Super-widefield 15x or 16x eyepieces for Wild?

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Rorschach
Posts: 147
Joined: Fri Mar 08, 2019 11:35 pm
Location: Finland

Super-widefield 15x or 16x eyepieces for Wild?

Post by Rorschach »

I managed to snatch a pair of Olympus SWH10X-H26 super-widefield eyepieces at a reasonable price for my Wild M3Z, as I know they are the best possible 10x eyepieces. Please see: http://www.lenaturaliste.net/forum/view ... 3&start=10 and the chart on the previous page of that thread. Google translate helps those of us who aren't fluent in French :-) That site is an excellent source of information in general, by the way!

Now I would like to find equally high quality eyepieces in the 15x or 16x range. I feel that those are the highest magnification eyepieces that are of of any practical use, i.e. before the magnification becomes 'empty magnification'. I do ID work on small insects, which requires manipulating them with two pairs of tweezers. This means I often need significant working distance - which is something that my Wild 1.6x Plan and Leica 2.0x Planapo do not give. So for those occasions, the perfect combination would be either my Wild Plan 1x or the 1x Planapo (the latter actually has more working distance, surprisingly) and top-quality 15x/16x eyepieces with as wide field of view as possible.

Has anyone experience of eyepieces from Nikon/Olympus/Zeiss that could be suitable? I know that Leica has 16x/16 eyepieces that are adjustable for parfocality and are high eyepoint as well. But I have never tested them and do not know whether the image quality is high and the image bright.

Perl
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Location: Sweden

Post by Perl »

Wild 16 X Eyepieces are very fine you will be happy with them
Best Regards
Pär

PS / Let me know if you looking for some Wild / Leica Stuff i might have it
selling out my stuff i have duplicates of
****** Seeing is Believing ******

Scarodactyl
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Joined: Sat Apr 14, 2018 10:26 am

Post by Scarodactyl »

Thanks for the link to a great thread! I was surprised and happy to learn the later s series eyepieces are compatible.

Rorschach
Posts: 147
Joined: Fri Mar 08, 2019 11:35 pm
Location: Finland

Post by Rorschach »

Scarodactyl wrote:Thanks for the link to a great thread! I was surprised and happy to learn the later s series eyepieces are compatible.
Scaro, No problem :) I was also very happy to find that site last summer...so much information there. I just have to use their search function mainly by instrument model names & numbers as my French is not good enough to do detailed searches.

Pär, thanks for the info and I'll keep that in mind if I need something!

JB
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Joined: Mon Mar 24, 2008 7:41 am
Location: Denmark

Re: Super-widefield 15x or 16x eyepieces for Wild?

Post by JB »

Rorschach wrote:I managed to snatch a pair of Olympus SWH10X-H26 super-widefield eyepieces at a reasonable price for my Wild M3Z, as I know they are the best possible 10x eyepieces.
Can you use the Olympus fn 26.5 eyepieces with the Wild M3Z without getting any vignetting at all? If yes, which head are you using on the Wild M3Z?

Rorschach
Posts: 147
Joined: Fri Mar 08, 2019 11:35 pm
Location: Finland

Re: Super-widefield 15x or 16x eyepieces for Wild?

Post by Rorschach »

JB wrote:
Rorschach wrote:I managed to snatch a pair of Olympus SWH10X-H26 super-widefield eyepieces at a reasonable price for my Wild M3Z, as I know they are the best possible 10x eyepieces.
Can you use the Olympus fn 26.5 eyepieces with the Wild M3Z without getting any vignetting at all? If yes, which head are you using on the Wild M3Z?
According to what I have read, there should be no vignetting with the basic 45 degree angle head. With other heads, there may be vignetting and there definitely will be vignetting with the ergo type heads and ergo wedges.

I'll report when I actually get the eyepieces in a few weeks. They are being shipped currently.

JB
Posts: 8
Joined: Mon Mar 24, 2008 7:41 am
Location: Denmark

Re: Super-widefield 15x or 16x eyepieces for Wild?

Post by JB »

Rorschach wrote:I'll report when I actually get the eyepieces in a few weeks. They are being shipped currently.
Thanks. I am looking forward to reading about your experiences with the super-widefield eyepieces on the M3Z.

Rorschach
Posts: 147
Joined: Fri Mar 08, 2019 11:35 pm
Location: Finland

Post by Rorschach »

I still haven't received the new Olympus super-widefields but I read again this blog: https://blog.noq2.net/wild-heerbrugg-m8 ... -look.html

So it seems that at least with the particular photo port model and the coaxial light model that are mentioned in the blog, the eyepiece field of view is limited to 22mm. Makes me expect that the other photo ports and coaxial lights probably have the same effect. That does limit the usability of the super widefields quite a bit in some setups.

It now remains to be seen whether I get the same results with my 50/50% beam splitter (not a similar design as a photo port) and my coaxial light, which is a different model from the on in the blog. My coaxial light is a relatively new Wild model as it accepts a fiber light line, does not even have a halogen lamp in it.

viktor j nilsson
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Location: Lund, Sweden

Post by viktor j nilsson »

A little off topic, but I'll put this information here in case someone is interested.

I've tried Nikon CFUW 10x/26.5 mm eyepieces on my old Wild M5. They vignetted quite a lot at the lowest magnification (6x) but not at higher magnifications. I prefer to use a nice pair of Leica 10x/21B.

Scarodactyl
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Joined: Sat Apr 14, 2018 10:26 am

Post by Scarodactyl »

Are all CFUW eyepieces 26.5, or only ones marked as such? I have a pair on my nikon UW head and one on my Olympus SZH, but both are just marked CFUW. They work great on the Olympus, not great at all on my Wild M400 (not surprisingly given the short eyepieces that are native to that system).

viktor j nilsson
Posts: 423
Joined: Fri Mar 01, 2013 1:43 am
Location: Lund, Sweden

Post by viktor j nilsson »

Scarodactyl wrote:Are all CFUW eyepieces 26.5, or only ones marked as such? I have a pair on my nikon UW head and one on my Olympus SZH, but both are just marked CFUW. They work great on the Olympus, not great at all on my Wild M400 (not surprisingly given the short eyepieces that are native to that system).
Here's a good thread:
http://www.photomacrography.net/forum/v ... c26f72eefe

CFUW are FN 26.5 but I'll let you read about CFUWN and the other eyepieces yourself in that thread so that I don't make a mistake and spread disinformation.

Rorschach
Posts: 147
Joined: Fri Mar 08, 2019 11:35 pm
Location: Finland

Post by Rorschach »

JB et al.

I received the Olympus eyepieces and can say that they can be used with the basic 45 degree angle binocular.

As expected, they are not that useful with the Wild/Leica 15 degree ergo wedge, or a third party 45 degree ergo wedge, or the Wild/Leica 50% beam splitter. All of these produce vignetting. I didn't test with a Wild HU photo tube but it is probably the same with that one.

When I have more time, I will test them also with the Wild low inclined binocular and the Wild straight binocular plus the Wild 445108 coaxial light (will remove the beam splitter and ergo wedge for these trials). I would have tested the coaxial already, but alas, my fiber line outputs are 10mm physical diameter, while the coaxial unit has a 18mm opening, so I can't plug the fiber line before I get an adapter from somewhere.

I also received the Leica 16x/16 adjustable eyepieces (10446355) and can confirm that they play nice on a Wild M3Z, even though they are not high eyepoint.

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