly on a par with the tv and vixen zooms.. Both expensive bits of kits... visually it looks the same as the one in the review..

It's odd though celestron do a 8-24 mm and it's nearly £220, around the price which the meade first came out at, which kind of puts it in the "might as well get a pentax" bracket.. mostly the meade us retailing around £75...

Might just take the punt on it..

Thanks for the response

Fozzie 

[Highburymark]

Fozzie, an old notebook I kept when I bought my ETX say it was as expensive as £295 at one UK store. Even though Meade scopes have had a few quality issues since then, their eyepieces are still excellent - I would go for it - and I bet it's great for solar.

[John]

I believe the performance of the Meade 8-24 zoom is somewhere between the Celestron / Skywatcher / Seben 8-24's (they are all clones) and the Baader Hyperion 8-24 zoom.

If it was ever sold at £295 it was way overpriced !

 

[Dave In Vermont]

On 2/8/2016 at 17:20, Fozzie said:

 

It's odd though celestron do a 8-24 mm and it's nearly £220, around the price which the meade first came out at, which kind of puts it in the "might as well get a pentax" bracket.. mostly the meade us retailing around £75...

............................

Fozzie 

The Celestron is £220?? Oh my! Take a look here:

http://agenaastro.com/celestron-8-24mm-zoom-eyepiece.html

I've heard of a 'mark-up' before. But that's beyond the pale.

Dave

[Fozzie]

John, Dave just to prove I'm not going mad 

https://grovers.biz/optics/eyepieces/260-celestron-deluxe-zoom-eyepiece-8-24mm.html

Although I'm not sure exactly what the deluxe adds to the EP.. seen this in a few online offerings..

I'm assuming it's very different to the standard 8-24mm clones on the market and maybe optimistically hopeful the meade, as it was priced once in this bracket, was a great bargain! (If it's the same ep as a few years back)

Heyho, could still be useful for gng! 

Ta

Fozzie 

[Dave In Vermont]

Didn't think you'd gone mad. I thought this shop had! Looks like the only difference is the a minor increase, to 66°, in the FOV at 8mm. Perhaps by the addition of a new lens element? Don't know - never seen this over here. But...

Before I'd consider £219 for this (untested) Celestron offering, I'd toss another £20 on it and get this:

http://www.tringastro.co.uk/baader-hyperion-clickstop-8-24x-zoom-and-225x-barlow-1158-p.asp

Now that is a very good piece-of-glass! I have one, and love it. The Vixen LV is also great for a grab & go zoom EP.

Have fun -

Dave

[Fozzie]

So if i'm reading this right the Celestron Deluxe Zoom is probably an attempt at taking some of the Hyperion III zooms market.  (The Hyperion Zoom I know is highly regarded)

Where as the Meade 4000 zoom, is probably a stable mate of the lesser 8-24mm zoom offerings that come in many different badges.  Interestingly I've read reasonable reports about the seban 8-24mm zoom as being surprisingly good..

One thing that has put me off the Hyperion is the stated 12mm eye relief at 8mm, not a major issue but id like just a tad more, which (although lesser FoV) the lesser 8-24mm zooms potentially give.. the hyperions come up around £130 SH quite often.. So maybe £60 is not a bad "give it a go, see how you get on price"

Thanks for the thoughts Dave, appreciate the comments..

thanks

Fozzie

[alan potts]

I have never had my hands on one but I do remember reading a decent write up in Sky at Night where I believe it was against a few others and came out on top. As for the price, I believe all Meade stuff it overpriced speaking from having bought quite a lot of it.

 

Alan

[Fozzie]

1 hour ago, alan potts said:

I have never had my hands on one but I do remember reading a decent write up in Sky at Night where I believe it was against a few others and came out on top. As for the price, I believe all Meade stuff it overpriced speaking from having bought quite a lot of it.

 

Alan

Thanks Alan,

I've seen a sky at night badge on one website proclaiming 93% score for the Meade...  I think Everybody should have one based on that score!

Might keep sitting on the fence with this one........

