Last Saturday at the LAAS site at Lockwood Valley, California I got to do some real comparison testing as well as just testing of the 127 ED. The sky earlier in the evening was quite good and gave a chance to evaluate the spot size and color accuracy as well as flatness of field and FOV with wide field EPs.
I used Pentax XLs (10.5mm, 7mm) TV Naglers 22mm, and a few Zeiss, Pentax and Nikon Orthos of 10mm, 10.5mm, 12mm and 12.5mm for testing.
I asked others there to help with the evaluation and to give their opinions on the EPs and the scope.
The scope was much better than I thought it might have been. The flatness of field was incredible and the color correction was excellent with only small amounts of blue around very bright stars. Star test performed by myself and others showed excellent results. Many commented on the flatness of the whole field with perfect pinpoints edge to edge. The pinpoint size was extremely small, in fact smaller than the 85mm TV beside me. Open clusters showed pinpoints that were so small that they just seemed to go on for ever.
I got a few statements that the view was the best that they had personally ever seen of the Double Cluster with a depth that made it a walk in space experience. 
The color of the stars in cluster I compared to those in APOs there and they were identical. No signs of smear or loss of color or changes in tone could be seen between the ED and the APO scopes. So visually, it performs very close to an APO.
Over all I would say that as a visual scope this has got to be one of the best deals I have ever seen for the price. I am sure that as a photography platform it will not perform quite a well, but as a visual scope this is a very good 5" that the price did not break the bank.
I used Pentax XLs (10.5mm, 7mm) TV Naglers 22mm, and a few Zeiss, Pentax and Nikon Orthos of 10mm, 10.5mm, 12mm and 12.5mm for testing.
I asked others there to help with the evaluation and to give their opinions on the EPs and the scope.
The scope was much better than I thought it might have been. The flatness of field was incredible and the color correction was excellent with only small amounts of blue around very bright stars. Star test performed by myself and others showed excellent results. Many commented on the flatness of the whole field with perfect pinpoints edge to edge. The pinpoint size was extremely small, in fact smaller than the 85mm TV beside me. Open clusters showed pinpoints that were so small that they just seemed to go on for ever.
I got a few statements that the view was the best that they had personally ever seen of the Double Cluster with a depth that made it a walk in space experience. The color of the stars in cluster I compared to those in APOs there and they were identical. No signs of smear or loss of color or changes in tone could be seen between the ED and the APO scopes. So visually, it performs very close to an APO.
Over all I would say that as a visual scope this has got to be one of the best deals I have ever seen for the price. I am sure that as a photography platform it will not perform quite a well, but as a visual scope this is a very good 5" that the price did not break the bank.
[SIZE="Large"][/SIZE][COLOR="Blue"][/COLOR] Floyd Blue
Amateur Imager
