I have the 503 80ED with the flattener/reducer. It's my first scope and I think it's great. The SV550 looks like a good upgrade path, especially since I can use the flattener/reducer that I already own.
I had a 4 inch F10 achromat and now I have the 4 inch F7 FPL51 Svbony. To my surpise the 4 inch FPL51 Svbony has a significantly better image quality. The difference is much bigger than I expected in favor of the 4 inch FPL51 Svbony.
I've had this telescope for a couple weeks now. I love it. I've had two Stellarvue refractors in the past, and I'll take this one any day of the week. The one problem I have is that with the field rotator, an OAG, a filter wheel, and camera, you only have about 3 millimeters of room between the fully retracted position and perfectly focused position. With the EAF on board, the ASI Air has difficulty focusing because of lack of room. I had to take the rotator off. It works perfect with the rotator off, but I'd love to have that rotator. He isn't kidding in the video- the rotator is very nice. That is the only flaw though- infocus room. I don't think they intended folks to use an OAG, but if you do, you'll have to deal with this issue.
I was wondering who would comment on the outfit! And you'll find out soon enough. I'll be sending you the scope soon, if you'd like to review it that is.
Hello. Did you try the 550 with you 102mm focal reducer? I'm trying to use the 550 with the 80mm reducer, but have no clue about the backfocus distance needed.
I could use some input - all are welcome to respond. I have been doing wide-field astro for over 20 years and I love it. I've been looking at going into deep-space astro, but am a little overwhelmed at all of the options out there. A friend did lend me his his Meade ETX-125EC telescope and I have purchased an adapter for my Canon cameras, but I still have to take it for a test drive. If I were starting from scratch, which star tracker, lenses, tubes, would you get. I don't mind paying a little more for the good stuff, within reason. Thank you for any help with this!!
A Bresser 127/1200 mm f9.4 achromat costs just 430 $ and a Bresser 152/1200 mm just 770 $. Aren't those achromats better for normal observations then this 80 mm APO's considering the much bigger aperture ?
@@Astronurd i depends what kind of AP. For solar AP - achro are great because use use only a fraction od light. For mono cameras also achro are good, only you have to match channels. APO has got huge advantage with OSC cameras and with EAA - where it's hard to compensate chromatic abberation
It's been overcast since I got mine, but with just terrestrial testing this thing should be pretty impressive... It's far more solidly built than I thought it would be and the optics are tack sharp... We will see, in a year or two once clear skies return how well I can do with it on the sky
Nothing wrong with FPL51. The 53 is within 99.9% of True Flourite. The 51 is more like 81% But if you can't afford the steep pricing of the elite Fpl53 APOS the 51 is a great compromise. The Orion EON 130 uses fk-71 which is basically fpl 51 and it does a pretty damn good job. For $2600 it's going to be a lifetime scope for those that can't afford paying triple for that extra 20% of performance. And that's difference of course is theoretical. You definitely can't see 20% difference at the eyepiece or the camera sensor. Most probably won't see 5%
The review was very good. The way to objectively pun intended test your apo when without a camera is its power ability upon luna with steady skies. Rare of course. But if you can get way past 300X your doing great.
@@3DAstroTC very Strange, i used 55mm and got coma pointing to the Center on all edges. Shouldnt it mean Not more than 55mm? Will try out 46,5 too. Did. you notice asymetrical spikes around the Stars (no Flattener). Mine has 😥
@@3DAstroTC So, I'm trying to visualize that. What's the total distance between camera chip and flattener? I use an OAG along with a filter wheel, so maybe it is already the right distance??????
Nice scope BUT, for this price point one is better off buying the William Optics GTi71 Triplet with FPL 53 Osaha glass. Also, Initial ads by SVbony showed the SV550 using FPL53 glass What happened ?
