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ES is the Chinese manufacturer who's been making Meade EPs for many years. All the ES designs have come out of original Meade production. The SWA's (ES 68's), UWA's (82's), and 100's - the focal lengths are the same. Meade took the TV's, and with ES, redesigned them to produce their line. Meade now has pretty much abandoned EPs from its range, other than the UWA that ES still makes for them. ES's parent company has now grown to have bought out Meade!
It's not right to say the "Meade flavour" when these EPs are actually Meade's in the first place. ES grew out of Meade. ES has been steadily reworking the original Meade designs with their own spin, such as Nitrogen and Argon purging. But the optics proper haven't changed.
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Actually, there are some slight differences between models. I've tried a whole bunch of them and here are my findings in my fast 10" F/4.7 Skywatcher Reflector without a Paracorr:
Meade 28mm 5000 SWA: Excellent with only mild coma showing in outer 80% mark.
ES 28mm 68 degree: Excellent looking EP, but heaps more coma than the Meade 28mm SWA.
20mm Meade 5000 SWA: Very mild coma, excellent eyepiece, doesn't play well on the field stop using a 2" GSO or Antares barlow. (vignetting)
20mm ES 68 degree: Very mild coma, excellent eyepiece, and does NOT vignette when using a 2" GSO or 2" Antares barlow.
34mm Meade 5000 SWA: Excellent eyepiece, very mild coma. Easy on eye placement.
34mm ES 68: Excellent eyepiece, eye placement somewhat finicky.
24mm Meade 5000 UWA: Excellent eyepiece, with really nice edge correction as well. Eye lens flush with housing making for easy eye placement. Perfect when putting eyecup 5mm up.
24mm ES 82 degree: Also excellent, but need to get your eye in closer because ES recesses their lenses too much.
4.7mm Meade 5000 UWA: One of my all time favorites because it felt like it had at least an 85 degree apparent field, and the top lens is flush with the eyecup. Eye relief is somewhat tight, but it wasn't bad at all. Correction in a fast scope is excellent right to the edges.
4.7mm ES 82 degree: I hated this eyepiece because the eye relief to me felt way too short and it irritated my eye when I used it. Correction in this one was excellent also.
Russ at ES said they recess the eye lenses because it was better for marketing purposes.....which is silly, because the feel , comfort and performance are what matters most.
I've also tried the 2 inch 20mm Meade 82 degree WATERPROOF eyepiece and I couldn't stand it!
Eye placement was very finicky, and it was really bad in my fast scope with only the inner 50% showing sharp stars...I sold it the next day and got back what I forked out to buy it.
I do however own the Meade 5000 5.5mm WATERPROOF 82 degree UWA and this is one of the BEST eyepieces I have ever owned. This one will be in my case forever. The eye relief is quite long for a 5.5mm eyepiece...it has to be 15mm or just over that as I can sit back without having to jam my eye anywhere near the top lens, and the correction and clarity is excellent. I use it for deep sky and Saturn right now. The next big test will be on JUPITER.
As for comments on the 100 degree eyepieces: I own the 14mm ES and 9mm ES 100's. I REALLY LIKE these eyepieces a lot !!!! The 9mm ES is extremely sharp on axis and just a tad softer off axis, but I don't look near the edges because the field is so huge, I find it nice to be able to feel like I am floating in space! I *can* see the edges in my periphery if I need to. I've used it on deep space objects, and barlowed it on Saturn @ 250x and the views were really nice for both, but for Saturn I mostly use the 5.5mm Meade WP UWA. The 14mmm ES 100 feels even more immersive and is my DEEP SKY eyepiece. I can't wait to get the 14mm ES on M-42 in Orion with my 2" Orion Ultrablock filter !!!!
Cheers,
