Thoughts on svbony eyepiece

[HoneyBadger-231]

Good Evening all,

                                   I prolly should've just made this one topic but oh well. I'm looking at eyepieces for my new scope and came across this svbony 7-21mm adjustable zoom  1.25 inch eyepiece. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07XZ6DY18/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1 I already bought it  (arriving Wednesday) but am curious to know if anyone has any personal experience with this type of eye piece or with the brand as a whole? I've watched every YouTube video and read all the amazon reviews but since the videos were 99% "sponsored" I'm taking them with a grain of salt. Any insights to this from the forum ?

[johninderby]

The Svbony zooms are very good for the money and very popular here on SGL. Perform far better than you would expect for the price. 

[RT65CB-SWL]

Hi @HoneyBadger-231 and welcome to SGL. 

You are not alone, as I too have and use a 7-21mm zoom e/p.

Many tend to opt for an 8-24mm zoom e/p... especially the Baader Hyperion III or IV...
https://www.firstlightoptics.com/baader-planetarium/baader-hyperion-zoom-eyepiece.html

For high power views, I use the TeleVue 3-6mm Nagler zoom. 

[HoneyBadger-231]

4 hours ago, johninderby said:

The Svbony zooms are very good for the money and very popular here on SGL. Perform far better than you would expect for the price. 

Good to hear, thank you 👍💯

 

4 hours ago, Philip R said:

Hi @HoneyBadger-231 and welcome to SGL. 

You are not alone, as I too have and use a 7-21mm zoom e/p.

Many tend to opt for an 8-24mm zoom e/p... especially the Baader Hyperion III or IV...
https://www.firstlightoptics.com/baader-planetarium/baader-hyperion-zoom-eyepiece.html

For high power views, I use the TeleVue 3-6mm Nagler zoom. 

Thank you for the welcome,  everyone here has been great thus far, 

 

The eyepiece you linked is 30 usd less than the cost of my whole scope 🤣. This looks like all of my other hobbies.... expensive 🤑

[Zermelo]

7 hours ago, HoneyBadger-231 said:

The eyepiece you linked is 30 usd less than the cost of my whole scope

and the Nagler is even more

7 hours ago, HoneyBadger-231 said:

This looks like all of my other hobbies.... expensive

it certainly can be. But you can also get impressive results spending less money, if you research it well and buy from trusted sources. Like that Svbony.

 

[Alan64]

The SVBONY zoom is certainly reasonably priced, as the price has shot up for the Celestron and others.

A zoom serves, primarily, as a teaching-tool.  Say, that after a while, you find yourself observing mostly at the 12mm setting of the zoom.  You may then wish to get a dedicated 12mm eyepiece; that sort of thing.

A zoom is also convenient, for impromptu, spur-of-the-moment jaunts outdoors to catch a glimpse of this and that, then to retreat indoors just as quickly.

Zooms are a bit strange, in that the higher powers exhibit the widest view, the widest AFOV.  The 8mm setting of my zoom is at 60°, yet the 24mm setting is at around 40° to 45°.  That suits me perfectly, as I prefer higher powered views.  But others prefer lower powered views.  It all depends upon a user's preference.

The general consensus throughout the online tome is that the quality of the images seen through a zoom are not quite as good as those through dedicated focal-length eyepieces.  But this is to be expected, given the convenience, the ergonomics, of a zoom...

[nfotis]

Quite satisfied with mine 7-21mm SVBONY EP, on a C9.25 and  a Skymax 127/180 pair. It's very usable, and offers quite an ease of use, compared to a tray of pricey EPs.

As I am more into planetary photography, I haven't expanded my EP selection much, but these catadioptric scopes are quite easy on eyepieces.

If you are going to use the zoom EP on a fast scope, you may experience some visual aberrations.

N.F.

[Kimboman]

Hi I also have this eyepiece and for the price that I paid I consider it to be good addition to my other eyepieces. I do use it frequently it is a little stiff but I have got used to it.

[Second Time Around]

I've got the Baader 8-24mm zoom and the Svbony 7-21mm.   The Baader is markedly better.  However, the Baader is about 4x the price, but it's not 4x better!

The Baader is the best medium power zoom I can find (at the moment) that accepts a Dioptrx.  The Svbony 7-21 does as well if you remove the stuck on eyecup.

In head to head tests I did, the Svbony on Saturn was as good as the Baader on axis (praise indeed), but not as good off axis.

However, on prominences the Svbony was left totally standing by the Baader.  The problem seems to be poorer contrast.

Neither are parfocal to my aging eyes.  The Svbony also has a smaller field of view.  However, it's both lighter and slimmer, the latter attribute useful for binoviewing.  It's also of course very well-priced, that makes it good for outreach.

So for me the Sybony is a keeper.  In fact, I recently bought another to make a binoviewing pair.

[doublevodka]

I've got a few bits of svbony kit now and they are all cheap and cheerful but useful bits of kit

Yes they don't directly compete with the higher priced stuff, but for those of us on a budget they can be a great addition to your setup

I've recently picked up the 10-30mm zoom and it's been quite useful for Jupiter and Saturn but as @Alan64 said it's more an exercise in finding the focal lengths I really like, although it's also been quite useful when the seeing conditions are quite variable as you can just dial down the amount a zoom a little to suit or up when it improves

[Louis D]

23 hours ago, Second Time Around said:

The Baader is the best medium power zoom I can find (at the moment) that accepts a Dioptrx.

