Pentax PF 80 ED-A Digiscoping Kit: £1442.04

Comes complete with body, 8-24 zoom ep, cam adaptor & T ring

Pentax only manufactures ultra-premium spotting scopes, available in either compact 65mm, fullsized 80mm or gargantuan 100mm diameter front objectives. These allow high magnifications in all sorts of light thanks to their large-diameter exit pupils. After all, magnification specifications for a scope aren't very meaningful if you can only use them in the brightest of conditions.

These scopes use 1.25" diameter eyepieces, which allow less compacting of the light shaft produced by the objective lens and thus a larger image with superior depth perception. This is terribly important, for in addition to the brilliant offerings from Pentax themselves it also means you can use the best of astronomy eyepieces from elite telescope manufacturers such as Meade, Celestron and of course the venerable Tele Vues. The PF-80EDA has a focal length of 518mm, so if you're using conventional 1.25" eyepieces you divide 518mm by the focal length of your eyepiece to determine the effective magnification. The Pentax ED scopes function brilliantly in many conditions of light and climate, and are remarkably light thanks to their metallic alloy housing.

Pentax's scopes are available in either a straight viewing or angled viewing depending upon your needs. This is a personal preference which cannot easily be defined for you until firsthand experience, but the conventional thinking is that the scopes with angled viewing are simpler to share amongst those of varying heights.

Amongst the very short list of Japanese-made ultrapremium spotting scopes, the PF-80ED-A is included with the view-through case. This valuable accessory is quite nearly a necessity, and is not included but rather an expensive additional option with the European-made ultrapremium units.

Key Features:

• Porro prism design with Pentax's trademark Super MultiCoated optics

• JIS Class 6 waterproof & fogproof construction

• Six available Pentax eyepieces; Standard 1.25" (31.7mm) thread diameter allows usage of other brand telescope eyepieces

• Variable eye relief optimizes the image projection distance for your vision - up to 20mm

• Rotating tripod collar with detented click stops

• Retractable lenshood

• Accepts both 82mm filters at the objective or 1.25" eyepiece filters

Pentax 8 - 24mm SMC 1.25" LER Zoom Eyepiece:

This is an ultra-premium six-element zoom eyepiece. It has a long eye relief that's particularly well-suited to those who must wear eyeglasses while observing (such as those with severe astigmatism). It is designed for use with Pentax 80mm and 100mm spotting scopes, but can also be used for astronomical observing in any telescope accepting 1.25" accessories. One of four grooves at the tip of its 1.25" chrome barrel engages a steel pin in the eyepiece port of the Pentax spotting scopes. This keeps the eyepiece from rotating when the knurled rubber power change collar on the eyepiece is turned to change magnifications. Be sure that the pin in the scope body is engaged properly with the eyepiece before tightening the locking collar on a Pentax spotting scope.

All of the lenses in the zoom are fully multicoated with proprietary Pentax SMC (Super MultiCoated) antireflection coatings for high light transmission. They are the same coatings as those used on the most costly Pentax camera lenses. For better contrast, in addition to the inside of the barrel being blackened, the edges of all lenses have also been blackened to eliminate any internal reflections within the lenses themselves. ED (extra low dispersion) glass lens elements are used to minimize chromatic aberrations and astigmatism. The result is very good contrast and center resolution, with very little ghosting. A rubber eyecup twists in and out of eyepiece body to optimize your eye position and shield your eye from ambient light. When the eyecup is fully retracted for eyeglass use, the eye relief ranges from 12mm to 18mm, depending on the focal length selected. This allows observers with eyeglasses to see the entire field of view at low powers, where the eye relief is 18mm, although some vignetting of the field occurs at higher powers. As you generally are looking only at smaller objects that do not fill the field at higher powers, the loss of some of the field edge due to vignetting is not usually a concern. The barrel of the eyepiece in marked in both magnifications with an 80mm Pentax spotting scope and in focal lengths for astronomical observing. An index mark shows the power in use.

As with any zoom eyepiece, the precise focal length or magnification of the Pentax zoom at any given point in time is not all that important. The experienced observer invariably adjusts the zoom magnification to match the seeing conditions and object size as he looks through the eyepiece, rather than first setting the zoom to an arbitrary focal length value according to the scale on the side of the eyepiece and using it at that power no matter what the seeing conditions. The flexibility of a zoom to instantly match the magnification to changing lighting or seeing conditions is one of the zoom eyepiece’s chief advantages. Match that flexibility to Pentax-grade optics and you have an exceptional tool for any observer – terrestrial or astronomical.

For astronomical use, the zoom is usable for medium to high power observing with telescopes of all optical designs – from long focal ratio refractors down to fast f/4.5 Dobsonian reflectors. The eyepiece is relatively heavy and physically large, so some care is needed in balancing free-moving astronomical telescopes (such as Dobsonians) when this eyepiece is in use. The eyepiece container listed below is recommended purely as a replacement should the standard plastic container supplied with the eyepiece be lost or damaged.

Pentax CA35 Adaptor:

Allows you to connect a Pentax K mount SLR camera to your Pentax PF series spotting scope to create a super telephoto lens.

Pentax K T Mount attached onto the Pentax camera body, then screws onto the CA35.

Please note that stock levels do fluctuate so please call or email to check today's stock before placing your order.

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