Takahashi 30mm LE Review

[ab1963]

Has taken a while to post this review but unfortunately it was a big thumbs down for me , Being used to and enjoying a minimum 80+ Degrees fov was not suited to the claustrophobic 52 deg fov ,Sharp across the fov and comfortable er and good contrast , Half the purpose of these low-power, widest field eyepieces is to assist in the star-hopping experience and unfortunately for me was well off the mark and for viewing nebula which was the reason i gave it a go did not in any shape or form come close to the Nagler 31-t5

[The Happy Parrot]

It's too bad the Takahashi 30mm did not meet expectation but good to know its limitations AB1963.

[Lady Fraktor]

Unfortunate that you did not like the Takahashi LE, I find it an outstanding eyepiece.
I guess it just comes down to personal preferences like all other eyepiece designs

I am not a fan of the 80°+ views nor did I care much for the Naglers in general. There are many that do though.

[notFritzArgelander]

Unfortunate that you did not like the Takahashi LE, I find it an outstanding eyepiece.
I guess it just comes down to personal preferences like all other eyepiece designs

I am not a fan of the 80°+ views nor did I care much for the Naglers in general. There are many that do though.

I wholeheartedly agree. The pincushion distortions of 80+ degree format eyepieces and low level of light throughput is unacceptable to me. I prefer a more clinical and objective view of what's there rather than a glorified light show. I've bought a complete set of Naglers twice. Never again. The Tak LE line is a keeper though, for my purposes.

[SKEtrip]

Unfortunate that you did not like the Takahashi LE, I find it an outstanding eyepiece.
I guess it just comes down to personal preferences like all other eyepiece designs

I am not a fan of the 80°+ views nor did I care much for the Naglers in general. There are many that do though.

I may be the only person on the planet who likes both.
Although... if Vixen comes out with a 70° version of the HR's I may go all in & let go of everything else.

[notFritzArgelander]

Unfortunate that you did not like the Takahashi LE, I find it an outstanding eyepiece.
I guess it just comes down to personal preferences like all other eyepiece designs

I am not a fan of the 80°+ views nor did I care much for the Naglers in general. There are many that do though.

I may be the only person on the planet who likes both.
Although... if Vixen comes out with a 70° version of the HR's I may go all in & let go of everything else.

I draw the line at 70* for myself. Your idea is amusing and intriguing but right now I'm happy with TV Panoptic and Delos. Occasionally my wandering eye glances at the Pentax XWs but....

[ab1963]

It is one of the amazing things about this hobby how we all perceive equipment differently , Viewed Eta Carina with and without a lumicon oiii filter and although it was ok just felt like there was something missing then in went the 31mm Nagler and the wow factor kicked in and the lesson learned for myself 80 degrees is always going to be a starter point and my days of experimenting with ep's are over,...
In no way am i being judgemental towards this eyepiece and would have loved to have had the same experience as obviously some of you have had for issues like weight for one but unfortunately it just didn't do it.

[notFritzArgelander]

It's subjective. Once "wows" enter in it's a matter of the observers requirements.

I can understand and have experienced the wows from the 80+ degree format oculars, so I get your point. Been there, done that. In my experience that very wide field wow comes at the expense of the definite sense that the eyepiece is calling attention to itself, getting in the way of a direct and clear experience. I just got tired of it.

So I've happily opted for the wow of clarity, contrast, and brighter images. I still get a wow. Different observers, different requirements. Different wows.

[helicon]

Sorry the experience wasn't so good. I find experimenting with different eyepieces and scope combinations a really interesting pursuit. For example, I got the ES line of eyepieces for my 10" Dob - they also work well in the big Dob. However, in my frac I prefer the view of the 30mm Erfle (GSO Superview) as the starting point. The images are very sharp at f/6.5 and I don't have the coma problem at the edges of the field of view as I have in the faster Dobs. So when you start to get to a less unforgiving focal length the simpler cheaper eyepieces can perform very well.

[ab1963]

Hi Michael
I have had 21,13 Ethos but preferred 20,14 ES 100 eyepieces so off went the Ethos and think both lots are better corrected for big dobs and only liking the whole thing with refractors did not keep any of them , I have tried over 100 ep's in the few fracs i have had between 76-110mm between FL6.3-15 and have ended up with the ones i have in my signature , The only one that has slight field curvature and a slight softness at the edge is the Nagler 22T4 but there is something very special viewing wise with this one that i can't explain just some Al Nagler magic ,After years of experimental endeavors with scopes and eyepieces etc i believe i have what will keep me happy as far as what i expect from this hobby and now realize that the Tak 30mm was that point of understanding as there was definitely nothing wrong with it just personal preference that should come without judgment.....

[notFritzArgelander]

I'll say that there's something special about globular clusters in the T4 Naglers. The 17mm T4 is one that I miss a bit.

The ES 100s are clones of Ethos. I found the sky darker and cleaner in the Ethos likely due to better scattered light control. Nevertheless both show huge pincushion distortion as all wide field eyepieces do.

http://www.svenwienstein.de/HTML/es_14m ... glish.html

Never bought an Ethos though. When I was into the wide field experience I just wasn't willing to pay that much for pincushion effects.

[Rainmaker]

Horses for courses Andrew, the LE30 and LE18 are my favourite eyepieces for binoviewing in my refractors. The 30 will give me 50x and the 18s 83x....
I can't wait to try them with the new scope, unfortunately we have big dust storm here today so my scopes will be staying inside the house.