Im starting this thread, to share you my personal till TODAY, VERY SMALL part of my long years experience, all based to share it with you thankfully to that thread
https://www.cloudyni...l-user-reports/
So, Im doing check test with every single eyepiece, telescope, binoviewer, barlow and binocular, which pass through my hands using normal light + LED light.
Most equipment was purchased NEW, and very very small quantitie was used.
So lets start.
I will only discuss here optical components, and NOT mechanics!!!
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Eyepeices:
***recently purchased Takahshi TPL full double line + Takahashi TOE all focals in pairs for binoviewers usage, all have dust inside optics between lenses + some have like foggy lenses + some specks, and vewry few scratches on lenses inside
***my Vixen HRs all of them have dust, specks, and layers or something foggy here and there on lenses inside
***my previous new purchased Leics ASPH Zoom units (I had 3 new ones), all had dust, oil particles, specks, and layers or something foggy here and there on lenses inside + several scratches easily visible inside on lenses, and two AT lenses top and one on back
***my previous Pentax XWs full line, some dust between lsenses, but very obvious foggy lenses parts + some scratches here and there every of them + some had chipped lens edges
***Pentax old orthos with orange belt, used, all had dust, dirty lenses inside, and few had fungus + some small scratches on lenses + inside as well
***ZAO I and ZAO II eyepeices, all used, had several sets, all had some small dust particles, some had chipped lens edges, some had scratches on lenses inside and outside + some had coatigs delaminations
***TMB SMC, some used, some new, all had very small dirt on back lens + some had chipped lens edges + two had two very tiny air bubbles inside lenses
***Carl Zeiss various premium microscope eyepeices (I had MANY of them, and still have some), some had chipped lens edges, some had optical delaminations in cemented lenses, some had fungus inside, some had dust inside, some had scratches on lenses
***TeleVue Delos line, I had several new, some had dust particles inside, and all had fine scratches insie and two had on back and front lenses
***TeleVue Delite line, I had 6 of them new, and all had very FEW dust particles inside, but all had thousands of lens scratches inside, and very few on front and just 1 on back lens
***TeleVue Nagler T6, all was new, I had all of them in pairs, all was pretty much dirty inside, with foggy lenses + all had scratches inside and very few on lenses outer sides
***TeleVue Nagler T5 line, all were new, and they were way more cleaner than any from T6 line, and they had some chipped lens edges + few scratches on lenses in and 1 out
***TeleVue Ethos line, cleanest TeleVue line, had all singlets new, but two had scratches on lenses in and out, with very small number of dust particles inside
***Explore Scientific all eyepeices, I had them all, new, they had exceptionaly clean optics inside and outside, and some had scratches on lenses in and out, while 9mm 120deg (I had 3 of them), had oil particles on inner lenses sourfaces, and ony 1 was free of oil particles, but all had few scratches on lenses
***cheaper China made brands, all had dust particles, scratches on lenses here and there, but no foggy lenses, some had chipped lens edges
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Binoviewers:
***Carl Zeiss binoviewers, MANY passed through my hands, and I still own several of them, I saw some air bubbles inside prisms, some had prisms and mirror scratches, prisms and mirror chipped edges, even optical delaminations in cemented beamsplitter like foggy part or like dirt or like fungus between cement, dust particles as normal
***Baader Mark V, many passed through my hands, usual are many scratches on prisms sourfaces, saw some chipped prism edges, optical delaminations in cemented beamsplitter like foggy part or like dirt or like fungus between cement, dust particles as normal
***Denkmeier Binotron 27 and older ones, NOT many passed through my hands, and I saw some scratches on prisms, dust as normal, few chipped prism edges
***TeleVue BinoVue, many passed through my hands, optical delaminations in cemented beamsplitter like foggy part or like dirt or like fungus between cement, dust particles as normal, many of them had chipped prism edges, scratches on prism sourfaces
***Baader Maxbright II, over 15 passed through my hands, some had several chipped prism edges, some scratches on prisms (not as many as Mark V), some dust inside
***Baader Maxbright I, over 20 passed through my hands, I saw many chipped prism edges, MANY scratches on prisms, optical delaminations in cemented beamsplitter like foggy part or like dirt or like fungus between cement, dust particles as normal
***China cheaper brands, many passed through my hands, all had more or less dust particles, scratches on prisms, some had chipped prisms edges, very few I saw had air bubbles inside prisms
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Telescopes:
many brands passed through my hands over all those years, all had and still have dust particles between lenses more or less (where China new production making cleanest objectives today), many had chipped objective edges, many had many many scratches on lenses, some air bubbles inside lenses (my LZOs 180mm f/7 BTW have many many many scratchers and many small air bubbles inside lenses), some oil spaced lenses had some delaminations which looks even at normal light ugly, and two had obvious fungus between lenses while purchased new
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Binoculars:
many brands passed through my hands, and dirtiest of all when purchased NEW, was Swarovski 15*56 HD (scratches on lenses, foggy inner parts), while cleanest by far from all Canon 15*50 Is and 18*50 IS (still some very few dust particles and very very few scratches on eyepeices only), while Canon 10*42 IS and some dust particles inside + two scratches on eyepeice lenses, and one chipped lens edge easily visible. Other brands had obviously dust particles, scratches on lenses and prisms, chipped lens edges here and there, foggy lenses and/or prisms.
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Conclusion:
being a perfectionist, al simply ADORING astro optics, for me its mission impossible to find anything perfect, and I learned that and reconciled with that, but I still staring into each new astro optic I get. Knowing that most of these absolutely DO NOT disturbing any optical performance and quality, Im still nowdays discussing same things with many world famous optics sellers (persons), distributers, optics makers companies via many many emails, Whatsapp, Viber and Messanger messages and phots + live phone calls classically or via Skype.
Some told me that I should NOT looking AT optics, and that I should looking THROUGH optics and see if optical performance is affected, and they are very probably right!
I do not want share with you MANY MANY ugly images I did over many years, because some could get heart attack LOL!
Kind regards,
Denis