34mm Axiom vs. 35mm Panoptic

Question: How do the aforementioned eyepieces compare in your experience? Edge sharpness, mechanical properties, and field curvature are my main concerns - eye relief and distortion aren't. I'm using an 8" f/4.9 Newtonian.

Thanks! Steve McGettigan

The 35mm Panoptic I have used a bit with a 15" f/4.9. It has a good flat view with little or no field curvature and subtle amounts of coma at the edges. Nice EP, I think fo the money not a bad deal.
I have not used Axioms however, so I can not comment on those.
Floyd

In several reveiws I have seen, it depends on the speed of your scope. In a fast scope, the Panoptic will win due to the above mentioned astigmatism at the field edges. In a slow scope, the Axiom performs much better and can keep up with the panoptic. If you have a slow scope (more than f8), it is probably a good buy. If you have something much faster than f6, the Panoptic is probably worth the extra money. Of course, this depends on your personal preferences, and how much you are bothered by edge of field abberations.

Jarad

I have the Axiom 34; a really beautiful eyepiece. On the positive side: a wide fov, brigth and crisp, good contrast, very sharp on-axis, nice eye relief, no blackout. Negative points: poor edge sharpness (looks like astigmatism; could be the curved plane of my f10 SCT (14")); medium pincushion distortion.

I have no experience with the Panoptic - but if edge sharpness was as critical as you imply I'd take a look at it.

Best regards,
Harry Bego