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Subject: Pentax XW 40mm review By: Anonymous (xxx.xxx.156.181) Date: 04/29/2005 10:35:08 am PST I can't seem to log in, or register successfully, so I'm posting my quick review of the EP here. This EP is a beautiful piece of equipment. It's lighter in weight compared to Tele Vue, and it has a sliding rubber eyeguard that moves up and down as you turn on its threads. I've never seen anything like it before, and I loved the way it worked. A+++ for mechanical design. I tested the EP on a TV102, and was able to compare it to a 35mm Panoptic on that scope. The field of the 40mm XW is HUGE. No question, it's as big as you can go in a 2-inch eyepiece. Stars in the center of the field are sharp and tiny pinpoints. However, I was disappointed to see significant field curvature, over at least half of the field of view. F/8.6 isn't exactly a fast scope. The Panoptic 35mm was much better, star images stayed much tighter out to the edges. However, a fair comparison would have to invovle the 41mm Panoptic, the 35mm is naturally a little better with the shorter FL. (However, the 35 Panoptic and 40mm XW are near the same weight, the 41 Pan is REALLY heavy). The 35mm Panoptic had a much darker sky background in my scope also, again because of its shorter FL. I decided I prefered the Panoptic overall, the curvature at 40mm with the XW is not acceptable to me. I'd recommend the 40MM XW only to people with long-focus scopes, or Petzval designs with a built-in field flattener. The contrast & light transmission of the 40mm XW is exquisite though, and it's also much lighter than the 41mm Pan. Page 1 of 1 |
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