Svbony 406P/46P 80mm spotters anyone? (1 Viewer)

[wllmspd]

I’ve bought a few cheap generic astro parts from Svbony before and just noted they also sell some 80mm ED spotters.
Both come with a 20-60x zoom and seems to get reasonable reviews. The interesting part is the 406P advertises it can also take 1.25” astro eyepieces (don’t know about the 46P). Fixed focal length astro eyepieces can deliver much better and wide field performance than zooms and are more cost effective that OEM spotter eyepieces.
Has anyone tried one of these scopes and added a decent astro eyepiece to it? Both have ED glass so should have low colour fringing. Of course that’s not everything and there are many other aspects in play too. Amazon reviews seem to be fairly positive too.

My current spotting options are smaller aperture and rather weighty (>2kg), so these scopes might give brighter view and be easier to carry. Cost seems rather competitive too?



Peter

 

[GeorgeL]

No experience with their spotting scopes but I’ve tried a couple of Svbony eyepieces on my Pentax spotting scopes and they were very good.

 

[BKoh]

First off, the SV46P has a fixed eyepiece so it's not what you want.

I bought the SV406P 4 months ago.

TL;DR: for anyone unwilling to pay for alpha glass, the SV406P is outstanding value for money.

Eyepiece: The provided eyepiece is identical to the SV171 (8-24mm) except that it lacks filter threads.

My usage: I mount it on a Sirui VA-5 video head atop a Sirui EN-2004 tripod. I observe visually but also take pictures using my Samsung Galaxy Note 9 handheld to the eyepiece. With the eyeguard down, I get the full field of view with my eyeglasses. I raise the eyeguard 2 stops when taking pictures with the Note 9.

Visual: Sharp and CA-free even at 60x, to my eyes. Black bird against white sky, no problem.

Digiscoping: A bit of CA visible (2-3 pixels wide) if you zoom in all the way.

My other eyepieces (all Svbony):
23mm aspheric (plastic US$10 eyepiece)
9mm "redline" (Orion Expanse clone)
18mm UFF (aka APM, Orion, Meade, Altair etc).

18mm UFF is by far the highest quality of the 3, at night it is my main eyepiece. Easy to use, sharp, no astigmatism etc. I tried it during the day, very good views, 27x and 2.4 deg TFOV, but I went back to the zoom for convenience.

If you want a fixed focal length eyepiece for day use, I think the 18mm UFF is a good choice. The 15mm and 24mm UFF share the same optical design so they should be good too, just watch out for eye relief - 15mm apparently not usable with glasses, and 24mm has 29mm eye relief so without glasses there could be problems too.

9mm is very sharp but has SAEP (kidney beaning) so unusable in daytime and finicky at night. But great views of the Pleaides, Beehive Cluster, Ptolemy's Cluster etc.

23mm provides 20x and a wide field (~3 deg TFOV calculated). Eyeguard is short and fixed, eye relief is 23mm. During the day sometimes I go too near and get blackouts. Good for lower power wide views when birding at close range. Night use is fine. I don't use it much any more, the zoom is still more convenient. It is an OK eyepiece and superb value for money, but I have basically replaced it with the 18mm UFF.

Other notes:
1. SV406P eyepiece chamber is only about 25mm deep due to the sealing window (for weatherproofing and to keep the nitrogen in). Eyepieces with longer barrels will stick out and need more inward focus travel.

2. Focus travel, like all spotting scopes, is limited. Eyepieces with the focal plane too far inside the body (towards the eye) may not reach focus.

I tried a SV152 (crosshair/20mm/70 deg, same as Agena eyepiece) but it would not focus to infinity so I returned it. This eyepiece has the focal plane halfway inside the body to allow for an illuminator, so it requires a lot of inward focus travel in any telescope.

(I have been studying Ernest's eyepiece reviews on astrotalks.ru to figure out which eyepieces are likely to focus at infinity. Longer barrels can be OK if offset by focal planes that are inside the barrel, away from the eye.)

3. When pointed at a brick wall the 23mm aspheric shows only about 10-15% more bricks than the 18mm UFF instead of the 20% expected from TFOV calculations. This might be due to vignetting from the sealing window. However Ernest (of astrotalks) measured the AFOV of the 23mm at 57 deg not the claimed 62 deg, so maybe the clear aperture is indeed 27mm.

Finally, a picture says a thousand words so I attach a few pictures taken with the standard eyepiece, all handheld with my Note 9.

(pictures)
Full moon
Collared Kingfisher
Sweet Potato Bug
Common Flangetail

 

[pluton]

The zoom eyepiece of Your Svbony spotting scope have some blackout problem? For observation without spectacles?

 

[BKoh]

The zoom eyepiece of Your Svbony spotting scope have some blackout problem? For observation without spectacles?

Without spectacles, if I go VERY near I can induce a blackout. If I raise the eyeguard 1 or 2 stops, no blackouts.

