New Miyauchi 22/71mm f/8 first views

Started by jckatz, 08/02/2003 05:56PM
Posted 08/02/2003 05:56PM Opening Post
Received the new Miyauchi 71mm. from Kevin at bigbinoculars. Sorry I am not able to post a photo. ( you can see a photo at bigbinoculars.com) Kevin thought this was the first pair in the US. I will do my best to desribe them and how well they worked. I just dont have the knowledge to post a review like some of the great ones I have seen here. They are great looking and constructed very well. 22in long with shields in and 25in with them out. Shields move in and out very smooth. Comes with a nice little 3x12 erect image finder that works well. Comes with 22x eyepieces. 40x and 115x are also availabe. I got the 40x. The little carrying handle works fine. But I laugh everytime I look at it. I believe I have the same one on my kitchen cupboard. Lens caps and eyepiece caps fit snug and wont fall off. I mounted them on a TV Gibralter mount and it works well with the 45 degree eyepieces. First night very bad seeing due to smoke from a brush fire. Last night clouds. I set up my 16x70 Fujinons to compare views. Looked at the moon for a few minutes before it went down. Very sharp with good contrast in the Miyauchis. The Fujis were a little brighter but with a yellow edge around the moon. Not present in the Miyauchis which had very little color if any. I like the focus on the 71s very smooth! With just the right amount of drag. Before conditions got worse I went to Mizar. The 71s split the stars at 22x perfect as two discs. At 40x it was better yet with a large space between them and still very sharp. The Fujis were a hassel to me and hard to focus. The 71s just snapped into focus. On the first night I used my old TV Oracle 76mm (if your not familiar with this scope its one of the first triplets TV made 20+ years ago) I tried the Oracle using many differant TV eyepieces. The best view of Mars was through the Miyauchis with the 40x eyepieces. I could see more surface detail than with the Oracle 76. This surprised me very much. Image quality in the Miyauchis was best at close to center. This I want to look into more under dark sky and better conditions. All of this viewing was done from my backyard and very light polluted. Im going to take them to the Goldendale Observatory next week. Hope someone there can help me do a better review also. I think the 71mm f/8s will be great for me. The 45 degree eyepieces make viewing much more pleasant by far. I hope there is some information here and not to many mispelled words. I think after I get back from Goldendale I will have a better technical review. I will do my best to ansewr any questions anyone might have on these new binoculars. JW PS These binoculars came with no paperwork,intructions or specs.
Posted 08/02/2003 06:20PM #1
Fantastic review, Jerry. Keep 'em coming, and don't worry so much about style. You're doing great. You've already answered a couple of my more pressing questions about these binoculars, and even given me a bit of a surprise. I was going to ask you about false color in these as compared to Fujinons. You answered that nicely. I was going to ask about contrast. You answered that, as well. The surprise was, that while I've been very curious how these would do stacked up next to a Ranger/Pronto, I didn't dream that you would have an Oracle. Your Mars comparative info is interesting. What magnification did you have the Oracle at? 40x? At higher mags, the Oracle ought to blow the Miyauchis out of the arena, but at 40x, I can see how the bennefit of two eyes might well tip the balance to the Miyauchis.

Keep comparing the Miyauchis to the Fujinons and the TV Oracle. Those are things that folks can relate to. (True, not everybody has an Oracle, but enough are probably familar with the Ranger/Pronto and ST80s that it's still a most valuable comparison.)

Technical info: How much do the Miyauchi Saturns weigh? What's their FOV with the 2 sets of eyepieces that you have?
Are the views clear and crisp to the edge of the FOV? What are the daytime views like? Do you think these would have application as a daytime spotting binoscope? (40x71mm is more or less what I decided as optimal for most daytime spotting situations. It'd be great if these could really do double duty.)

I've been extremely interested in these ever since I first saw them advertised on the Oberwerk site. I'm curious to know if by extending them to f/8, and by limiting the obj. size to 71mm, if they haven't cured the really awful false color in the 77mm Exceeds. Do you detect false color in the Saturns at all, on any target? As mentioned, I've been very, very curious to see if they could really stand in as a replacement for the Ranger class scopes. Your comparison to your Oracle tells me a lot. Keep it up.

Thank you very much,
Mike Swaim