The last telescope you will ever need to buy - Svbony SV550 122mm Full Review

[@BurningFlame1999]

Svbony now sells the 122 mm triplet with 1399$, 200$ less than last year.

[@mikenofi281]

I think the price is very reasonable for a 5 inch APO refractor. It is about $300 below competitive models. Svbony has a winner telescope!

[@cattaraugustonawanda4426]

Thanks for the great review! I received my SV550 122 yesterday and "The last telescope you will ever need to buy" seems very true to me. The build quality is as good or maybe a touch better than my SV503 80ED. Lack of handle is a problem for me but hopefully that can be remedied soon.

[@BogdanDamian]

@cattaraugustonawanda4426 Congratulations on your new telescope! Let me know how you like it once you get to test it. Svbony told me soon after the review that they would release a handle bar for the SV550 122 soon. Clear skies!

[@BurningFlame1999]

Nice review. Can you please tell me which one I should buy for visual observations (not astrophotography): a Bresser 102/1000 mm for 300 $ or a TS Optics 70/420 mm ED FLP-51 for 430$ ? I don't know which of the two would have a better performance / resolution. Bigger apochromats are simple too expensive for me. Other types of telescopes are not an option for me since I don't want to bother with collimation. Thank you!

[@BogdanDamian]

@BurningFlame1999 Thanks! For visual the 102 Bresser should be the better choice. The larger aperture will catch more light and the longer focal length will eliminate a lot of the chromatic aberrations and also be more forgiving on the eyepieces.

[@BurningFlame1999]

@@BogdanDamian Thank you a lot for the answer :)

[@mitsuracer87]

Hadley 114mm/900mm

[@jpastroguy]

Compared to other large aperture refractors of top quality, the price on the SVBony 122mm is a great deal in my opinion. I have never been disappointed with my SV50380ED scope and I expect this one to be similar in quality and even better in performance!

[@stefanfeichtenbock6949]

Hi Bogdan! Thanks for the awesome review. Can't wait to get my hands on the big one from Svbony 👍

[@michaelklemm-abraham7298]

Thanks for the review but there is something wrong about the technical details: There need to be at least two different types of Glass. SVBony states that the middle element is made from FPL-51, the other elements have to be some other kind of material. I didn't yet find any information on the glass type.

[@BogdanDamian]

@michaelklemm-abraham7298 That is correct, the first and third objective element are made out of a different types of glass than the middle one. Both contain Lanthanum(III) oxide among other elements. Unfortunately Svbony didn't specify which ones these are.

[@palmereldrich]

Saved me the trouble😮 of posting the same ? ❤

[@Astronurd]

SvBony always use the cheaper FPL51.

[@williammitchell3586]

Clearly, visual performance must be the most important parameter when assessing a telescopes performance whether visual or astrophotography.

[@edf2953]

Excellent review Bogdan. Thanks for being so candid about the difficulties you had with the focuser. This seems like a pretty big issue. Even though it is a preproduction unit it seems that it should have been corrected before it was sent to you. Hopefully, this flaw will be corrected prior to going to production. Anyway, another great video.

[@fastbow9]

The draw tube issues you describe are interesting! I order the new SV48P 102 and it has the opposite problem if I use 2 inch components I hit the stop going in before reaching focus! No answer from SVBONY about it, I requested a refund and they didn’t respond! The tube is about an inch too long it seems.

[@MountainFisher]

Sounds like you needed a Barlow with the lens screwed off to use as a spacer. It is fairly easy to make a handle, I made one for my C6-N with two aluminum angles 50mmx50mm and I bolted them to the rings measured and cut a round wood dowel 25mm round to fit and drilled a hole in the center and put a 30mm long wood screw in. Solid enough to hold the weight of 12 lbs or 5.5kg.

[@BogdanDamian]

@MountainFisher The idea with a Barlow lens without a lens as an extension tube would work as well. I guess I never thought of building my own handle bar, thanks for the tip.

[@MountainFisher]

@@BogdanDamian You can make an even simpler handle by cutting a 13mmx30mm board just long enough to fit across your scope rings and cut two more pieces 25mm long and glue them on the ends of the handle. Then measure and mark holes to drill out and put bolts through and bolt the handle to the rings through the handle with the blocks underneath. Just file the ends to smooth them out, paint to match your scope and re-attach.

