Svbony 8-3 zoom

[Louis D]

Perhaps try a quality Barlow or telecentric magnifier ahead of it to use the 5mm to 8mm settings at higher powers to take advantage of the more generous eye relief at those focal lengths?

[Ratlet]

39 minutes ago, Louis D said:

Perhaps try a quality Barlow or telecentric magnifier ahead of it to use the 5mm to 8mm settings at higher powers to take advantage of the more generous eye relief at those focal lengths?

I feel I should know this, but a Barlow will extend the focal length whilst a telwcentric will maintain it?

[Mr Spock]

8 minutes ago, Ratlet said:

I feel I should know this, but a Barlow will extend the focal length whilst a telwcentric will maintain it?

A telecentric has the same magnifying power as a Barlow but without increasing eye relief. 

[Ratlet]

6 minutes ago, Mr Spock said:

A telecentric has the same magnifying power as a Barlow but without increasing eye relief. 

Gah, got my terminology the wrong way round there, it was the eye relief I was thinking of.  Cheers for the correction. Barlow increases but telecentric doesn't increase the eyerelief?

It has been a long day 😂

Edited April 9, 2023 by Ratlet

[Roy Challen]

5 minutes ago, Ratlet said:

Gah, got my terminology the wrong way round there, it was the eye relief I was thinking of.  Cheers for the correction. Barlow increases but telecentric doesn't increase the eyerelief?

It has been a long day 😂

Yep, exactly. It can be a useful property with short focal length orthos and plossls.

[Zermelo]

... but with eypieces that already have generous eye relief, adding a Barlow may test your "floating" skills, hence the telecentric.

Not likely to happen on the Svbony zoom, though.

[Louis D]

Plus, if an eyepiece has borderline kidney beaning (SAEP), a Barlow can exacerbate it, possibly making it unbearable.  A telecentric won't have any such effect.

[Zermelo]

3 minutes ago, Louis D said:

if an eyepiece has borderline kidney beaning

Is that the eyepiece equivalent of "borderline personality disorder" in a person?

[Louis D]

10 minutes ago, Zermelo said:

Is that the eyepiece equivalent of "borderline personality disorder" in a person?

Hey, let's keep my personal life out of this. 😉

[Ratlet]

1 hour ago, Zermelo said:

... but with eypieces that already have generous eye relief, adding a Barlow may test your "floating" skills, hence the telecentric.

Not likely to happen on the Svbony zoom, though.

My 32mm plossl has spades of eyerelief.  Took me a couple sessions to figure out why I was struggling to use it sometimes (glasses off Vs glasses on putting my eye in the perfect place).  Tried it in a Barlow once and gave up.  Needed to put my head in next doors kitchen.

Keeping on topic, I used the 3-8mm with my BST Barlow and it Barlow's very well.  I get reflections (from eye to eyepiece) with my 8mm BST in the Barlow but the svbony didn't have that and the image quality was just as good with the Barlow as without on the zoom.  In both cases it absolutely stomps over the starguider.

Edited April 9, 2023 by Ratlet

[JeremyS]

Where do we stand on the scatter reported with this eyepiece that some have reported? Problematic and under which circumstances?

[Ags]

Never noticed any.

[Franklin]

Received my Svbony 3-8mm zoom today and am very impressed with it (only daytime testing so far). Constant field over the range and good correction at the field edges. I'll pair this up with my LV 8-24mm zoom for use in the little travel scope and for solar. The clicks are a touch stiff but at under £75 from AliExpress I'm not complaining.

[badhex]

3 minutes ago, Franklin said:

Received my Svbony 3-8mm zoom today and am very impressed with it (only daytime testing so far). Constant field over the range and good correction at the field edges. I'll pair this up with my LV 8-24mm zoom for use in the little travel scope and for solar. The clicks are a touch stiff but at under £75 from AliExpress I'm not complaining.

Did you buy direct from Svbony on Aliexpress? 

[Franklin]

1 minute ago, badhex said:

Did you buy direct from Svbony on Aliexpress? 

Not sure, I just ordered from AliExpress about a week ago.

[Mr Spock]

Has anyone compared this to a Nagler 3-6 yet? At £75 v £424 it looks tempting!

[Franklin]

1 hour ago, Mr Spock said:

At £75 v £424 it looks tempting!

That's exactly what tempted me. I never used the TV zoom but I think @John has and he speaks favorably of the Svbony which was another reason I went for it. I've only used it in the daytime so far but it is much better than my LV zoom with a X2 barlow.

