Askar ACL 200mm f/4 APO Camera Lens...Any good?

[callisto]

Hi Guys,

As the title says, are there many members on here who use this Lens and are the results good?

I've been pondering on buying this (along with many other things) 😄  for a while...I would be using it with modded 1100D and I also have a cooled mono cam.

Thanks in advance,

Mark

[Space Oddities]

From what I've read, it seems to be a heavy, but very good lens. This topic on CN shows how sharp it is on a full frame sensor, so no doubt it will perform very well on an APS-C one!

@Uranium235  also might have some interesting insights to share as well, on top of what he already shared below!  

 

 

[callisto]

11 minutes ago, Space Oddities said:

From what I've read, it seems to be a heavy, but very good lens. This topic on CN shows how sharp it is on a full frame sensor, so no doubt it will perform very well on an APS-C one!

@Uranium235  also might have some interesting insights to share as well, on top of what he already shared below!  

 

 

Cheers, thanks for that 👍

 

Mark

[MartinB]

The design looks superb, especially the fine focuser, also the 2" filter adapter is great for OSC cameras.  I use a Canon L 200mm F2.8 but I would seriously consider this lens as an alternative.  The Canon doesn't give a flat field on an APS chip.

[callisto]

3 hours ago, MartinB said:

The design looks superb, especially the fine focuser, also the 2" filter adapter is great for OSC cameras.  I use a Canon L 200mm F2.8 but I would seriously consider this lens as an alternative.  The Canon doesn't give a flat field on an APS chip.

Thanks Martin,

Apart from the weight and price I'm torn between this Lens and the FMA180 🤔

 

Mark

[Adam J]

10 minutes ago, callisto said:

Thanks Martin,

Apart from the weight and price I'm torn between this Lens and the FMA180 🤔

 

Mark

Have you seen the FMA180 thread? I would say that the ACL200 is a little faster and better corrected. But the correction is solved by using a Astronomik L-3. The FMA180 is better value for money by a significant margin. Bit the ACL200 is better no doubt. 

Edited March 13, 2021 by Adam J

[callisto]

7 minutes ago, Adam J said:

Have you seen the FMA180 thread? I would say that the ACL200 is a little faster and better corrected. But the correction is solved by using a Astronomik L-3. The FMA180 is better value for money by a significant margin. Bit the ACL200 is better no doubt. 

Thanks Adam,

Yeah I've seen the thread for the FMA180 and some videos....I don't know?

I'm going from one to the other and back again 

[PadrePeace]

I have the FMA180. Looking at some of the brightest stars in ACL200 images on Astrobin the halos seem to get further off centre the further out the bright stars are from the centre of the image.  This is not the case for the FMA180 and halos can be dealt with in post processing or, as AdamJ said, get the Astronomic L3 filter which does the cleaning up for you. 
One of my canon 650D modified images with the FMA180. 

Edited March 13, 2021 by PadrePeace

[callisto]

9 minutes ago, PadrePeace said:

I have the FMA180. Looking at some of the brightest stars in ACL200 images on Astrobin the halos seem to get further off centre the further out the bright stars are from the centre of the image.  This is not the case for the FMA180 and halos can be dealt with in post processing or, as AdamJ said, get the Astronomic L3 filter which does the cleaning up for you. 
One of my canon 650D modified images with the FMA180. 

Done!....I'll take that....The FMA180 it is then 

Thanks everyone for their views,

Mark

[callisto]

Well...that didn't work out as planned...just pressed the buy button for the ACL200 🤪  (a few glasses of spiced rum might have helped)

I'm sure it will perform well 😁 

I'll let everyone know how I get on with it,

 

Mark

Edited March 13, 2021 by callisto
change wording

[PadrePeace]

Funny how that happens. You are the only one that has to be happy with the outcome so glad to help. Guess the extra F stops will be good for daytime shots as well. 

[Adam J]

7 hours ago, PadrePeace said:

I have the FMA180. Looking at some of the brightest stars in ACL200 images on Astrobin the halos seem to get further off centre the further out the bright stars are from the centre of the image.  

 

It's most likely because they are reflections between the two inch filter and the rear most optical element of the ACL200. As opposed to filter reflections from the sensor. You tend to get that effect then a curved surface is involved. The filter on the FMA180 is infront of the objective so you will never see this effect as reflected light from the filter is sent back up into space. However when using the FMA with a filter wheel and mono camera I have seen this effect. But it's only on very bright stars to I am not bothered by it. 

Edited March 13, 2021 by Adam J

[PadrePeace]

I thought the very same AdamJ but of the images I looked at on Astrobin no filters were declared as being used. 

[Erquy]

Hi,

 

I am quite happy for this little affordable lens. Below my first light, NGC7822 with SX694 mono. 2 hrs each SHO (10 min subs). Processed in pixisnght (stars have been reduced). Well corrected for this chip size, fast. One need to pay attention to get right focuse. Very well built lens. I did a quick test on RGB and it looks also good in RGB. Will try on APS-C later on. 

 

David