Thanks

Fozzie

[John]

Here's my 1d worth:

- The Celestron Deluxe Zoom is basically the same as the Baader Hyperion zoom but in different clothes in the same way that the Celestron Duo Eyepieces are the same as Hyperions. The difference being that it's been decided that the Celestron branding is worth a few more £'s than Baader.

Do I know this for sure ? - no but I've been around the eyepiece scene long enough to see the sort of things that go on !

I'd take the Sky @ Night test results with a little pinch of salt to be honest .....

IMHO the only zoom's to compete in terms of optical performance with decent fixed focal length eyepieces are not branded Celestron, Skywatcher, Baader or Meade. They are Leica, Tele Vue (the Nagler zooms) and the high end Pentax zoom, the XL. The Baader gets quite close though.

 

 

 

[F15Rules]

John nailed it here I think.

The Baader Zoom is very good - maybe the best value/price ratio of all - and comes with decent quality "extras" eg 2" and 1.25" nospieces, useful threads for adapters, storage pouch and a general air of quality. For me, I'd take Baader branding versus modern day Celestron as being representative of high quality any time.

On a side note I've been intrigued to see the very well regarded Pentax SMC 8-24mm being offered by FLO at £299..having been priced at over £400 by them and others in the past year, that is great value, offering not-far-off Pentax XF quality for not much more than the cost of a single XF eyepiece. I wonder if it's being discontinued?

Hold the plastic that man!! :-)

Dave

[YKSE]

Dave,

My understanding is that Pentax 8-24 zoom is called XL zoom too, i.e. it's pre XW. Not many reviews on this zoom in astro sites, I'd like to think that you can more review or comments in birder's forum.

[Highburymark]

The XF is the inferior Pentax zoom (6.5mm-19.5mm). But it's superb for ha solar. The other Pentax by comparison (sometimes referred to as XL and other times XW) - is a class act. And a bargain at £299. Normally it's between £350 and £400. 

[F15Rules]

Yong,

Yes that's right, the 'XL" has been around for years. Some users claim it rivals its XW brother fixed EPs, and others say it absolutely does not. I suspect it partly depends on the scope used and other factors such as age and local sky conditions. I haven't used one but did own a Leica Vario ( pre- Aspheric) which was an excellent ep, said to match the Aspheric in all but the latter's uber-wide field of view. But any high end fixed eyepiece should have the edge on most complex zooms in the best conditions, I should think.

I think zooms other great features are the flexibility of dialling in to the magnification "sweet spot" on a given night, and the sheer simplicity of not having umpteen eyepieces to switch between, all the end caps to match up at the end of a session, loads of kit to put away when all you want is sleep, etc.. Just a zoom and a nice wide field 2" 30mm or so and you're covered!:-). Oh dear, that plastic is really itching now!!

Mark, I did have an XF zoom and hated it, just awful CA, great globs of it! (Night sky viewing). But I've often read also that it is excellent on solar too. Strange..

 

Dave

[YKSE]

4 hours ago, F15Rules said:

I think zooms other great features are the flexibility of dialling in to the magnification "sweet spot" on a given night, and the sheer simplicity of not having umpteen eyepieces to switch between, all the end caps to match up at the end of a session, loads of kit to put away when all you want is sleep, etc.. Just a zoom and a nice wide field 2" 30mm or so and you're covered!:-).

Dave

I can surely write under it as a Zoom junky with 2 zooms. Had I started with a zoom, I might have more zooms for binoviewer too

[moriniboy]

I preferred my Meade 4000 zoom to my Baader Hyperion zoom and ended up selling the latter.

To my eyes the stars towards the edge of the FOV were cleaner, it was an easy decision to make.

Mine came free with a scope purchase, I must admit that I would not have considered the Meade had I needed to buy a new zoom ep as the Baader always gets consistently great reviews.

Strange how things work out?

[Highburymark]

all we need to do now is establish whether the excellent Meade zoom that moriniboy has is the same as I saw advertised 15 years ago for £295, and the same as Fozzie is considering.....and SGL will have done its job.