[John]

1 hour ago, Mr Spock said:

Has anyone compared this to a Nagler 3-6 yet? At £75 v £424 it looks tempting!

I've compared it with the Nagler 2-4, Pentax XW's, Ethos 8, 6 and 4.7 and Astro Hutech HD orthos so far.

Not lengthy comparisons examining each minute detail of multiple aspects of the image being seen (I've not owned the Svbony for long enough !) but comparisons enough for me to realise that the Svbony 3-8 is a very decent performer. Last night I actually felt that the Svbony zoom at 5mm was showing Jupiter slightly better than the mighty Pentax XW 5mm. 

I'm not about to sell off the XW's or the Ethos on the basis of what I've seen so far but I have let the Astro Hutech HD orthos go to a new home. The Svbony zoom showed Saturn, Jupiter and the Moon as well as they did but with the additional comfort of 10mm of eye relief, a larger eye lens and 16 degrees additional AFoV. 

 

[Mr Spock]

For me it's tempting for doubles. I do like my Nirvanas for that but this would take me, with the Tak, from x93 to x247. I might just get one for the heck of it.

[Don Pensack]

On the Russian test site:

At f/5

Svbony 3-8mm star size center/mid field/edge of field (10 is approximately perfect to the eye)

3mm  8/8/30

4mm 6/7/14

5mm 4.5/7/14

6mm 4/6/10

7mm 3.3/5/12

8mm 3/6/24

Judging by how I've seen other eyepieces with similar figures perform, I think the eyepiece measures great from 4 to 7mm and has only edge problems at 3mm and 8mm.

On the test bench, it looks like a winner, price-considered.

 

 

[RT65CB-SWL]

21 hours ago, Mr Spock said:

Both the TeleVue Nagler 3-6mm and the Svbony SV215 3-8mm are both good quality and build. In terms of operation, I found the Svbony is smooth in changing focal lengths on mine as opposed to @Franklin. I have been an early adopter of both since their initial releases and no regrets buying either.

The only ‘real’ differences I have noted is:

• the field of view: TeleVue is 50^o ~ Svbony is 56^o
• both have the same eye-relief: 10mm.
• both are parfocal throughout the entire range of focal lengths.
• a few hundred pounds in price: TeleVue is £424.00 ~ Svbony is £124.00.

I checked last week prior to posting on another thread, I saw the SV215 on sale at £124.00. If it’s any consolation, I paid £154.47 for mine including P&P last year. For those of you that are ordering or have got one for £75.00 [is that a new buyer discount?😉] I don’t think you will be disappointed.

[note: prices shown in GBP for reference purposes only].

 

Edited November 28, 2023 by RT65CB-SWL

[Naughty Neal]

My BF item is in the post, I bought direct from SVBony shop on AliEpress cost £75.21.  Price obviously will vary a little depending on £/$ on the day.

After th 29th the sv215 will  revert to pre sale prices so well over the £100 mark.

Edited November 27, 2023 by Naughty Neal

[Roy Challen]

7 hours ago, John said:

I've compared it with the Nagler 2-4, Pentax XW's, Ethos 8, 6 and 4.7 and Astro Hutech HD orthos so far.

Not lengthy comparisons examining each minute detail of multiple aspects of the image being seen (I've not owned the Svbony for long enough !) but comparisons enough for me to realise that the Svbony 3-8 is a very decent performer. Last night I actually felt that the Svbony zoom at 5mm was showing Jupiter slightly better than the mighty Pentax XW 5mm. 

I'm not about to sell off the XW's or the Ethos on the basis of what I've seen so far but I have let the Astro Hutech HD orthos go to a new home. The Svbony zoom showed Saturn, Jupiter and the Moon as well as they did but with the additional comfort of 10mm of eye relief, a larger eye lens and 16 degrees additional AFoV. 

 

I've only used mine once, but it compares very favourably to my Baader BCOs. On Saturn, it is at least good as the orthos in an f/6 frac, maybe even a touch sharper although that could be new purchase bias. Won't be selling the orthos though 😉

[JeremyS]

Thought I’d give it a go. Hoping it might be a high power continuation from my Leica Zoom (my TV NZ 3-6 presents a gap). I generally try to avoid astro stuff from China (especially with a daft name), but this EP appears to be unique. 
 

[John]

3 hours ago, JeremyS said:

... I generally try to avoid astro stuff from China (especially with a daft name), but this EP appears to be unique. 
 

 

Those were my thoughts when I bought mine Jeremy. I will be interested to know what you think of yours.