chinese ep's

[spikkyboy]

Hi, I wondered if anybody has experience of the chinese 2" eyepieces that are offered on eBay? 30mm super wide 6 coatings for around £50? could easily be into hundreds for a known make. seems tempting. Any opinions welcomed

[Alfian]

This could be the same one as in this thread:

 

[ronin]

If you can adda link as that makes it easier for others to get possibly a bit more information, the len configuration is one = how many elements in how many groups. Really depends on identifing the source of them in China if possible. Buit common manufacturers are GSO, UO, Barsta, LongPerng, Barride and there are others. Not sure if Intane still do them or if Sharpsatr make any and wher Barska stand.

I would expect GSO, UO and LP asn primary source but there are enough to choose from.

 

[John]

They will work quite well in an F/10 scope or slower (F/12, F/15 etc). In faster scopes (eg: F/6, F/5 etc) they show lots of astigmatism in the outer 50% of the field of view. For £50 ultra wide eyepieces this is not unusual.

[spikkyboy]

thanks for the replies, have ordered and will try and post review asap, be nice to get a cloud free night. Had my CPC 9 days and not a chance to get it out yet!

[spikkyboy]

sorry, in reply to earlier question here is the full link.

http://r.ebay.com/EzsCof

[Louis D]

Here's another user review of these eyepieces.

[Merkhet]

Hello spikkyboy   

 

A word of warning to anyone in the UK.  

In the small print of the ebay advertisement it mentions customs will have to be paid.

I know someone that purchased from China, via ebay,  and had an unexpected bill from the UK Customs for the unpaid duty.

They thought it was a scam at first , but it wasn't .      They had not read the full advert.

The bargain that they had bought was not such a bargain after all.

Check out your own countries import duties before buying.

[John]

Good point above. Unless the duty / VAT is pre-paid, it's only goods from the EU which are exempt from it, currently.

You may well end up having to pay a handling charge as well.

[Louis D]

52 minutes ago, Merkhet said:

Hello spikkyboy   

 

A word of warning to anyone in the UK.  

In the small print of the ebay advertisement it mentions customs will have to be paid.

I know someone that purchased from China, via ebay,  and had an unexpected bill from the UK Customs for the unpaid duty.

They thought it was a scam at first , but it wasn't .      They had not read the full advert.

The bargain that they had bought was not such a bargain after all.

Check out your own countries import duties before buying.

The UK doesn't have an $800 per day per person duty exemption like the US?  Seems like the collections wouldn't even pay for the overhead on small items.  Just the salaries alone would be exhorbitant.

[John]

38 minutes ago, Louis D said:

The UK doesn't have an $800 per day per person duty exemption like the US?  Seems like the collections wouldn't even pay for the overhead on small items.  Just the salaries alone would be exhorbitant.

I think we have discussed this before Louis. The limit in the UK is much, much lower - I believe less than £50 GBP for goods imported from outside the EU, and thats per item not per day.

Different parts of the world have different rules and regulations. The trick is to know what they are and factor them into the calculations before making the buying decisions.

 

[timwetherell]

I had one of these for a few years - the 30mm 80°.

The central 80% of the field was pretty well corrected but there was some softness in the outer 20% in my f7 scope. Set against this, it costs literally 10% of what a 31mm Nagler costs and delivers perhaps 80% of the performance. If you're using a Newtonian with no coma corrector, the outer field will be a bit soft anyway so it's not such an issue. All in all, I'd recommend them if you are budget conscious or have something better to spend the 400 pounds difference on! They also have a big weight advantage over the Nagler! If the cat sitting on your scope will affect the balance, so will the nagler - it's a monster. The Chinese 30mm on the other hand is fairly light.  Like any eyepiece issue, it's horses for courses

 

[ronin]

The VAT payment tends to be a bit hit and miss, especially at the low end of things.  Likely find that HMRC have a fairly practical amount below which they do not bother, simply too much trouble to them for the amount collected. However the people that deliver (PO, Parcel Force) it may have a lesser limit as they will charge the VAT but to cover costs will also add on an administration charge to cover their trouble, and I would guess make a little profit.

I think HMRC can only charge the VAT and not add in an administration charge so what they collect has to be high enough to be worth the trouble to them, the group that "delivers" it however can and so may. So it is as said somewhat of a lottery as to whether you get charged or not. You will not know until it arrives.

[John]

40 minutes ago, timwetherell said:

I had one of these for a few years - the 30mm 80°.

The central 80% of the field was pretty well corrected but there was some softness in the outer 20% in my f7 scope. Set against this, it costs literally 10% of what a 31mm Nagler costs and delivers perhaps 80% of the performance. If you're using a Newtonian with no coma corrector, the outer field will be a bit soft anyway so it's not such an issue. All in all, I'd recommend them if you are budget conscious or have something better to spend the 400 pounds difference on! They also have a big weight advantage over the Nagler! If the cat sitting on your scope will affect the balance, so will the nagler - it's a monster. The Chinese 30mm on the other hand is fairly light.  Like any eyepiece issue, it's horses for courses

 

I had the original Japanses version - the Kokusai Khoki Widescan III. It was a very nice eyepiece when I had F/10 scopes but when I tried it in my F/6.5 Vixen ED refractor the outer 20% of the field was very distorted to my eye. It looked a bit like water disappearing down a plug hole !

The chinese cloned the KK design and it came out under a number of brandings including Moonfish, University Optics and the US Owl Astronomy products, which is reviewed here:

https://www.cloudynights.com/articles/cat/user-reviews/eyepieces/eyepieces-14mm-55mm/owl-astronomy-products-30mm-ultrawide-eyepiece-r2235

 

 

[Louis D]

One of the biggest issues with the 30mm 80 degree eyepiece is that it has field curvature making the outer field look even worse than it does at best focus.  As others have said, it's pretty decent in the middle with lots of outer field for context.  If you can pick one up used for $50 to $70, it's a good deal.

[Louis D]

4 hours ago, John said:

I think we have discussed this before Louis. The limit in the UK is much, much lower - I believe less than £50 GBP for goods imported from outside the EU, and thats per item not per day.

Different parts of the world have different rules and regulations. The trick is to know what they are and factor them into the calculations before making the buying decisions.

 

Yes, but in a different thread entirely.  I also can't believe European countries charge VAT on imported items.  No states in the US collect sales tax on imports.  The original idea is that the local tax helps pay for infrastructure like local roads and utilities enabling brick and mortar commerce.  Imports and interstate commerce mostly use ports, airports, and interstate roads paid for by other use taxes, so sales tax isn't collected for the most part on them.