[moriniboy]

If its any help, the scope it came with (a TV Ranger) was bought in Jan 2004

[LDW1]

That EP provides excellent views vs the price as confirmed by the one that I purchased a couple of years ago. Here in North  America it is rated at the top, by many experienced observers, for zoom EP's in that price range. The FOV is rather narrow but so are the rest but for a quick viewing session especially of the moon, some planets and brighter DSO 's you won't regret it !

[Dave In Vermont]

Just to drag the Celestron Deluxe 8 - 24mm back from the grave, I've been working with a fellow from Agena in Los Angeles, California. I tossed the high-priced Celestron zoom off him, and he went into their stock/inventory computer. And what he found was that this high-priced zoom HAD been available a year or two ago. I guess they didn't sell, so they were taken off the market by Celestron. His guess was that some shop over here is trying to clear old stock from this discontinued product.

This doesn't bode well for support for this beast.

That Meade looks like my Vixen LV 8 - 24mm. Vixen adds a lanthanum - glass element though. Helps for a sharp FOV across I've found. And may well account for it's high price of $199 over here in Podunk.

Dave

[Fozzie]

1 hour ago, Dave In Vermont said:

Just to drag the Celestron Deluxe 8 - 24mm back from the grave, I've been working with a fellow from Agena in Los Angeles, California. I tossed the high-priced Celestron zoom off him, and he went into their stock/inventory computer. And what he found was that this high-priced zoom HAD been available a year or two ago. I guess they didn't sell, so they were taken off the market by Celestron. His guess was that some shop over here is trying to clear old stock from this discontinued product.

This doesn't bode well for support for this beast.

That Meade looks like my Vixen LV 8 - 24mm. Vixen adds a lanthanum - glass element though. Helps for a sharp FOV across I've found. And may well account for it's high price of $199 over here in Podunk.

Dave

Thanks Dave for following up the Deluxe Zoom with Agena, interesting to see it's been discontinued.. Ive seen it in 6 or so shops over here, all at a similar price point.

From the reviews I had read, I was hoping that the Meade was the same stable mate as the Vixen LV, which (I think) is the same as the TV zoom.. this might be worth a go, if it's still available, for a princely sum of £60, when the vixen and TV zooms go for over 100... might ask some questions to the seller.

@moriniboy I intend to use it as solar WL GnG in a F6 ED frac... would you have any thoughts as to suitability.. probably between 10 - 15mm range mostly..?

Thanks

Fozzie

[Dave In Vermont]

TeleVue was called out for selling a 8 - 24mm zoom several years ago. It was the Vixen LV zoom. TeleVue had re-branded to same item and jacked-up the price accordingly. To defend itself, TV stated they picked the 'cream of the crop' at the factory. Not many believed them - seems it was the one occasion when TV lost all credibilty.

TeleVue® removed them from the market forthwith.

Dave (in Historian-garb)

[Fozzie]

I think I've seen that before...

Interestingly though, just spotted this, the meade may have gone through a DNA change at some point..

Heres what Meades web site says..

"Offers the ability to change magnifications "on the fly" yet demanding no compromise in performance. The eyepiece’s internal optics move on smooth, precisely machined surfaces which maintain optical collimation at all continuously variable zoom settings. The 6-element 4 group design has 15-18mm of eye relief, and provides an apparent field of view of 40° at 24mm, increasing to an apparent field of view of 60° at the highest power 8mm setting. All lenses are multi-coated for maximum light transmission and image contrast, while minimizing internal reflections."

Where as the vender here states

"Offers the ability to change magnifications "on the fly" yet demanding no compromise in performance. The eyepiece's internal optics move on smooth, precisely machined surfaces which maintain optical collimation at all continuously variable zoom settings. The 7-element design provides an apparent field of view of 40° at 24mm, increasing to an apparent field of view of 50° at the highest power 8mm setting." 

So a different number of elements and a different FoV at the 8mm setting..

Might we be looking at a standard "syntax type offering" dressed the same as the previous, potential LV glass meade..?

ta

Fozzie