For astrophotography, aperture doesn't matter as much as it does for visual but for visual, aperture does matter. When we were in locked down i did a lot of testing between telescope size from 8inch to below with both refractors and Newtonians and using aperture masks. One example i always use is the Trapezium in Orion, i could never split this into 4 distinct stars with apertures less than 80mm, only 3 stars in a 70mm telescope. 80mm telescope has 30% more aperture than a 70mm telescope. You don't just get a bright view, you also gain the ability to reveal more detail. Put 2 telescope of equal aperture together, one of 51fpl and the other 53fpl glass and show me the difference. We have all see the numbers on the forums but we all know too well that build quality and the atmosphere are what controls what can or cannot be seen and how well we can see the objects and the SvBony is built like a tank, solid build quality and no colour fringing on bright objects like an ED or achromat telescope. The William Optics GTi71 in the UK is £895, the field flattener is another £209, then add about £50 for the camera rotator, then add delivery and you are look at almost £1,160 and has 71mm of aperture, 30% less than the SvBony SV550. I bought the SvBony SV550 with handle, plus camera rotator and field flattener for £700 and has 30% more aperture. If i was going to spend almost £500 more, i would just buy the Sky-Watcher Espirit as it has 80mm of aperture for £1,200 which comes with a 50mm finderscope and 2 inch diagonal. The SvBony with its extra aperture would show more than the WO GTi71 no matter the type of glass. I would also go as far to say that the ST80 may also show more than the WO too, at least until the image breaks down because of chromatic aberration. While we are comparing telescopes just on price, noting wrong with this if budget is limited, just remember, people buy Takahashi for much more than these prices at less aperture. There is a lot to think about when buying a telescope and a fair comparison is not always possible, so many more things matter than the type of glass, if you really want to split hairs, you can buy a 130mm Skywatcher PDS for a quarters of these telescopes, the image would be upside down but you get a lot of aperture for your money, they just cant really be used for daytime spotting scope and as a telephoto lens. There is always a cheaper and more expensive option and paying more isn't always giving you the best results for your money, i saw one of your other comments, you should be good with your 102mm, you could do a lot worse.
@@allnamesaretakenI can easily spot the difference between FP51 and FPL53. CA is easily spotted in the 51 but I admit that you do have to look for it.
Hi, you mentioned that the new flattener is for FF cameras. I don’t have neither in dslr nor cmos format. Do I need a flattener if I use the ZWO 294 pro camera? I own the SV503 80mm fr/ff that I bought last year.
I have a 294mm arriving this week, very cool! I did this review with my ASI1600MM, which has a similar size 4/3 sensor. Without the field flattener, the curvature was quite apparent, my stars looked like crap the further from center of frame.
I might just be that shallow 😂 but really though, it is a great scope. A bit higher priced than I'd like, but it's performance won't disappoint if well handled.
Never was a big fan of SvBony. Some products are not that bad, but I would much rather have another brand for the same money than SvBony. It's just, I don't know, so, crappy... And the name, come on, who comes up with that silly name...
@@SvbonyOfficial I love the products, but the name needs re-work . You really did not think this through. So Very Bonner, So Very Bony, Shitty View Bony, and the list goes on. I was at a astro party and they would not stop making fun of my 102mm SV503. I would suggest a name change...For all our sake. No offense, you asked...
I have the 503 80ED with the flattener/reducer. It's my first scope and I think it's great. The SV550 looks like a good upgrade path, especially since I can use the flattener/reducer that I already own.
Thanks for the review. Concise and insightful!
I had a 4 inch F10 achromat and now I have the 4 inch F7 FPL51 Svbony. To my surpise the 4 inch FPL51 Svbony has a significantly better image quality. The difference is much bigger than I expected in favor of the 4 inch FPL51 Svbony.
I've had this telescope for a couple weeks now. I love it. I've had two Stellarvue refractors in the past, and I'll take this one any day of the week. The one problem I have is that with the field rotator, an OAG, a filter wheel, and camera, you only have about 3 millimeters of room between the fully retracted position and perfectly focused position. With the EAF on board, the ASI Air has difficulty focusing because of lack of room. I had to take the rotator off. It works perfect with the rotator off, but I'd love to have that rotator. He isn't kidding in the video- the rotator is very nice. That is the only flaw though- infocus room. I don't think they intended folks to use an OAG, but if you do, you'll have to deal with this issue.
I think you can remove the extension tube from the flattener and have more room for backfocus.