[@michaelnixon6672]

I have purchased the telescope and find its operations work great with astro cameras but with eyepieces I am having the same focusing issue. So your advise to add a focuser adapter before the diagonal should resolve my problem. Great video.

[@BogdanDamian]

@michaelnixon6672 Congrats on the new telescope! Thanks for confirming the issue with the focusing when using eyepieces. I believe that this telescope was designed with astrophotography first in mind.

[@JoseNavarroCo]

Same here! Thanks for the review!

[@michaelnixon6672]

Haven't had the chance to try yet, need a mount! Will be giving you a update! Love the vids as well.

[@BogdanDamian]

@michaelnixon6672 Nice! Looking forward to hearing from your experience with the SV550.

[@rajamanohar8004]

Sir the telescope is really looking very nice.

[@3dfxvoodoocards6]

How big was the difference in visual observstions between the 102 ED doublet and the 122 ED triplet ? Is it worth it to pay 3x more money on the 122 ED triplet ?

[@BogdanDamian]

@3dfxvoodoocards6 Like with everything else, a telescope upgrade obeys the rule of diminishing returns. To get that last 10-20% of optical performance you need to pay up progressively more the closer you want to get to 100% (perfect). The 122 is definitely not 3x times as good as the 102, but if you are looking for a bit of improvement, then there is no way around paying it's price. Where the 122 shines, though, is when comparing it with other similar telescopes. In this scenario I believe it offers one of the best price/performance ratio on the market today and is definitely worth it's asking price.

[@stevenlarkin1706]

Guess the focal ratio was too high for the tube length. It will need a different objective with a smaller f ratio.

[@WilliamBlakers]

Another interesting review, but can I suggest that you don't do preproduction unit reviews? As these are not what the end user is going to get I will have to wait for a production unit review to know whether it is a good scope. Im into 3d printing and so many of the Chinese manufacturers were sending pre production machines out for review that were bad( and some were downright dangerous). The reviewers would make an honest review vid and then the manufacturers would try to claim that it would be fixed in the production units. A lot of reviewers refuse now to do pre production reviews because of this.

[@BogdanDamian]

@WilliamBlakers Thanks, it's definitely something I will keep in mind for future reviews.

[@demej00]

I would love to have this, or a duplex. BUt, I only have 4 months out of the year I can observe so will stick with my current scopes.

[@biplobroy5808]

As you mentioned here that the company persons assured you that the issue with improper length of sharp focussing was a case of discreet problem and is not a common problem with all the products of this model , but if such other types of technical problems found to exist , will they arrenge to replace the faulty one with a perfect one at their expenses ? Or the subscriber will have to arrenge for that at his or her own expenses ? Because it's not so easy to manage all such technical issues for an amateur user unless he is very very expert with enough potency to manage all these ?

[@enriquejesu4512]

Hey damian I checked out the prodob series im planning to buy the Omegon prodob 16 inch truss telescope (yes im aware it’s over 130 pounds and yes I’m aware it’s huge) Do you got any views on it? The price for it sounds too good to be true.. Thanks in advance

[@BogdanDamian]

@enriquejesu4512 Hey! It's not the 16", but I do have a review of the 12". The Prodob series is great and if you don't mind the size and weight, then the 16" will make for an awesome telescope. kzbin.info/www/bejne/oqCzoXl9hZKGncU

[@enriquejesu4512]

@@BogdanDamian thanks for the quick response and insight! There’s really no review on the 16 in telescope from the prodob series and the price I see for it sounded a little too good to be true, but asking someone who owns a telescope from the same series give me less doubt about its optics and overall performance. Again thanks for your quick response👍 clear skies!

[@alexanderhlebnikov3382]

Has anyone compared this telescope with the Maxvision 127ED? (or Deepsky 127ED, ES 127ED, AT127EDT) How do they differ in image quality and presence of chromatic aberrations?

[@3dfxvoodoocards6]

The specifications are almost identical, the main difference being the aperture 122 vs 127 mm. I guess the image quality would be almost identical too, the 127 mm triplet images would be a little just a little brighter.

