SVBONY sv503 70mm ED Refractor Review 

so how is it after a year of using it? I'm really considering it.

@@IonutNedelcu It’s great. What can I say? The corrections are excellent and the photos are sharp and crisp while the focuser is superb and being able to rotate it for the composition you want is a bonus. I essentially use two scopes: The SVBony and a Meade LX90 8 inch plus a couple of Samyang lenses for wide field. The scopes on an EQ5 pro and the lenses with my Nikon D5500 (I also have an SVBonyny 305 camera for planetary with the Meade and all that means I can capture basically anything.

@@earthling-fh2mg do you use the scope with a reducer? I've emailed svbony and they said they don't manufacture the reducer any more. Now I'm thinking I might stick to my Samyang for a bit more 😂

@@IonutNedelcu Ah! Have they said that? That’s very interesting because I (and another few guys) did not buy the specific reducer for the 70ED but bought the one for the 80ED because it was cheaper (I bought mine for £50 whereas the 70ED version was £150). There was one guy who had bought the specific 70ED version and was unhappy with it and concluded the 80ED version was every bit as good for the 70ED scope. I and others kept asking SVBony to explain the difference between the two and the price difference (on their facebook page) and while they said they’d get back to me/us, they never did. This was about 6 to 9 months ago I think. Anyhow, yes I use the 80ED reducer and, while not perfect to the edge (very few are) it does the job. 336mm FL rather than 420mm. I use the scope at 420mm too however.

I would recommend joining the svbony telescope club on Facebook! There are wonderful members who can help you with any questions and sales reps who can assist you in your journey. They have all been wonderful.

I would also note that my effective field is 360mm after the reducer/crop sensor added in.

You're absolutely right, my apologies. They've since added more types and they get confusing. Mine came with just the phone attachment. Pretty sure it's this one: amzn.to/3XBbjTQ

I've heard great things and have seen wonderful images captured with the 80 and 102ED! I got the 70 due to weight limitations on my Skyguider, otherwise I would have purchased the 102.

What mount do you use ?

Explore Scientific iEXOS-100 PMC-Eight Equatorial Mount, but of course I'd like a far more substantial mount.

No controller on the mount. It's an iOptron Skyguider Pro. All targets were found manually with this. You can attach a hand controller, but it would only move in RA only.

Now that you mention it, I do recall more CA while using my DSLR. And yes, from what I understand, some bad reducer/flatteners were sent out. Hoping that issue was taken care of - their customer support is very engaged with the customer base and takes feedback seriously from my experience. However, I will say that the flattener for the 70mm struggles with such a small aperture. My flattener on my new 102 does a wonderful job of adjusting the field and I have minimal CA.

@@bailesie yea, Svbony are still sending out the same reducers. And they said, there is no solution for it if I'm using a APS-C sensor🥲 Thanks for your update.. I'll be getting the 80ED instead🙂

Where did you order from? The bundle does typically come with the scope. If your order was over 500 then it should definitely be a scope bundle pack.

@@bailesie thanks for your reply. Yes,it was nearly 800€. Still no reply from Sbvony

ordered direct from their website

When you're imaging the moon, are you using any lens (barlows or eyepieces) between the scope and dslr? If you have something like a barlows you'll need a tube extender to achieve prime focus. With only my flattener attached to mine I never go past the 16mm marker when imaging DSOs or the moon. The brass screws (shown around the 3 minute mark on my video) are to remove the 1.25" eyepiece adapter and make it a 2" eyepiece adapter. The brass screws secure the 1.25" piece in place ^_^ It looks like your Canon 70D works best at ISO 1600. But anything between 800-1600 will work. Unless you're using a lens, you'll be unable to choose and F-stop when imaging with the telescope. The only factors you can adjust will be ISO and exposure times. That being said, depending on your target, your exposure times will vary. If you're imaging the orion nebula you'll need longer exposure times to get the faint whispy nebulosity on the outside (I do 2-3 minutes) but short exposures blended in so that you're not blowing out the core detail (I do 5-10 seconds). Other than that, you'd be fine with taking 2+ minute exposures of any other nebula without worrying too much. It's honestly all to-taste. Practice taking longer or shorter exposures of the same targets and see what you like best ^_^

Hi there! It is an artcise tripod (amzn.to/3VZOcRt) I got it on sale for about 100, but I definitely would buy it again. Nice and sturdy and rated up to 30#

You're still able to focus with no problem, it's just that rotating the back assembly for framing can be limited. I've discovered a couple different options for this: adding weight to the front end of the scope would eliminate the need for a longer dovetail bar to obtain balance, and would no longer block the rotation, or by purchasing a rotating ring adapter that mounts directly to the front end of the flattener. But I never really had a problem with any of my framing and rarely used it. When I did, those few degrees were plenty for my needs.

Any videos by Astrobackyard, Peter Zelinka or Nico Carver (Nebula Photos) on RU-vid were instrumental in getting me prepared and helped me to understand the fundamentals of equipment and stacking/editing. Then again, my adhd requires me to learn everything I possibly can before even buying one piece of equipment 😅

@@bailesie I've been doing mad research these past month. I found my eyes on the SVB or William Optics. The only question I have left is the weight issue. While the WO is lighter, it's more $ (app) while the SVB is still great, it's heavier and possible need a stronger mount, ^$$. One thing I haven't figured out is how well the telescopes work for FX cameras. It seems everything I've found, people use crop sensors. I have a Nikon FX MIirrorless. Hence why I'd like to get a basic telescope, start with moon photos, then go for nebulas. My tripod now is a 26lb ball head, so just Telesxope and Camera I think it's a good start.

Hey hey, thank you! 😁 I think you'd be pushing the weight limit on the tracker with the 80. The scope alone is pushing 8.5# combined with your camera/flattener would be around 10. Then add on a guide scope (if you plan on one) would put you at the limit. I *think* it's doable. I also don't know if that mount includes counterweights in the capacity, but most do not factor that in. I haven't seen the flattener for the 80 but I think it's anchored with thumb screws and not screwed in like the 70? I will say that I've recently learned that the 70 field flattener with a APS-C (or larger) sensor doesn't give a total flat field since the smaller aperture of the 70 has limitations. From what I know there is no such issue with the 80 or 102. Let me know how things work out and good luck! 😁

I've been doing a lot of the same research. I'm having a tough time considering which telescope to get because if you buy the 80mm, or another brand, the price jump for an equatorial mount is massive! Talking about $400 to about $900!! And that's a buzz kill. Also what makes its more annoying is the 70ED + the Flattener is MORE than the 80ed + Flattener!! LOL sooo I would want the 70ED but pay more.. ummm

Correct - the stock shaft was not long enough to get the RA balanced and so I got the extender. It adds minimal weight while still providing the leverage needed to get balance. As luck would have it, I still might need a few more ounces to get a perfect balance setup. But that need may go away once I switch from a DSLR to a dedicated astro cam. I'm still tinkering with balancing the declination axis, as I get weird balancing problems if I'm shifting it around to point at higher declinations. I don't think I would add any more weight to my setup. It tracks fairly well and I've been able to get pin-point stars at 3 minute exposures. I may try to see how far I can push it just for my own curiosity.

One guidescope, the other was a laser pointer to help point at targets 😊

iOptron Skyguider Pro 🤘

@@bailesie Thanks.

You can! I started out with nothing but a DSLR and tripod. Check out Nico Carver's RU-vid channel (Nebula Photos) for great tutorials with just a camera/tripod setup. Anyone cna do this, even with their smartphones.