Oh, we'll, mine will be a voice of descent here,
I had a 5mm LV, once upon a time. It was the only EP I've ever wanted to roll in front of a fast moving truck! I bought it to use in my C5, following on from the good reviews of the time. I became so exasperated with it I just gave it away.
Today, my experience with EPs & different scopes, I suspect that the 5mm was just a poor match with the C5. The eye position was so critical it was frustratingly impossible to use comfortably. Funny enough, this EP experience I've encountered with one other EP, my Pentax 10mm XW. In my Newtonians it is a fine EP, easy to use. In my C8, nope. Again eye placement is critical, being very small the position to view before blackouts start to happen. If one is just observing, then maybe this could be more tolerable. But with my sketching, & constant to-&-through at the EP, this is a significant flaw.
For me it is a symptom of an optical mismatch between EP & scope. I never used the 5mm LV in a Newtonian, so there is a small gap to fully quantify the comparison. But on the balance of things, the similarity in performance of these two EPs in an SCT is enough.
BUT, this is my experience with only
1 LV, &
1 XW. It would be unfair to dismiss an entire range on the performance of one EP in one scope design. In the little I know, I've learnt that different EPs within a range can perform very differently in different types of scopes. So, sorry boys, there's more to this story than just out right praise to be had,
That's my sting in the tail,
