Meade 32mm 5000 Plossl revisited

Well, after a bit more time and testing, I have finally decided that the Meade 32mm 5000 Plossl is just another Plossl with 60 degrees FOV that should have be 50-52 degree FOV. The correction on the edge would have been better at the normal FOV I believe and the stretch was done at the cost of edge performance. On axis is pretty good, but not better than a 32mm Celestron or a 30mm Gold Parks.
The build is nice and I like the adjustable eye guard.
I guess I just expected more of the new EPs than they can deliver. They are not bad, but they are not great either. I guess they are middle of the road EPs.
I would like to try a few of the other types they offer now, but I think I will pass on them for now.
The EP will stay in the case for now. I will give it some more time and try to find out what it does best and what scopes it performs the best in as well. I am betting the SCT and other slow scopes is the target for these EPs.

Floyd,

I have come to the same consensus with my 5K 32mm PL. It is just another Plossl-like eyepiece and it doesn't like scopes faster than f/7 or so. It works okay in my 10" SCT and 5" f/8 refractor, but so do a lot of other eyepieces for the same price or less. In my faster focal ratio scopes, it starts breaking down noticeably at the edges. Since I spend most of my time these days on my 17.5" f/5 Dob, the eyepiece just doesn't get used.

I was a bit miffed at Meade's original marketing of these eyepieces for faster scopes. However, I haven't seen that in their current ad copy (they have reserved the SWA's and UWA's for faster scopes in their current advertisements). So perhaps they reconsidered the appropriateness of this eyepiece for their f/4 SN's as well.

The things I like about this eyepiece that make it stand out a bit from others of this ilk are the eyecup (sans grease) and the lighter weight for a 2" form factor.

It will probably collect dust in one of my secondary cases for a few years. And that is too bad, because I really believe that Meade had an opportunity with this line of eyepiece.
Best Regards,
David Moody