Luca,
I just received a pair of Epic 12.5mm eps that I bought for a binoviewer that should arrive in the next couple of days. I was really curious about these, and the price seemed too good to be true. I would be glad to give a report, if it ever clears up down here. My other bino pairs will include a pair of 19mm Panoptics, and some plossls. I also use Pentaxes in the shorter focal lengths (5.2mm, 7mm, 10.5mm and 14mm)for one eyed observing, so I will compare the Epic to the Pentax 14mm.
My initial impression, however, is pretty favorable. They are larger than a similar focal length plossl, probably by about 1.5x, wouldn't you say? Coatings look to be uniform, and it appears to be pretty well built. I found the coatings to be kind of strange though, in that they look to be reddish at one angle, and almost amber at another angle. I am really curious as to how they will perform on brighter objects like the moon and gas giants. In holding it up to a shop light, I noticed no aberrations, dust particles between elements, etc. One thing that I did notice was that if I put my eye flush up to the eyecup, then the outer edge of the fov tends to black out. But, as you said, the eyerelief does make up for some shortfalls. Incidently, I did find that if I pulled my eye back from the eyecup by just another millimeter or so, then I could see the entire fov. Speaking of which, the fov seems larger than the advertised 55 degrees, but a drift test will determine that. I really like the large eye lens, and apparently all of the ED-2s share that feature. When I held the eyepiece over a line of type on a white sheet of paper and moved it across the line, I did notice what appeared to be a slight bit of pincushion distortion. No big deal, the Panoptics also display this and I do not find it bothersome for nighttime observing.
I still have high hopes for these eyepieces, and think that I am going to be pleased with them once I can get them under the stars. At $69, I think that they will prove to be a real bargain!
Doug
Midway, FL
