UWAN's surely ?

[John]

These have got to be UWAN's in (rather poor) disguise ?:

Orion MegaView Ultra-Wide Eyepieces.

Except that they cost more than UWAN's do

I don't get it - why would anyone buy them ?????

John

[argonaut]

I have read that these are manufactured at the same facility as the UWAN's.

I have a set of UWAN's,they are the best all round eyepieces I own. I even sold my Nagler's to buy them.

I think William Optics have missed a opportunity by not producing other focal lengths.

Glen.

[Darren B]

I've also noticed they sell the SPL's and the zoom eyepiece that William Optics do, but at a higher price.

[argonaut]

Perhaps William Optics are working on new designs and are moving on?

Glen.

[Doc]

They certainly look like UWAN's. I thought WO was better then Orion, so why does the Orion cost more.

[John]

.... I thought WO was better then Orion, so why does the Orion cost more.

Thats what I'm wondering as well

I recall that the Orion versions of the ED80 and ED100 refractors, which were a dark graphite grey colour but otherwise identical to the Skywatcher versions, were also more expensive than the SW ones for no obvious reason that I could see.

John

[GazOC]

Orion are an American company with a very good rep for customer service. Because of this they probably figure they can charge extra in he American market, I'm not sure how they justify this in the UK though.

[Ben Ritchie]

Like Gaz, I assume this makes sense in the USA but ceases to once they go through a Far East -> USA -> UK import cycle with taxes at each step, rather than Far East -> UK for the WO flavour.

There have been posts on Cloudy Nights suggesting that WO are leaving the US market (dunno about the truth in that, but most recently it came from a vendor saying they now have to import from Taiwan themselves, which suggest that there might be some truth to it). Eyepieces like this can't help, plus I imagine Astro-Tech have taken a large chunk out of their 'scope market too.

I have a set of UWAN's,they are the best all round eyepieces I own. I even sold my Nagler's to buy them.

In price/performance terms I agree the UWANs are near-unbeatable for ultrawides, the Naglers are a luxury purchase in comparison because you're paying a fair bit more for them. It's a shame that they never turned into a more coherent range, because 4/7/16/28mm only works well in a relatively limited range of 'scopes. But I've heard it said that the whole issue of them getting copied may be behind the range not being expanded.

[johninderby]

They sell for the same price in the US although the Orion shop is clearing off their remaining stock of the 7mm and 16mm Uwans a bit cheaper.

Orion stuff is imported from the US, even if it is made in the far east, whereas William Optics is imported directly from the far east which saves on taxes and shipping. That's why Orion is more expensive in the UK.

John

[The Warthog]

Orion sells Skywatcher products in the US, with their own nameplate on them. I suppose they may do this for WO products as well.

[Ben Ritchie]

I think that rather than rebadge WO products, Orion are probably sourcing the products from the same place WO do and cutting out the middleman - viz. the large number of 'scopes (Revelation, Astro-Tech) that look like the William-Optics refractors and shared a common origin, Long-Perng I think?

[coliea]

Seems to me that both Orion & WO source these from United Optics in China. UAW_Eyepieces

But surely now that WO's monopoly on these has ended they should be getting cheaper not more expensive?

The United Optics 2" ED eyepieces look identical to the Skywatcher Aero EDs, and the EF and SWAs look familiar too

Col

[FLO]

There have been posts on Cloudy Nights suggesting that WO are leaving the US market (dunno about the truth in that, but most recently it came from a vendor saying they now have to import from Taiwan themselves, which suggest that there might be some truth to it).

As far as we know WO are closing their US distribution centre so US dealers will need to source direct from Taiwan. UK dealers have always sourced direct from Taiwan so are unaffected.