Nice shirt! Now I need a 7Up. I wonder if my 102mm focal reducer would work.
I was wondering who would comment on the outfit! And you'll find out soon enough. I'll be sending you the scope soon, if you'd like to review it that is.
@@3DAstroTC Perhaps I can soon. Right now I am in the middle of moving. We got a place in the country.
Hello. Did you try the 550 with you 102mm focal reducer? I'm trying to use the 550 with the 80mm reducer, but have no clue about the backfocus distance needed.
Great review!. You don't have any trouble with the backfocus of the flattener in front of the 56 mm stated by ZWO for the camera and filter wheel?
I could use some input - all are welcome to respond. I have been doing wide-field astro for over 20 years and I love it. I've been looking at going into deep-space astro, but am a little overwhelmed at all of the options out there. A friend did lend me his his Meade ETX-125EC telescope and I have purchased an adapter for my Canon cameras, but I still have to take it for a test drive. If I were starting from scratch, which star tracker, lenses, tubes, would you get. I don't mind paying a little more for the good stuff, within reason. Thank you for any help with this!!
Great review, love your content!
A Bresser 127/1200 mm f9.4 achromat costs just 430 $ and a Bresser 152/1200 mm just 770 $. Aren't those achromats better for normal observations then this 80 mm APO's considering the much bigger aperture ?
Not for astrophotography.
@@Astronurd i depends what kind of AP. For solar AP - achro are great because use use only a fraction od light. For mono cameras also achro are good, only you have to match channels. APO has got huge advantage with OSC cameras and with EAA - where it's hard to compensate chromatic abberation
Very good video. Very good review. Love it.
Nice review, would the Flattner for the 550 work with the 503 80mm?
Not sure, I didn't try that combination.
It's been overcast since I got mine, but with just terrestrial testing this thing should be pretty impressive... It's far more solidly built than I thought it would be and the optics are tack sharp... We will see, in a year or two once clear skies return how well I can do with it on the sky
Nothing wrong with FPL51. The 53 is within 99.9% of True Flourite. The 51 is more like 81% But if you can't afford the steep pricing of the elite Fpl53 APOS the 51 is a great compromise.
The Orion EON 130 uses fk-71 which is basically fpl 51 and it does a pretty damn good job. For $2600 it's going to be a lifetime scope for those that can't afford paying triple for that extra 20% of performance.
And that's difference of course is theoretical. You definitely can't see 20% difference at the eyepiece or the camera sensor. Most probably won't see 5%
Great review!
What happened to your SV503 video?
The review was very good.
The way to objectively pun intended test your apo when without a camera is its power ability upon luna with steady skies. Rare of course. But if you can get way past 300X your doing great.
Is it better than a Askar 71F?
Thanks for this oveview
Hi, what is the backfocus you need to be able to use the 0.8 field flattener? From the flattener to the camera or to the sensor.
I used a 20mm spacer, ZWO EFW and ZWO ASI1600MM. So that comes out to 46.5mm from flattener to sensor.
@@3DAstroTC thank you very much
@@3DAstroTC very Strange, i used 55mm and got coma pointing to the Center on all edges. Shouldnt it mean Not more than 55mm? Will try out 46,5 too. Did. you notice asymetrical spikes around the Stars (no Flattener). Mine has 😥
I didn’t think a field flattener was required for a triplet?
Unfortunately they're are required for triplets. It's Quadruplets that usually don't need them, that 4th lens in place to act as the corrector.
What backspacing did you use with your .8 f7 flattener. You mentioned you had to adjust the backspacing a little bit.
I used the M48 to M42 adapter that came with my ASI1600MM (16.5mm) and a 5mm M42 spacer. After that was the filter wheel and camera.
@@3DAstroTC So, I'm trying to visualize that. What's the total distance between camera chip and flattener? I use an OAG along with a filter wheel, so maybe it is already the right distance??????
Please, tell us the total distance from flattener to camera sensor.
Nice scope BUT, for this price point one is better off buying the William Optics GTi71 Triplet with FPL 53 Osaha glass. Also, Initial ads by SVbony showed the SV550 using FPL53 glass What happened ?
