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Old 29-04-2012, 09:02 AM
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Hi Mental4Astro

Not to malign the TMBs & 13mm Hyperions (I have the latter too) nor act the champion of the Vixens but it might be worthwhile doing a comparison and thus test where relative parity exists in the designs.

In terms of the LVW you are comparing a widefield 8 element design against a smaller EP in the TMB. It might be worthwhile doing a comparison of the TMB against a LV or their contempoary incarnation the NLV.

With respect to the LVW's physically the Hyperions, LVWs, Stratus and Saxon widefields all look incredibly similar once you look past the different brand labels/paintwork. I have never looked through a LVW (only physically at them in stores) so I can't comment on their optics but what I like about Hyperions are their modular design and use of the FTR rings.

In my humble opinion and experience the few times you can most often discern some sort of consistently tangible yet significant difference occurs when the atmosphere conditions are really optimal. It is in those odd excellent times that my money bags colleague with his $1000 ZAO-II takes me to the cleaners (with my more modest EP collection) and I can really see differences when we try his EP's on different scopes while trying to keep everything to some degree of parity.

I think for $60 the TMBs are great and for $80-$120 a LV (2nd hand) is great too. However, when I start approaching anything over $300 I start thinking about light green painted letters or Pentax. When money is not an issue - well....... take your pick of the superleagues - I wonder how the new Takahashi widefields fair each at roughly $1000 -OUCH!! - My wallet is already trembling at the thought
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