Boy! That's pretty severe. I don't know the 1st thing about focal reducers but in my mind, with this particular FR being somewhat 'adjustable' the spacer ring is not the problem here.
Was this taken at this setup's recommended 'sweet spot'? Taking into account the spacer?
Yup, sure have, all the way froom 66 to 86 and everywhere in between with the 6mm space, and with no spacer (tough to screw on) it just keeps producing those clownhatballs!
Sheesh - I'm having some bad luck with equipment at the moment
Guys, what is William Optics like with customer support? What are your experiences? Before I go down the warranty path, what else could it possibly be?
Cheers,Logan.
Last edited by Logieberra; 15-06-2010 at 10:47 AM.
Perhaps the reason you're getting the distortions is because you've stretched the distance between the flattener and your sensor? You haven't posted a picture of your setup, but on mine the sequence from camera to scope is:
40D->EOS adapter->WO FFIV->scope
No need for a T-adapter because the thread for one is already on the FFIV.
Sounds like your setup has an extra 6mm between the camera and FFIV somewhere, presumably between the adapter that connects to the camera and the FFIV? Man that's a bummer about the FFIV clashing with the face of your camera without some sort of extension.
I haven't been using a T-adapter. The problem is the William Optics advertises this unit as follows:
‘designed to cover full size DSLR cameras with clear lens aperture of 50 mm'. My Nikon D40 is a full size DSLR.
I have emailed Tim at William Optics. I am hoping they they will give me a store credit. On their website they have a strong customer service committment: “two-year, no fuss warranty and constant customer service!”
Fingers crossed
Cheers.
Last edited by Logieberra; 18-06-2010 at 11:03 AM.
Yeah, it's weird. Focus is being achieved. It's like it's over-correcting or something. Like a lens is back to front or around the wrong way or something?
This is now the 2nd person that I know of who can get his combo to work. Troy from this site is another.
Brian mentioned something very interesting, which may account for the STRANGE images that I get from this thing – at all settings on the flattener. Turns our that there are multiple versions. I wish that William Optics had product numbers / codes L
I assume mine is one of the originals, it was recalled after I'd had it for a week, because they fitted one of the elements back to front, they said. I didn't actually send mine back but waited for the new ones to be available and my supplier, sent a new one to me to try out. I did and preferred the old so I returned the new one to him. The new one actually gave me more coma, was physically about 3" longer, and had a 1.15x factor that the supplier didn't tell the supplier about. He told me later that the new one was replaced by a new, new one of 0.8x, and I assume this is the version you have.
Please check out my pic again, and let me know if it’s probably the “element back the front” deal…
Hmmm... would be great to test this unit with one of the recommended WO FLT refractors. I wonder if anyone here in Canberra has one and would like help me test her?
I have delayed sending it back to WO b/c they will charge me a 10-15% restocking fee. Seems a bit rich if the product was broken from the beginning! But given that I'm new to all this astro stuff I should assume that I'm doing something wrong, vs. slamming a reputable company like WO... Time will tell...
Try contacting them again and bargain with them, get them to agree that they'll pick up the tab if the fault is something like a lens being back to front or clearly a manufacturing fault, but you'll pay if it's something that's happened since purchase.
Turns our that there are multiple versions. I wish that William Optics had product numbers / codes L
Yep, I've been having a whinge about this for some time.
They do the same thing with their scopes. There are 3 differend versions of the Megrez 90.
MkI, MkII, MkIII etc etc... how hard is that?
Thankfully we’ve come to the end of this one. Tim at William Optics has been very patient with me along the way. I ended up shipping the flattener/reducer back to WO in Taiwan. They just send me an immediate Paypal refund once she surfaced safe-n-sound. Great service.
The lesson here?
The perfect flattener/reducer combo is difficult to find, especially if you’re mixing different brands of equipment. In the future I’ll stick with reducers/flatteners designed for my exact scope, or ones with proven results (eg the Borg 0.85x flattner/reducer is nice combo with my Tak FS-60C).
I hope that this post helps other newbies out there.
with the 6mm space, and with no spacer (tough to screw on) it just keeps producing those clownhatballs!
