Vixen VSD90SS quintuplet lens barrel

[GalaxyGael]

Looks like a new vixen flatfield scope is being announced soon.

Live feed here

And some images from the booth. Image from T Yoshida attending CP+2023.

Just north of 4700 EUR or £4200. Like the look of it, wonder how it performs and what the image circle and other features are.

Edited February 24, 2023 by GalaxyGael

[900SL]

Looks interesting, much better correction than the VSD100

[900SL]

TAK beater? 

[900SL]

39 minutes ago, GalaxyGael said:

Looks like a new vixen flatfield scope is being announced soon.

Live feed here

And some images from the booth. Image from T Yoshida attending CP+2023.

Just north of 4700 EUR or £4200. Like the look of it, wonder how it performs and what the image circle and other features are.

And at 4200 is that a single speed focuser? 

[GalaxyGael]

Interesting, thanks for the additional info. Looks like one speed but it might have the dual speed on the other side? Although the knob sure look like the older single speed, but better than the previous helical focuser and an autofocus would likely run the focus I am guessing.

There's a real Pentax feel from the picture...

[osbourne one-nil]

Does anyone know what the "SS" stands for....and I don't mean in the political sense. 

[Mr Spock]

Note sure. I know the SD is super low dispersion. Looks a nice scope though.

[Space Hopper]

looks interesting, and would look nice on my Vixen mount

[Space Oddities]

This video shows the focuser, it is indeed single speed (from 1:48):

 

[Space Hopper]

It seems to me, that the focuser is.....a bit of an after-thought.

[Franklin]

4 hours ago, osbourne one-nil said:

Does anyone know what the "SS" stands for....

Vixen usually use "SS" to denote their shorter focal length scopes.

[GalaxyGael]

Its a nice looking machine this 5 ball lens barrel (I do love reading translated japanese reviews of scopes !). My favourite remains the triplet AX103s, still waiting for international prices to come down. Wonder where the VSD90ss is targeting in terms of competitor. Still no spot diagrams yet I think, and the Askar new product mania (to me at least, even new models have gone through focuser cosmetic modifications during their announcement..) has some fairly well throughout out imaging scopes.

[Alan White]

Interesting about the difraction from the long standing foils on a lens cell being addressed?
Very nice to see Vixen updating and new kit releases.

[900SL]

31 minutes ago, GalaxyGael said:

Its a nice looking machine this 5 ball lens barrel (I do love reading translated japanese reviews of scopes !). My favourite remains the triplet AX103s, still waiting for international prices to come down. Wonder where the VSD90ss is targeting in terms of competitor. Still no spot diagrams yet I think, and the Askar new product mania (to me at least, even new models have gone through focuser cosmetic modifications during their announcement..) has some fairly well throughout out imaging scopes.

Targeting FSQ 85?

[Franklin]

Not seen or heard of this newish scope from Vixen either, though it may be of Taiwanese origin looking at it.

 

[GalaxyGael]

1 hour ago, Franklin said:

Not seen or heard of this newish scope from Vixen either, though it may be of Taiwanese origin looking at it.

 

That's a new one to me also, especially the black livery and, to me, decidedly non-japanese flavour hardware. I did see a 70mm ss scope, the bigger brother of the fl55ss fluorite wide field one.

[GalaxyGael]

2 hours ago, 900SL said:

Targeting FSQ 85?

Likely to be that, or a call back to Pentax afficionados...

Rumor has it Tak are developing new apos, the petzval is getting old in the tooth for modern small pixel cameras, but is a treat for the slightly larger pixel options (don't buy the need for a flattener with backfocus restraints for a scope designed to avoid that).

The quads and quin's from China might be waking things up and the star shape and lack aperture vignetting of bright stars are better than the baby q in the main (not to mention corrected image circle limits of the fsq85), and some Taiwanese shops have widely airspaces triplets on the go, modelling the Tak toa design as a principle (cannot say anything from my knowledge on the figuring of the lenses though). My two cents of course

Edited February 24, 2023 by GalaxyGael

[GalaxyGael]

2 hours ago, Alan White said:

Interesting about the difraction from the long standing foils on a lens cell being addressed?
Very nice to see Vixen updating and new kit releases.

Dunno, I would assume it is. There was a later interation of the SD doublets that dealt with this since the ed and sd81s and bigger sisters had awful three way dark lighthouse beams on stars.

The diagrams above look like clean stars from what I can see.

[Franklin]

The SD81s II has been out for a while and it has a ring spacer rather than the three foils. Vixen have recently announced the SD103s II and SD115s II, also with ringed spacer rather than the foil. Summer 2023 they're releasing a new finder, the Illuminated-reticle 7x50 II, exactly the same as the old one but with a removable eyepiece/illuminator, so it can be used as a guide-scope.

[nicoscy]

On 24/02/2023 at 21:13, Franklin said:

Not seen or heard of this newish scope from Vixen either, though it may be of Taiwanese origin looking at it.

 

Actually this was a limited run by Vixen in response to a crowdfunding campaign. I think less than 200 were made. I happened to find one pre - owned and snagged it. It’s a 60mm f6 doublet - but I have no information suggesting better optics than the usual run of the mill 60mm f6 FPL53s out there. 
 

Significant changes: Better ring, Vixen dovetail, different color scheme, different finderbase. Here’s mine!