Pentax XW 16.5mm and 23mm 85 degree eyepieces

[Don Pensack]

Louis,

I can use the TeleVue Apollo 11 with glasses on (it's not too difficult), and that one has 18mm of eye relief from the glass and 14.3mm from the folded-down rubber eyecup.

The 85° Pentaxes, though have only 12mm from the rubber.  Some who have shallow eyes and a short eye-to-glasses distance might be able to use them.  I could not do so comfortably,

but only by mashing my glasses into my eye socket until my eyelashes brushed the glasses.

The picture from "globular" of the 16.5mm shows why--there is a lot of aluminum above the lens to mount the eyecup onto.

With a different eyecup design, that aluminum top could have been 3mm shorter.  But, as it sits, even if the eyecup is removed it still has less than 14mm of eye relief, alas.

[Louis D]

Too bad for Pentax.  I've been fishing around for a Father's Day gift to myself, and the 23mm was one possibility.  I'll continue to give it a hard pass since Don and I seem to have similar eye socket depth.

C'est la vie.