Market Flooded???

Is the market place becoming flooded finally with APO refractors? There are new 5" apo's being offered at unheard of prices($3,790) and 66mm apo's included free with the purchase of 110mm apo's. Can one manufacturer actually get $7000 for a 5" anymore? The rest of the economy is correcting(auto industry anyway) does this not hold true for telescopes? Everyone needs a vehicle, but not every amature needs an APO! Hasn't supply exceeded demand yet???
I'm curious for what the future holds... 8O

>>>There are new 5" apo's being offered at unheard of prices($3,790) and 66mm apo's included free with the purchase of 110mm apo's. Can one manufacturer actually get $7000 for a 5" anymore?
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My thinking:

All APOs are not made the same. I am sure that a 5 inch $4000 APO is very nice, nicer than anything I own. I am also quite sure that a $7000 5 inch APO is even nice yet though that may only show up photographically.

Is the market saturated??? For this marketplace of one, amateur astronomy, it's an illusion and illusions are best done with mirrors.

jon

To be pedantic, there are no $3,790 5" APO's for sale yet, only the promise of one and prototypes afoot. The biggest unknown is if one will get the same optical and mechanical quality of this APO that one gets out of the current premium 5" units.

There is also the promise of a ~$1,800 5" APO refractor. Does anyone think that this lower cost APO will put the putative $3,790 5" APO out of business?

My guess would be that no, one will not get equivelent optical and mechanical quality from these scopes when they come for sale. I would also guess that they will be worth the money charge for them, giving the amateur a choice as to how much quality they are willing to spend for.

Philip

Timothy McDougall said:
...There are new 5" apo's being offered at unheard of prices($3,790) and 66mm apo's included free with the purchase of 110mm apo's. Can one manufacturer actually get $7000 for a 5" anymore? ...

Depending on how loosely a manufacturer defines the term "APO", it is quite possible that one can make a 5" for almost any price.

My own thinking on refractors is this: since they suffer from aperture restrictions and thus have no advantage when it comes to raw light grasp, why would you not want to have it produce the very finest image for its aperture? If that's the case, then at least they should be constructed with all the care of a carefully crafted instrument, rather than being a high volume machine-made injection molded toy sold at rock bottom prices?

As amateurs and consumers, it is you who drive the market. Be careful what you wish for.

Rolando

I just came home from the Photokina in Colon, there you can find 5" Triplet apo F/8 on GEM for $ 800 only , but you can also find 5" for $ 3,000 and startest of both are such good, that I would not buy any of them , not even for $ 500.

You could find Items at the Photokina, which you know from some well known and respected manufactors, who claim they make this items indoor at here own company .

This Photokina teached me do not bvelieve anymore any word of most manufactors who claim, we make it ourself.

But this photokina teached me also that some companys are able to sell very very nice looking telescopes with chunk optics and still have a big customer support.

I learned China is still light years ahead for supply of real high end optics and high end mechanics.

greatings from the Photokina,

Markus Ludes