Celestron Regal or Regal M2 Spotter ???? (1 Viewer)

[gcole]

Hi all .... Its been a few weeks since the 65mm M2 version of the Celestron Regal I had ordered arrived. I would also like to mention I owned three of the older Regals, a 65 & two 100mm models before I owned the M2. The reason I did not keep the first Regals was the stiff & uneven operation of the focusing. The first thing I did when I took the M2 Regal out of the box was try the fine focus ...wow, nice & smooth with one finger. Next was the coarse focus. Let me say before I go further ..... I really wanted to like it but ...... for me the coarse was just to hard to move. I needed two fingers & sometimes a third because the two kept slipping. After that I just put it in the box & back it went. If I were to buy another Regal just because of the great optics & put up with the not so perfect focusing I would wait for the Regal 1 version prices to come down again, like they did when they went from the Ultima ED to the first Regal. ... gwen

 

[eitanaltman]

Gwen -- do you have any comments on the actual optics? Does it look the same or better than the first version Regal? And was the weight difference noticeable?

 

[gcole]

Gwen -- do you have any comments on the actual optics? Does it look the same or better than the first version Regal? And was the weight difference noticeable?

I found the objective coating on the M2 to be a little darker,along with the rubber armor having a more quality look then the Regal 1, but I did not like the color. Hand holding the scope I felt no real significant weight differance & since it was overcast with light snow in the air, the only quick look I took thru the zoom at its lower Power gave me no real indication one way or the other of its overall optical quality over the Regal 1. I did remove the zoom which was difficult to do , even more difficult to to put back in. Why Celestron would not make the ocular collar more user friendly like the Pentax EDII ... easy in , easy smooth out. How hard would that have been to do. I really did not spend alot more time with it because of the focusing. Even if the M2 showed a slight improvement over the Regal 1 optically, not paying more detail to what seemed to me could have been very easy to make real improvements to the focuser & ocular collar killed it for me. I think spending $499. for the Regal M2 would be better spent toward the purchase of a Pentax EDII, which here in the USA can be had for only a few dollars more & some places less than $499. ..... gwen

 

[FrankD]

The question that immediately pops into my head after reading your original post Gwen was whether or not your concern was an issue with quality control or a design flaw. In other words, was your sample representative of the focusing tension for all units or did you just receive a sample that was poor in that area.

Granted, I am not downplaying the importance of quality control if that was the case. That is a whole 'nother issue to discuss.

I will be sure to pay particular attention to the focusing tension/feel on the unit I receive whenever it arrives.

 

[Lost Arra]

Disclaimer: The M2 is my first decent spotter so I have much less to compare.

Coarse focus on mine has more resistance than the fine but is still a one-finger operation. Maybe I'm heavy handed. No complaints here. Plus I just got my new fluid head and I'm real happy.

Disclaimer 2: While doing spotter research within my budget if I had found the angled Pentax 65 EDII+eyepiece for $499 I would have bought it.