[@ishanr8697]

I would like to compare it to my 105 mm f / 9.5 Mak. At over 8x the price and 2x the weight, I think I'll probably stick with my current travel setup. And for home I have a 305 mm Dob with a binoviewer. I don't think this is going to beat that on and object that I can fit in the FOV...

[@BogdanDamian]

@ishanar8697 Compared to my 4" SkyMax Mak and my 12" Prodob, the sv550 delivers significant sharper views. The sv550 is also brighter than the Mak but not the Dob (makes sense given the aperture difference). Contrast-wise the sv550 is roughly on par with the other two. Hope this helps

[@ishanr8697]

@@BogdanDamian Thanks for the reply, I'm sure it's a superior scope to my Mak and for the price it really should be! One day maybe...

[@palmereldrich]

​@@BogdanDamiancontrast SIGNIFICANTLY better than ANY obstructed system OR it should be.

[@Billy-je6mq]

How did you get the bino viewers to work on you dob? I have a 10" bresser and was looking at forums and people were saying it's extremely hard to get bino viewers working on a dob something to do with focal length

[@Billy-je6mq]

I was looking at the max Bright 2 bino viewers

[@kamilmoucka6811]

Hi Bogdan At first glance, the telescope with the 854 mm focal length seemed short to me. So when it goes on sale, it will probably have to have a slightly longer tube and thus of course more weight, although not by much. I have a 12" Dobsonian, so this telescope will probably pass me by.☺

[@BogdanDamian]

@kamilmoucka6811 I love my 12" dob as well, but in terms of sharpness it can't keep up with a premium refractor like this one. It allows for higher magnifications and brighter views though. There are always tradeoffs I guess 🙂

[@kamilmoucka6811]

@@BogdanDamian I agree with that, of course. I still remember the little 56/540mm Carl Zeiss Jena triplet refractor from the former East Germany that I owned 40 years ago. The pictures of the moon and the planets were simply amazing. But to resolve the tighter binaries and more detail on the planets the tribute was lacking.😄

[@bitslizer]

Things change fast, a matching handle will be released, SVBONY has already show it on Facebook

[@BogdanDamian]

@bitslizer That is great!

[@TheNarrowbandChannel]

With most eyepieces that I tried around 55 is were it focused for me.

[@BogdanDamian]

@TheNarrowbandChannel Thanks for letting me know! Then it's only my unit so far with this problem.

[@vince953]

After starting with a dobsonian, what would be the next scope to consider purchasing for visual use?

[@BogdanDamian]

@vince953 If you are happy with your Dob, then keep it. Dobs are incredible versatile and can be modded to improve the performance very easy. If, however, you want to experience something new/different and size and price is no object, than a 5" - 6" f7-f10 APO refractor would be worth checking out.

[@palmereldrich]

​@@BogdanDamianeven a super 4inch F/9 Hint Evostar

[@whatmattersmost6725]

Correction SVBONY DOES NOT MAKE THIS OTA! It made by KYO, which make many refractors! Well SVBONY lied to you as KYO designed due to there capabilities and I would agree SVBONY was given some choices and or there was some input, but SVBONY is not an expert in scope designing but a very good value that's what SVBONY is...

[@deepskywindow]

Thanks for the review, looks promising! I think the focuser issue is just related to being a pre-production unit. I actually got confirmation from Svbony that they will have a handle available specifically made for this scope, similar to the one for the 80mm

[@anaragani]

Thanks!

[@whatmattersmost6725]

FYI, I really don't think Svbony makes this scope. They may have done some features such as the 122mm size, but I don't think they make it! More than likely it's made by the same company's in China that also make the AstroTech and similar scopes. Not a bad as some of the made in China scopes are very good!

[@BogdanDamian]

@whatmattersmost6725 According to my contact at Svbony they really designed this telescope themselves from the ground up. What factory ultimately made it, I don't know. But I agree, the scopes coming out of China right now are really good.

[@whatmattersmost6725]

@@BogdanDamian I bet it's made by "KYO United Optics"

[@3dfxvoodoocards6]

Is there any other company that sells the 122/854mm FPL51 triplet ? I don’t think so.

