| Now on display in our Cambridge showroom |
We received our first 14-inch RCX 400 in mid September 2005 and assembled it for display in the showroom. First out of the box was the field tripod and we were very impressed by the its quality and stability; it has a much more substantial feel than previous Meade field tripods. It also looks good.
The optical tube assembly is not as heavy as it looks, probably due to the carbon fibre tube, but it definitely requires two people to handle it safely. Fitting it to the tripod was simple and straight-forward. We didn't seem to have a problem locating it onto the central bolt as we sometimes do with the LX200.
The engineering looks good and Lee spent quite a bit of time playing with the collimation control. Fortunately there is an option to return the collimation to the factory setting. The same mechanisms are used for focusing and collimating and we were pleased to see that several focus settings can be remembered and recalled. This makes switching between eyepieces and camera configurations quite easy.
Overall, we think the RCX400 looks like a real winner. But don't take our word for it; come and see it for yourself. (P.S. if you're travelling some distance it might be prudent to ring first, just in case it's been sold and we haven't taken delivery of a replacement.)
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