NEW Pentax 85° XW Eyepieces for Astronomy

[FLO]

Pentax have revealed two new XW eyepieces with 85° FOV 🙂 

Pentax XW 16.5mm 85°

Pentax XW 23mm 85°

ETA early-mid December. 

 

[HollyHound]

Oh… these look very interesting indeed 😮

Love my XWs, but if these have no field curvature, they could nicely replace my XW14 and XW20 🤔

Expensive, but I suspect these will be great… thanks for letting us know and may indeed grab one or both when they arrive 👍

[Alan White]

Are these made in Japan like the rest of the XW series are?

[JeremyS]

6 minutes ago, HollyHound said:

Oh… these look very interesting indeed 😮

Love my XWs, but if these have no field curvature, they could nicely replace my XW14 and XW20 🤔

Expensive, but I suspect these will be great… thanks for letting us know and may indeed grab one or both when they arrive 👍

Go on, Gary. You know it makes sense 

😊

[HollyHound]

Link to the news release and specification on Ricoh website

https://news.ricoh-imaging.co.jp/rim_info2/2022/20221110_037685.html

Great to see Pentax releasing brand new astronomy eyepieces 👍😀

Edited November 11, 2022 by HollyHound

[HollyHound]

2 minutes ago, JeremyS said:

Go on, Gary. You know it makes sense 

😊

Oh I’ll be getting these for sure… I adore my XWs, so really can’t resist 🤣

They could even knock the Masuyamas… I have 16mm and 26mm of those, also 85 degrees… they also exhibit some field curvature, but they show super contrasty, clear images on axis 👍

Edited November 11, 2022 by HollyHound

[HollyHound]

10 minutes ago, Alan White said:

Are these made in Japan like the rest of the XW series are?

I’d be surprised if they weren’t at this price… the Masuyamas are too 👍

[HollyHound]

Love this bit on the specification page…

*The XW series features a weather-resistant structure of JIS class 4 *. It cannot be used underwater. 🤣🤣

Edited November 11, 2022 by HollyHound

[Stu]

3 minutes ago, HollyHound said:

It cannot be used underwater

Rather like my iphone/s 🤪🤪

[HollyHound]

Just realised there’s another (longer) thread about these.. Will make any more comments on that 👍

 

Edited November 11, 2022 by HollyHound

[FLO]

A quick update to say Pentax' distributor has advised us ETA for new Pentax XW 85-degree eyepieces has slipped to "mid-December" (a little later than our initial dispatch estimates). 

Thank-you for your patience 🙂 

Steve