9 replies to this topic

[tomcody]

I just got a second Takahashi LE-30 eyepiece and had a chance to try them out based on Tammy's statement that they are among his most used pairs for bino viewing.
I can say that for daytime nature use, they are great, easy on the eyes, sharp, detailed and with wonderful color rendition. At night I fell in love with how easy it is to use them for extended periods and the sharp flat fields they give me. I spent over an hour sweeping the sky with them and had no eye fatigue at all.
These are going to become my most used low power eyepieces in my MarkV binos.
I am still on the fence on buying a second Leica ASPH for the Mark V's only because they will not come to focus with Mark V's in my FSQ106N due to the long adapters needed and I may try higher power pairs of the LE series instead.
Rex

[Aquarist]

Wow, nice recommendation. I will have to try them out.

[Stellarfire]

Yes, Tammy's recommendation as given elsewhere, encouraged me last year to buy a pair of LE-30's for my Mark V. These are great e.p.'s and real keepers.

Stephan

[Aquarist]

Do either of you have a link to Tammy's recommendations? TIA!

[vahe]

A little off topic, a general impression on Tak LE’s;

First, I do not have the Tak LE 30mm so no comment on their quality.

But, I have four pairs of LE’s, 5, 7.5, 18 and 24. The 7.5mm is the oldest in my collection and it is one of the best in the series, it is a keeper, its planetary performance with my 155 f/9 comes awfully close to Ortho/Plossl eyepieces, of course eye relief is the one big advantage with these shorter LE’s, I recently added a pairs of 7mm Pentax SMC’s to my collection but have not been able to compare them to 7.5 LE’s.

The 5mm LE produces too much power with my 155 f/9, I only use it for viewing Mars.

The other two 18mm and 24mm are so-so performers, the 18-LE is outperformed by 18mm Pentax SMC and the 24mm LE is totally outperformed by 24mm Brandon, no contest, I use these longer LE’s as planetary eyepieces with my 8” and 10” Maks.

The 24 LE was my latest purchase, its barrel is definitely much wider in diameter compared to the other three, the 24 LE does not fit/slide into my Zeiss viewer due to its fat barrel, the other three work just fine, a QA issue? My own take on LE’s is that there is considerable variation in quality between different models and also between earlier and later productions.

I plan on selling both 18 and 24 LE pairs one of these days.

Vahe

[Stellarfire]

Do either of you have a link to Tammy's recommendations? TIA!

For example Tammy's CN post #3714592 - 30/03/10 12:07 PM.

Stephan

[Tamiji Homma]

Hi Rex,

Glad to hear you like LE 30. It is still my most used eyepieces
in binoviewer.

I would like to try new Takahashi Abbe 32mm some day.

Tammy

[TG]

Hi Rex,

Glad to hear you like LE 30. It is still my most used eyepieces
in binoviewer.

Tammy

I this the same design as the Celestron Ultimas/Parks Gold Series/Ultrascopic? I have several Ultimas/Ultrascopics, but not the 30mm, and love them for their sharpness and lack of astigmatism at the edge.

Tanveer.

[jonstarrysky]

How would LE30s perform in binoviewer eg MkV+OCS, for use in a f/4 dob ? I currently use 19,24 panoptics, which perform well, and the OCS is able to deal with coma. And the field with the 24pans is probably wider than the LE30.
Perhaps the view is more pleasing through the LE30s ??

[Tamiji Homma]

Hi Jon,

I haven't tried LE 30 on fast Dob but I have tried on f/4 refractor.

Native LE 30 is good up to around 80% from center. Last 20% starts noticeably degrading. With Zeiss 2x Barlow lens, LE 30 performs very well close to 95% but it suffers from vignetting.

With Nikon EiC-1.6x Barlow, LE 30 performs very well up to the very edge without noticeable vignetting.

Interestingly, LE 30 with Powermate 2x, it shows no vignetting but it shows similar performance as native LE 30, ie: last 20% isn't that good.

I haven't tried MarkV on the f/4 refractor since it lacks of back focus to reach focus to infinity unless I use high power Barlow lens in front of diagonal.

Tammy