I have the 12 mm Type 4 Nagler, and if I didn't own it and hadn't paid for it I might actually be honest enough to say I'm a tad disappointed in it. On some scopes at least, the kidney beaning is insufferable (I don't have the pupil guide). I suspect the eyepiece really needs quite a lot of aperture to overcome the dulling effect caused by all those layers of glass.
Apparently the cognoscenti don't feel it's one of Al's best, although interestingly the 12 mm remains a popular eyepiece, probably because it is a focal length a lot of people find handy to have. (I've read that the T4s aren't a scalable design, so there is potentially more variation between different focal lengths than with other Nagler series eyepieces. Ed Ting particularly likes the T4 17 mm.)
Still, I bought mine second hand, and I know whenever I decide to sell it, I won't have much difficulty finding a buyer and I'll get pretty much what I paid for it. So in that sense, you'll never lose if you buy a Nagler.
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Originally Posted by asimov
To put it bluntly, any suggestions on a particular brand of EP that work nearly as good as a nagler (@ F/5)...but costing way less?  |
Well, er, with all due recognition that I'm potentially exposing myself to public ridicule here, Andrews 2" UWA 30 mm eyepiece is an amazing eyepiece for the price: great even for daytime use, and no kidney beaning effects. (Shame about the flecks of blacking inside the barrel which seem to have found their way onto the inside of the lens! I might send it back to Lee and ask him to disassemble it and clean it for me. Do you think he will?)
As always, it's best to try before you buy (but it's not always possible when you live in Tasmania).
Interesting discussion!
Brian.