 

[pluton]

Anyone have used with the Baader zoom eyepiece Mark I?

 

[nkbj]

Has anyone tried the SV406P 65mm scope?

 

[Pepitogrillo]

Anyone tried the SV406P 80mm with an eyepiece of 4 or 5 mm?
Which is the best ep. For wide angle, and the best for high magnitudes in this scope?
Thank you.

 

[BKoh]

Anyone tried the SV406P 80mm with an eyepiece of 4 or 5 mm?
Which is the best ep. For wide angle, and the best for high magnitudes in this scope?
Thank you.

I recently bought a 4mm TMB clone, but weather has been poor so I have not used it much. I did try it at a nature reserve for a close up of a stork, see attached. At long distance, due to the atmospheric distortion it was not useful. At night it seemed sharp on the Moon but Jupiter and Saturn were hidden by clouds.

"Best" is subjective and also depends on focal length. Note that the eyepiece chamber is only about 25mm deep so eyepieces with longer barrels may not fully insert and therefore may not come to focus. I suggest studying Ernest's eyepiece reviews on astro-talks.ru here:

Окуляры - astro-talks

Качество изображения окуляров - astro-talks

where he measures the quality of the image as well as eyepiece barrel length and position of focal plane. The safest choices would be those that have barrel lengths of 25mm or less and require little or no additional focus travel.

 

[Saxatilis]

I too bought a Svbony 406P spottingscope in December 2020 and in my opinion it is unbeatable in terms of value for money (€ 263). I have used it little this winter (I also own a Nikon ED 82a Fieldscope) but the quality of the ED optical glass is excellent in relation to the price especially for the reduction of chromatic aberration. The 20-60x zoom is also very good and it holds up well at high magnifications. The possibility of interchanging the 1 "25 eyepieces is very interesting. The carrying bag is well made and the level of construction seems to me at least decent. I am still undecided about the purchase of a fixed wide-angle eyepiece: the 18mm UFF interests me particularly but 23- 24x magnification with the 406P seem to me to be a bit low. However, this 406P is a real bargain in my experience.
Greetings,

 

[wllmspd]

I use a 12-13mm wide angle (Nagler/Morpheus) in my spotter as the main eyepiece around 30x, with 7mm or so for higher power. How does the Svbony keep up with the Nikon?

peter

 

[nkbj]

I too bought a Svbony 406P spottingscope in December 2020 and in my opinion it is unbeatable in terms of value for money (€ 263). I have used it little this winter (I also own a Nikon ED 82a Fieldscope) but the quality of the ED optical glass is excellent in relation to the price especially for the reduction of chromatic aberration. The 20-60x zoom is also very good and it holds up well at high magnifications. The possibility of interchanging the 1 "25 eyepieces is very interesting. The carrying bag is well made and the level of construction seems to me at least decent. I am still undecided about the purchase of a fixed wide-angle eyepiece: the 18mm UFF interests me particularly but 23- 24x magnification with the 406P seem to me to be a bit low. However, this 406P is a real bargain in my experience.
Greetings,

The focal length of the SV406P is 430mm according to the product page: SV406P 20-60X80 ED Extra-Low Dispersion Dual Focus Spotting Scope so a 14mm eyepiece should give 30-31x magnification. I think that would be a nice “standard” eyepiece.

 

[Saxatilis]

Wllmspd, nkbj, thanks for your opinions.
As for the fixed eyepiece, I was thinking about a14mm eyepiece (Explore Scientific or Max Vision) with 82°. The old Fieldscope ED 82 is optically superior and its glasses are finer IMHO: after all, its price class was significantly higher. The differences are not so dramatic however, above all they are not proportionate to the difference in cost and the Svbony is very enjoyable.

 

[BKoh]

I too bought a Svbony 406P spottingscope in December 2020 and in my opinion it is unbeatable in terms of value for money (€ 263). I have used it little this winter (I also own a Nikon ED 82a Fieldscope) but the quality of the ED optical glass is excellent in relation to the price especially for the reduction of chromatic aberration. The 20-60x zoom is also very good and it holds up well at high magnifications. The possibility of interchanging the 1 "25 eyepieces is very interesting. The carrying bag is well made and the level of construction seems to me at least decent. I am still undecided about the purchase of a fixed wide-angle eyepiece: the 18mm UFF interests me particularly but 23- 24x magnification with the 406P seem to me to be a bit low. However, this 406P is a real bargain in my experience.
Greetings,

The official Svbony page claims a focal length of 430mm, but I don't think that is correct, as the standard 20-60x zoom eyepiece is clearly the same as the SV171 8-24mm eyepiece (minus the filter threads). Therefore the scope is probably 480mm, which would match almost all the 80mm scopes out there. 430mm should allow the scope to be at least 10% shorter than 480mm scopes in physical length, but it isn't. Possibly someone from the factory handwrote the original spec sheet and the 8 in 480 was misread as 3, and the typo was just copy-pasted onward.

