Surplus Shed EP feedback

If there is anyone out there who has purchased and used ANY of Surplus Shed's EPs, namely their own Plossls in 1.25 and 2", I'd really like to know if their a good buy for the price. Thanks to all who reply. S.

I have thier 2" 50mm, 38mm Efrle amd several others.
.The 50mm is ok but was disappointing when I first looked through it. The FOV seams narrow. There was no wide field Wow.The 38mm is not to bad,but has some weird eye relief/kidney beaning thing going on. There microscope E.P. and Hy. are not worth the $15. I don't use them much.

I got their 40mm and their 25mm, both Plossl. The 40mm had WAY TOO MUCH eye relief and the contrast was disappointing.

The 25mm performs well, roughly the same as the Meade 26mm that they give out with all their telescopes.

The people at Surplus Shed are very nice. The eyepieces though are not very good. When you consider that Meade Super Plossls can be had for mid $30's used, I don't think they're even a good eyepiece "for the money". I bought several from them at once and returned all of them. The AFOV claims on the Erfle were not accurate.

I had to send the one I bought back. The field curvature was so bad that I couldn't get a sharp focus. Spend the extra bucks and get a Meade or Orion eyepiece. You'll be better off.

I just got the 38mm Erfle because I asked a similar question here a couple of months ago and didn't get any feedback at all. I have used it only a couple of times, and have been waiting for a night to really evaluate it, but fortunately we are finally getting some snow here in SW Colorado. I got this just for a "finder" eyepiece, since 60deg AFOV at 38mm would be much bigger than my 50deg AFOV at 32mm in a Plossl I have.

Here's my impression so far. This one seems OK for the money, but no great bargain. I am not convinced that the AFOV is quite as big as advertised, but it is definitely bigger than a Plossl (50deg). The image was sharp in the middle and soft on the edge (and when it gets clear again I can quantify that better). The field stop is also a bit fuzzy. I also got the rubber eyecup that they also sell and that one is a waste of money. I guess it does block the light, but I think it "feels" funny. (What a technical comment!) It also puts my eye far enough away that I can't quite see the field stop, so I must be missing something. I never noticed any real bad kidney beaning, but that may just be me. I think the construction is OK, but maybe I wasn't expecting too much to start with.

And just so you know, they build these when they get orders. At least that's what I was told over the phone when I called to see if it had shipped.

Overall I think I got what I paid for and it will work just fine as a finder eyepiece. Also, I forgot to mention that I was using an f9.6 scope.

And you were asking about their plossls - I did see that they are selling the Meade 26mm for $35 new.

Charlie

Thanks for the question.... and all the posts afterwords..

I've often wondered myself... Now I know.... Stay away...

In the book "Backyard Astronmer" it says to stay away from army surplus glass.... is this what they are made from???


Mark V

I have their 40 mm Pl"ossl. In contrary to the other response I an quite content with it. Must say I bought it for a special purpose: I use it with a DV camera, for wich purpose the eyerelief comes very handy. I need to get some more experience, but first impressions are positive: with an Intes 6"/F12 I get 45 X , with 10 X optical zoom I get an effective power of 300-350 X, without the image breaking up.