[@k.h.1587]

Sometimes a "name" partners to bring out a new product, with a chinese manufacturer. The problem with China is that intellectual property means dick to them. Give it a few years and it will be an astromania 122mm fpl51 triplet for 2/3 the cost. I highly doubt svbony owns an optics factory. They are definitely a rebrander. But when a rebrander gets popular and successful, the OEMs will start to build stuff for them to different spec. But the exclusive period can be quite short. That is why it is better to use taiwan or japan, like televue did.

[@whatmattersmost6725]

@@3dfxvoodoocards6 What you may not understand when you contact say KYO and ask them can you make a 122 or make something different? There are scopes very close to the SV122, and fact I own this scope and optically it's very good for the money but the focuser is less quality then the glass. But for the $$ hard to beat..

[@danielbrowniel]

If it cant do what a C14 can do, I'm gonna keep saving., but if this would work with a solar kit, I'd take it.

[@BogdanDamian]

@danielbrowniel I asked myself the same question regarding whether the sv550 would make a decent solar scope. I might try this out in the future.

[@danielbrowniel]

@@BogdanDamian Considering the expense of just an 80mm Lunt solar scope, it would be interesting to match that up against this. Mixing and matching parts scares the hell out of me when it comes to looking at the sun, I think I would be happy with a dedicated scope. It just sucks that what I really want cost 6 GRAND and there is no way in hell it is worth that much to me. I would go 3, but the solar scopes for 3 are not worth 3 to me, they are worth 1K.. Solar scopes break my heart.

[@k.h.1587]

​@@danielbrownielit sucks when your solarmax 60 gets stolen after you lost your position to both earn money and have access to astronomy gear deals

[@anandarochisha]

I had a 5 inch and a 4 inch Astro-physics. Lost em in a nasty divorce. Nice scopes. After that I was broke and found a used Questar 3.5. Very sweet for solar system objects which is my thing. Now I am building a 24 inch superplanetary Cassegrain.

[@BogdanDamian]

@anandarochisha Sorry to hear about your old scopes, but the 24" Cassegrain sounds really awesome! Love to hear some details on it when you got the time.

[@gooe9561]

Congratulations on the divorce, and the new scope. Two birds, one stone. Clear skies!

[@anandarochisha]

@@gooe9561 thank you..I saved my soul on that deal. Love my Q3.5. The Cassegrain is going slow..it's a bit humongous in a bunch of ways. Have a great day..

[@anandarochisha]

@@BogdanDamian 623mm physical diameter, 610mm optical diameter main parabolic mirror. This mirror is 127mm thick low expansion Pyrex, with center hole 130mm diameter. F/ 4 native focal length 2500mm. Enhanced coatings 96% by QSP. Weight is 35kg. Secondary is 146mm. 48mm thick. Hyperbolic and same coating as primary. Weight is 1.51 kg. Mag. Factor 5X Both optics 1/20th wave. Total System focal length @f/20 Is 12233 mm. Main mirror Strehl is .980 Central obstruction is 24%. Made under contract NASA. Mirror cell 18pt. Steel. Made by Baker-Nunn & Associates. If it was a pig it would feed the entire wedding and I am struggling with it. Work in progress.. OK.. trying my best wish me luck. My dream is a superb night of seeing with a 9 Nagler on Mars. Have a great day.

[@k.h.1587]

