Quote:
Originally Posted by PlanetMan
With these points in mind and putting aside the variables of AFOV and ER I haven't seen any Televue eyepiece which wasn't easily beaten in optical performance by some Japanese made simple ortho's which can be bought for about 25% the cost of most Televue eyepieces  |
I certainly have no loyalty to Tele Vue...heck, I only have one Tele Vue product in my inventory, a 2x Barlow! I do agree that there are Japanese and other sources that produce eyepieces as good and even better in some respects. My eye and observing needs decided that the Pentax XWs were best overall over Delos, Ethos, Radian, Panoptic, Nagler. But the XWs are a far cry from being 1/4 the price of the Tele Vues
If you can find me something that performs as well as a Pentax XW, that is Japanese made, comes in a full range of focal lengths, has the same operating parameters of ER and AFOV, similar robust construction, optically as precise, and costs street only $80 or so please let me know!
And also for many of us, it is more than just the on-axis image. So AFOV is important, as is eye relief, as is lateral color, off-axis astigmatism, rectilinear distortions, edge of field brightening, overall background blackness, exit pupil behavior (i.e., blackouts, kidney bean, overall comfort), stray light suppression, contrast, physical housing construction robustness, size, weight, ability to handle fast focal ratios, etc. So many many factors that each of us weight differently. And one really can't say a 40 degree eyepiece is the same as a 70 degree eyepiece, or if one wants more TFOV simply use a longer focal length. These are not valid as the exit pupil changes and how well the target is portrayed then changes. So in all fairness, if one is comparing an 82 degree product, then need to stay at or near the same AFOV. And if one is comparing a 20mm ER product, they need to stay apples-to-apples and only assess it against other similar long eye relief products.
Anyway, my 2 cents
