Difference between SkyWatcher ED80 Pro and SKywatcher ED80 Black Diamond

[flyingbaby (Allan Chan)]

Hi everyone...

Can anyone please tell me the difference between SkyWatcher ED80 Pro and SKywatcher ED80 Black Diamond

and

Difference between Skywatcher MAK 180 Pro Series and SkyWatcher MAK 180 Black Diamond.

Hope to hear from anyone.

Thank You

Allan

[casstony]

There are minor differences like paint color and included accessories (dielectric diagonal instead of aluminized diagonal, two speed focuser instead of single). AFAIK the change to Black Diamond was primarily a marketing exercise - that's some damn expensive fancy black paint .

[dannat (Daniel)]

there is some talk about using fl-51 glass on the first series which is now fl-53 ED glass, i don't know anyone knows for sure -i agree its a marketing exercise...though the focusers might also have fine focus know -they use to be just coarse

[NorthernLight (Max)]

The ED80 pro hs exactly the same colour as the balck diamond serious (they used to be gold). The only difference between them is that the BD comes with a aluminium case, a diagonal and a 10:1 Crayford focuser. The pro version has a single speed Crayford.
I got the ED80pro for 600 plus a diagonal 180 from Bintel as I couldn´t be bothered spending 1300 only to get it with an aluminium case. As for the focuser: I use a Bathinov mask and it takes me about 30 sec to find best focus and lock the focuser screw.
Black Diamond-MARKETING stunt, I totally agree.

[wasyoungonce (Brendan)]

The original ED80 had FPL53 centre element..same as black diamond so they are essentially (optically) the same except for the fancy paint.

However as said..the 2 speed 10:1 focuser is a lot better than the original.