Swarovski 25-50 W Zoom Eyepiece

[ab1963]

Have just aquired one of these and I am impressed with the performance,Have read some reviews about eye placement being awkward and a bright ring around the field stop and had none of this,Using a 2x powermate with the Swarovski at 4.7mm and a 10 XW at 5mm on the moon and the Swaro was noticeably sharper which shocked me and views of the plieades at lower mag was excellent,I think this zoom has it all but would like some feedback from others that own or have used it on their thoughts

[ab1963]

Has no-one got or tried this eyepiece for astro ,Obviously don't know what you are missing and i suppose didn't need any justification from anyone else as to how good this eyepiece is as its performance speaks for itself.....

[Kunama]

I am happy to test it for you Andrew, just send it on down to Canberra ;):D
I haven't tried the Swarovski zoom but if it is as good as the Zeiss zoom then you have a good one.
The Zeiss showed a little FC in my F5.6 scope but it was very very sharp, on axis it was as good as anything I have used.

I think a lot of people would be swayed away by the short zoom ratio of the Swarovski and the Leica zooms of 2x.

[ab1963]

Hi Matt and thanks for your reply,What has really got me with this eyepiece is how sharp it is ,We all know how good the XW's are but the test I did between wasn't a put one in then the other going I'm not sure here the Swaro was so noticeably sharper ,It has just spun me out a little .

[Merlin66]

Andrew,
You quote the magnification for the Swaro zoom. I assume this is based on a typical scope application......
What's the zoom in efl for the eyepiece???

[Kunama]

Ken, the Swarovski is a 9.2mm to 18.4mm with about 65º AFoV

[ab1963]

I was lead to believe that it was 9.4 -18.2 Matt but i could be wrong

[ab1963]

Hi Ken
Yes it is ,I have the APM 2" adapter with the 3 nylon screws that secure it to the barrel

[ab1963]

Had a good few hours with the eyepiece the other evening with the Baader moon and skyglow filter and I'm hooked , The jewel box was amazing razor sharp with pronounced star colouring at all Fl's but didn't try the 2x powermate was happy with how it was ,neutral , tight stars with a metallic tinge is the only way I can explain on every target I went to and the ability to zoom in and out to certain sweet spots with xw performance , has got me thinking that if these spotting scope Ep manufacturers actually optimised a line for for astro use how good they could get them to perform.......:question:

[Merlin66]

I think the "spotter scope" zooms are in a class of their own.
I glad to hear you're having such good results..

I was lucky to acquire a Pentax SMC XW 8-24 zoom some years ago and find it excellent for solar observing. A definite keeper.

[ab1963]

That magic word Ken Pentax ,I was looking at one of them too and then the Swaro + 2'' adapter came up and went with it.....