I have the 18mm UFF eyepiece, it is very good for both day and night use, however I still prefer the convenience of the zoom when birding. If you are willing to spend more you can get the 15mm UFF from astronomy stores, but I doubt the magnification difference is worth the price premium.

 

[BKoh]

Wllmspd, nkbj, thanks for your opinions.
As for the fixed eyepiece, I was thinking about a14mm eyepiece (Explore Scientific or Max Vision) with 82°. The old Fieldscope ED 82 is optically superior and its glasses are finer IMHO: after all, its price class was significantly higher. The differences are not so dramatic however, above all they are not proportionate to the difference in cost and the Svbony is very enjoyable.

I also want to get an 82 degree eyepiece, but I wear eyeglasses and the limited eye relief of most such designs (typically 12mm) is off-putting.

The 16mm WO UWAN (also available from TS, FLO, Opticstar etc) has been reported to actually have 15mm eye relief, but its barrel is too long (33mm) to seat fully in the chamber (25mm deep) which means it will probably not come to focus.

Check the barrel length and inward focus requirement of any eyepiece you want to buy, or only buy from a place that allows returns. Besides ES/MV, Televue Nagler and Baader Morpheus could also be choices if budget allows. Personally I am waiting for reports of the upcoming APM super zoom - if it works as advertised it could be a one-EP solution.

 

[nkbj]

The official Svbony page claims a focal length of 430mm, but I don't think that is correct, as the standard 20-60x zoom eyepiece is clearly the same as the SV171 8-24mm eyepiece (minus the filter threads). Therefore the scope is probably 480mm, which would match almost all the 80mm scopes out there. 430mm should allow the scope to be at least 10% shorter than 480mm scopes in physical length, but it isn't. Possibly someone from the factory handwrote the original spec sheet and the 8 in 480 was misread as 3, and the typo was just copy-pasted onward.

That could explain the somewhat odd focal length. Otherwise the 20-60x zoom eyepiece would have to be a 7.2-21.5mm, but those I have seen (Lunt/Omegon/TS Optics) have 15mm eye relief.

I have begun to look for a SV406P in Denmark. If I find one, I will compare it with my Celestron Trailseeker 80.

 

[BKoh]

Anyone tried the SV406P 80mm with an eyepiece of 4 or 5 mm?
Which is the best ep. For wide angle, and the best for high magnitudes in this scope?
Thank you.

I was able to test my 4mm TMB clone eyepiece again today. In bright sunlight (noon), on a dragonfly (common flangetail) at minimum focus distance (6m), the image was very good. Definitely more detail than the zoom at 8mm. I could see not only the hairs on the dragonfly's legs but also the joints in its legs, the teeth in its jaws, the ridges on its back connecting the wings etc. Really enjoyable view, for me actually it was outstanding, by far the nicest closeup view I have had of a dragonfly.

The downsides: I was unable to get a decent digiscope image with my smartphone, possibly due to vibration at 120x. And locating the dragonfly took a few minutes due to the limited field of view (58 degrees AFOV, 0.48 degrees TFOV). Fortunately this individual stayed on the same branch for many minutes, so I was able to take my time to find and study it.

Bottomline: The scope's optics are able to handle 4mm/120x without any problems. However, due to tripod vibration and limited TFOV, I would not expect to use it for fast-moving creatures. If you have a very stable tripod and use a 82-degree eyepiece, things could be easier for you.

 

[nkbj]

There seems to be some confusion about the zoom eyepiece focal length. In this answer on Amazon a seller (SVBONY Direct) writes that it is 7-21mm: Amazon.com: Customer Questions & Answers.

I have just ordered a scope from Germany. It should arrive within a couple of weeks.

 

[BKoh]

There seems to be some confusion about the zoom eyepiece focal length. In this answer on Amazon a seller (SVBONY Direct) writes that it is 7-21mm: Amazon.com: Customer Questions & Answers.

I have just ordered a scope from Germany. It should arrive within a couple of weeks.

Yes, a friend who owns the same scope alerted me that the standard zoom eyepiece is not a clone of the SV171 8-24, but rather a clone of the SV191 7.2-21.6, same as the Orion 7.2-21.6. Therefore the scope is indeed 430mm FL. Sorry for the confusion!

 

[wllmspd]

I’ve just picked up a 12.5mm Morpheus to replace my current main spotter eyepiece a 13mm Nagler. As I am using reading glasses more and the Nagler has limited eye relief and noticable distortions and kidney beaning I thought the change worth making. With the Morpheus it’s easy to take in the whole field, unlike the Nagler where the edge is hard to perceive,
So it doesn’t feel a smaller field. The Morpheus is huge and heavy in comparison, but still gives very nice views.

peter