Praise for Vixen's SLV's

[Timebandit]

23 hours ago, F15Rules said:

I recall similar inflated used prices for Baader Genuine orthos when they were discontinued here as well. That silliness passed quite quickly, and hopefully the same will happen with the LVWs..

Dave

 

11 hours ago, Louis D said:

So far, used prices for the discontinued Pentax XW 30mm and 40mm eyepieces haven't come down.  Neither have used prices for Zeiss ZAOs, AP SPLs and TMB monocentrics come down.

 

Hopefully the used LVW price will not come down. As it's always nice to have an eyepiece in the case that is not only good to use , but also a canny investment.                              Who needs to invest in gold when investment eyepieces are so much more fun and practical to use and give you so much more enjoyment??

 

[25585]

I shall be keeping my XW, LVWs & Nikon SW for sure! 

Tele Vue is a mixed bag. Earlier Naglers, Radians have been superceded & there are better other makes for the same FL. 

[John]

The 2nd run Radian is still a very good eyepiece IMHO. The margin by which it is improved upon by more recent models is slight I reckon so for £100 or so they are an excellent used buy.

Not sure which other 82 degree eyepiece has surpassed the current Nagler lines in terms of performance ?

The XW's caught Tele Vue napping I agree and it took them (TV) quite a while to meet them head on with the Delos line.

Mind you, we could have such discussions interminably and not reach a definative conclusion

 

 

 

[John]

1 minute ago, John said:

The 2nd run Radian is still a very good eyepiece IMHO. The margin by which it is improved upon by more recent models is slight I reckon so for £100 or so they are an excellent used buy.

Not sure which other 82 degree eyepiece has surpassed the current Nagler lines in terms of performance ?

The XW's caught Tele Vue napping I agree and it took them (TV) quite a while to meet them head on with the Delos line.

Mind you, we could have such discussions interminably and not reach a definative conclusion

 

 

 

 

 

[25585]

John were the XW eps initially made for spotting scopes, following the XF & XL ranges?

If so TV which is astronomy focused, might not have realised Pentax was serious competition. Also perhaps Japanese eye pieces in the US did not seem a threat - unless Meade or Celestron badged. 

I remember when LV eps first came to the UK. The eye relief I had only had in long fl eps such as Erfles, was there in any fl, and at a much more affordable (1 per month) price. Not such a need for Barlows any more. 

Radians from TV, were/are the response I guess. Were they designed on an existing TV ep at the time, or completely new? I decided to try 2 out, a 10 & 5 which I still own. Optically there is not much difference between those and my 10 & 5 LV eps. 

Tempted to get a 5mm XW one day, as a companion to my 10, not many pre-owned for sale at present. 

[John]

5 minutes ago, 25585 said:

John were the XW eps initially made for spotting scopes, following the XF & XL ranges?

If so TV which is astronomy focused, might not have realised Pentax was serious competition. Also perhaps Japanese eye pieces in the US did not seem a threat - unless Meade or Celestron badged....

 

I think there is something in that. Until relatively recently Pentax were not advertised as astro eyepieces - you only saw them advertised in birding / wildlife magazines.

I believe the Radians were introduced in 1998 and the XW's in 2003. The XW's superceded the Pentax XL's and built on their well established reputation as spotting scope eyepieces.

Steve at FLO was the first person who bought my attention to Pentax XW's as quality astronomy eyepieces and he loaned me a 10mm XW to compare with the Nagler T6 9mm that I had at the time. The T6 was a very good eyepiece but I had to admit that the 10mm XW was a touch better in a couple of areas. Slippery slope that has turned out to be

I wish Ricoh (who now own Pentax I believe) showed more interest in the astronomy market

[Ricochet]

41 minutes ago, 25585 said:

were the XW eps initially made for spotting scopes, following the XF & XL ranges?

A sentence in the second paragraph below will be of interest, although it seems a bit contradictory to me. I do wonder if the half of the sentence after the comma is supposed to refer to the xf zoom. Perhaps the original Japanese is clearer to anyone who can read it. 

[John]

2 hours ago, Ricochet said:

A sentence in the second paragraph below will be of interest, although it seems a bit contradictory to me. I do wonder if the half of the sentence after the comma is supposed to refer to the xf zoom. Perhaps the original Japanese is clearer to anyone who can read it. 

But when does that date from ?

 

[Louis D]

15 hours ago, 25585 said:

Tele Vue is a mixed bag. Earlier Naglers, Radians have been superceded & there are better other makes for the same FL. 

 

5 hours ago, John said:

Not sure which other 82 degree eyepiece has surpassed the current Nagler lines in terms of performance ?

The earlier T1 and T2 Naglers were superceded by the more recent T4, T5, and T6 Naglers is what I believe 25585 is trying to say.  The Radians have been superceded by the DeLites.

[Ricochet]

6 hours ago, John said:

But when does that date from ?

 

Based on the model it must be pre-2007, but I can't be any more accurate as there don't appear to be any dates printed on the manual.

[25585]

7 hours ago, Louis D said:

 

The earlier T1 and T2 Naglers were superceded by the more recent T4, T5, and T6 Naglers is what I believe 25585 is trying to say.  The Radians have been superceded by the DeLites.

Correct  That XW eps are Nitrogen filled & waterproof, indicates they are for more testing enviroment than usual astronomical ones. This I guess has been copied by ES with their Argon eps, which also makes spotting scopes. 

As TV smaller refractors are good spotters also, maybe they will follow suite with a range of their eps, hopefully competitively priced. 

[Louis D]

2 hours ago, 25585 said:

Correct  That XW eps are Nitrogen filled & waterproof, indicates they are for more testing enviroment than usual astronomical ones. This I guess has been copied by ES with their Argon eps, which also makes spotting scopes. 

As TV smaller refractors are good spotters also, maybe they will follow suite with a range of their eps, hopefully competitively priced. 

But none of their refractors are sealed, so that would have to be a first step.  It's certainly a much larger market than the astronomy market.

[John]

Pentax XW's are JIS Class 4 dew / light shower proof but I don't think they are nitrogen purged.

I often wondered if gas purging of astro eyepieces was a bit of a sales gimmick 

One slightly unusual feature that the XW's do have are special coatings on the cemented surfaces of the lenses as well as the multi-coatings on the glass-air surfaces.

 

 

 

[25585]

Switching to zooms, how does the Vixen LV match up against Pentax XL & Baader?

Pentax XL range has a good reputation, which must have helped XW sales.