How do you deal with the fact that the BHZ top rotates as it is zoomed?  Doesn't this require reorienting the Dioptrx after each zoom?  The rotating top of the BHZ is what keeps it from being used in binoviewers with batwing eyeguards.

[Second Time Around]

45 minutes ago, Louis D said:

How do you deal with the fact that the BHZ top rotates as it is zoomed?  Doesn't this require reorienting the Dioptrx after each zoom?  The rotating top of the BHZ is what keeps it from being used in binoviewers with batwing eyeguards.

It takes 2 hands, one to hold the Dioptrx steady, the other to rotate the zoom. 

However, it's not easy when my hands aren't working properly.  Then I often have to adjust the zoom and then adjust the Dioptrx.

That's one of the reasons I've bought the Syvony zooms for  binoviewers.

I'm also looking forward to receiving  the new 75 degree APM zoom when it becomes available.

[Andrew_B]

On 07/09/2021 at 16:16, doublevodka said:

I've got a few bits of svbony kit now and they are all cheap and cheerful but useful bits of kit

Yes they don't directly compete with the higher priced stuff, but for those of us on a budget they can be a great addition to your setup

I've recently picked up the 10-30mm zoom and it's been quite useful for Jupiter and Saturn but as @Alan64 said it's more an exercise in finding the focal lengths I really like, although it's also been quite useful when the seeing conditions are quite variable as you can just dial down the amount a zoom a little to suit or up when it improves

I've just ordered one of their 32mm Plossls which was really cheap so it'll be interesting to see what it's like. I'm not expecting flawless edge to edge performance but since I'll be using it with my 60mm f6 scope which has a fair bit of field curvature anyway I don't think it'll be a big problem.

As far as I can tell it's the same eyepiece as the equivalent Celestron Omni Plossl, just with a different exterior and a much lower price tag.

[wulfrun]

9 minutes ago, Andrew_B said:

I've just ordered one of their 32mm Plossls which was really cheap so it'll be interesting to see what it's like. I'm not expecting flawless edge to edge performance but since I'll be using it with my 60mm f6 scope which has a fair bit of field curvature anyway I don't think it'll be a big problem.

As far as I can tell it's the same eyepiece as the equivalent Celestron Omni Plossl, just with a different exterior and a much lower price tag.

I actually have one that I've used for a while, in an f5 and an f8 reflector. I'm sure it won't be as good as a premium EP but actually I don’t notice anything particularly bad to criticise it for. For the price, I think you'll find it works quite well.

[Andrew_B]

5 minutes ago, wulfrun said:

I actually have one that I've used for a while, in an f5 and an f8 reflector. I'm sure it won't be as good as a premium EP but actually I don’t notice anything particularly bad to criticise it for. For the price, I think you'll find it works quite well.

That's good to know. I've got an Astro Essentials 20mm Plossl which gives a great view in my 60mm and I wanted something a bit lower power that wasn't too big and kept to a 1.25" fitting. Doesn't seem much point pairing a tiny lightweight scope with a huge heavy eyepiece!

Low power eyepieces give a lovely 3D view with that scope so I'm looking forward to trying it out. For £23 including delivery I'm not expecting spectacular performance, but simple eyepiece designs like Plossls seem to be fairly decent even when they're cheap.

[johninderby]

As Svbony buys in their eyoeces qualoty does vary. The really cheap stuff can be low quality but the more expensive ones can be pretty decent quality. 

[doublevodka]

41 minutes ago, Andrew_B said:

I've just ordered one of their 32mm Plossls which was really cheap so it'll be interesting to see what it's like. I'm not expecting flawless edge to edge performance but since I'll be using it with my 60mm f6 scope which has a fair bit of field curvature anyway I don't think it'll be a big problem.

As far as I can tell it's the same eyepiece as the equivalent Celestron Omni Plossl, just with a different exterior and a much lower price tag.

It does look pretty good and most of the svbony kit gets favourable reviews considering their price point, I'd be interested to hear what it is like as it does look fairly well put together

From what I can gather about svbony they seem to be pulling together the better budget kit from various chinese manufacturers and putting their brand on it, but so far so good with the bits I have, the only vague disappointment is the 40mm that I got with one of my scopes, it's more like a 25mm when I've compared to other eyepieces, although the views are still good so can't complain too much

[Louis D]

I just ordered another 20mm Svbony 68° for $20 to pair up with the one I already have in my binoviewer.  I'm curious if they will work better than the 19mm Konig pair I have that appear to be from binoculars.  If Svbony stopped them down to 50° as with a Plossl, they'd be really good to the edge.  Compare the generic reversed Kellner below which has a measured 50° AFOV with the same inner 50° AFOV of the Svbony directly below it.  It's pretty sharp at f/6 over that inner 50°.  That, and eye relief would be fantastic for eyeglass wearers compared to a 20mm Plossl.  I have no trouble seeing the inner 60° of the Svbony with eyeglasses when just touching the folded down eye cup to my eyeglasses.  I can hover and still see the inner 50° with ease.