It is funny what some people consider broke. A used questar is not in range of any truly broke person, unless the seller was a tweaker with a stolen Questar or a really uninformed person who got the price from a picture of an etx90 and thinking the Questar was one of those. So sir, you were never close to "broke", just "relatively broke" , losing HALF of an incredibly rich or at least super upper middle class (assuming half as the standard divorce situation), set of assets, having 2 large AP scopes, replacing them with a Questar (which is yes cheaper, but also costs as much as many 5" apos and the.cheapest 6" apos), and building a 24" anything and an.an observatory is no where near ANYONE in the real world's idea of "broke" This has been poked fun at in movies and sitcoms before, what the rich and sheltered consider suffering. I had encountered a girl from an Uber rich family, $50k a month allowance, no credit limit.card that daddy paid for etc... she thought her family wasn't rich because they didn't own a private jet... but I am sure their yacht(s) is(were) quite nice. Now my situation, never being truly rich but getting a taste if it at a young age with a low 6 figure trust fund, mostly.lost to.bad investments, and a mid 5 figure life insurance payout (also lost a good bit to poor financial management), finally going to work for an astro retailer after too many years as a professional community college student, and à freelancer in 2 of the fields (audio and photo). Still making in the low-mid 30k range, but being able to afford decent used astro gear that came through the store at a huge discount (10% over a similar amount a pawn shop would pay so we could sell at the going used rates), as well as when there was a sale or clearance. And then losing ALL of it to tweakers and not getting a dime from insurance since I had to put the storage in my mom's name because I was moving from a smaller unit in the same location and couldn't get the decent move in rate otherwise. That was being broke, as I had previously had a breakdown and was forced onto disability, not much hope of rebuilding after a total loss with no compensation, being on disability and having to hide on a boat since it was impossible to get live aboard in my part of the world, on an SSDI.check from.a.job that only paid $36k or so, even being the top salesman there, 1% gross commission without margins being taken into consideration, I was being robbed by them for years too . So naturally I had to keep everything in storage. And when I got.kicked out of the marina and facing van life until housing assistance kicked in, some.tweakers saw me loading in guitars and fishing rods, and 2 weeks later they hit the jackpot and got all of my music, pro audio and astronomy gear, and I had way more pro audio.gear than I did astronomy gear because I was planning on opening a studio ,.that never happened, but I had pretty much all of the gear except the large console, over years of collecting when i was still on the trust fund. Mt mic case alone was worth a nice solid imaging rig or more. I keep having periods of major bad luck where either some tweakers, or a corrupt city/county or impound yard, robs me and I get ZILCH in.compensation.

[@masterblaster2796]

Brother, hear me now and believe me later, the focusing issue was not a problem with the focuser. I had the exact same problem a couple years ago with their SV503 (102mm) that had been on the market for a couple years already. SVBaloney has been notorious for making refractors with tubes too short for the F/Ratio of the Lens. It's that simple. And instead of having the tubes re-made properly, they just market their scopes anyway. Typical of the Chinese commercial system. They make very nice quality accessories, but I wouldn't touch their scopes if they were priced 60% off. I sent mine back to them for refund straight away.

[@3dfxvoodoocards6]

I have the Svbony 102mm ED and I don’t have any problem with focusing. Everything works great. But who knows maybe other customers had that problem.

[@adamk8915]

Did Svbony let you keep it? Did they pay you for the review?

[@deltacx1059]

Good if you have the money but that's alot of money for not alot of scope, sure it's apo but if you have that kind of money I'm sure you can pull off something far better for your money. In my opinion if you really want a refractor you are better off getting a good doublet and a filter wheel, if you have the money to spend on this scope then you are probly using a astro cam anyway and if you are doing visual then a reflector would fit better.

[@3dfxvoodoocards6]

The Svbony 122mm FPL51 triplet costs 1400$ now. For that amount of money you can at best get a 110 or 115mm FPL51 doublet or triplet made by other companies.

[@deltacx1059]

@@3dfxvoodoocards6 that price definitely is brutal.

[@Dann-md9eq]

Nice video. It would be better to tone down the intro volume as soon as you talk so that we can hear it coz it's loud. Thanks

[@Astronurd]

You don't calibrate a telescope to reach focus. It's the lenses that are ground to be a certain focal length.

[@Alpamayo84]

Hej, patrząc na Twój "nick" nie trudno się domyślić ze jesteś z Polski. Mam racje? Z wypiekami na twarzy oglądam każdy Twój nowy film, pozdrawiam.

[@BogdanDamian]

@Alpamayo84 Hi! I'm polish, but I get asked this question often. Glad you enjoy my videos 🙂

[@psegre]

So you didn’t take pictures with the telescope, yet you’re making a ‘review’ of it? Is that a joke??

[@PathOcculted]

He didn’t make a salad with it either how will we know 😭

[@k.h.1587]

​@@PathOccultedhe has a point. 1/2 of the 2 main reasons for buying a triplet apo is imaging

[@PathOcculted]

@@k.h.1587 right. I was being snarky

[@adni7]

This is a paid review