For astrophotography, aperture doesn't matter as much as it does for visual but for visual, aperture does matter.
When we were in locked down i did a lot of testing between telescope size from 8inch to below with both refractors and Newtonians and using aperture masks.
One example i always use is the Trapezium in Orion, i could never split this into 4 distinct stars with apertures less than 80mm, only 3 stars in a 70mm telescope.
80mm telescope has 30% more aperture than a 70mm telescope. You don't just get a bright view, you also gain the ability to reveal more detail.
Put 2 telescope of equal aperture together, one of 51fpl and the other 53fpl glass and show me the difference. We have all see the numbers on the forums but we all know too well that build quality and the atmosphere are what controls what can or cannot be seen and how well we can see the objects and the SvBony is built like a tank, solid build quality and no colour fringing on bright objects like an ED or achromat telescope.
The William Optics GTi71 in the UK is £895, the field flattener is another £209, then add about £50 for the camera rotator, then add delivery and you are look at almost £1,160 and has 71mm of aperture, 30% less than the SvBony SV550.
I bought the SvBony SV550 with handle, plus camera rotator and field flattener for £700 and has 30% more aperture.
If i was going to spend almost £500 more, i would just buy the Sky-Watcher Espirit as it has 80mm of aperture for £1,200 which comes with a 50mm finderscope and 2 inch diagonal.
The SvBony with its extra aperture would show more than the WO GTi71 no matter the type of glass. I would also go as far to say that the ST80 may also show more than the WO too, at least until the image breaks down because of chromatic aberration.
While we are comparing telescopes just on price, noting wrong with this if budget is limited, just remember, people buy Takahashi for much more than these prices at less aperture. There is a lot to think about when buying a telescope and a fair comparison is not always possible, so many more things matter than the type of glass, if you really want to split hairs, you can buy a 130mm Skywatcher PDS for a quarters of these telescopes, the image would be upside down but you get a lot of aperture for your money, they just cant really be used for daytime spotting scope and as a telephoto lens. There is always a cheaper and more expensive option and paying more isn't always giving you the best results for your money, i saw one of your other comments, you should be good with your 102mm, you could do a lot worse.
@@allnamesaretakenI can easily spot the difference between FP51 and FPL53. CA is easily spotted in the 51 but I admit that you do have to look for it.
Hi, you mentioned that the new flattener is for FF cameras.
I don’t have neither in dslr nor cmos format.
Do I need a flattener if I use the ZWO 294 pro camera?
I own the SV503 80mm fr/ff that I bought last year.
I have a 294mm arriving this week, very cool! I did this review with my ASI1600MM, which has a similar size 4/3 sensor. Without the field flattener, the curvature was quite apparent, my stars looked like crap the further from center of frame.
even tho I can't afford this and will never have one, it's an amazing piece of equipment
FPL 51 is from theory suitable for a so called „semi apochromat“. Visual okay.
Whoever has the most red anodized aluminum in their rig wins.
I might just be that shallow 😂 but really though, it is a great scope. A bit higher priced than I'd like, but it's performance won't disappoint if well handled.
They are just rebranding the same scope as TS, Astrotech...
There's a lot of that in this hobby. Even the high-end stuff. There are only so many ways to put glass in a tube.
Never was a big fan of SvBony. Some products are not that bad, but I would much rather have another brand for the same money than SvBony. It's just, I don't know, so, crappy... And the name, come on, who comes up with that silly name...
😂 Bro, No offenses.May I know Why U think of the name?
@@SvbonyOfficial no offense taken 😂... Bony, it just sounds silly... It's a personal thing I think.
@@DirkDirk1983 no problems. Bro, don't worry about it. Maybe it's a little difficult to pronounce the name epescially"SV"😂
@@SvbonyOfficial I love the products, but the name needs re-work . You really did not think this through. So Very Bonner, So Very Bony, Shitty View Bony, and the list goes on. I was at a astro party and they would not stop making fun of my 102mm SV503. I would suggest a name change...For all our sake. No offense, you asked...
@@Nick-we7lf its your social communication problem not the brands name