Hi,
I’m currently looking for a good tool to improve the collimation of my newtonian telescope, and so I found the well known OCAL collimator.
I thought the last one was the 3.0 pro max but no, the 4.0 is now out. It seems to have better resolution but a smaller aperture.
My question is, why is the 4.0 100€ cheaper than the 3.0 pro max ??
if you have any advice about this or an advice for which one should I buy, I’m taking !
thanks in advance !
CS
Gabriel
I cannot speak to why the 4 is cheaper, but I’m using the 3 Max, and very happy with it.
Easy and precise.
Take a look at MetaGuide’s collimation feature, it wont cost you a dime…
Tony Gondola · Aug 29, 2025, 11:59 PM
Take a look at MetaGuide’s collimation feature, it wont cost you a dime…
Yes but it doesn't give an answer to my question :(
Christian Bennich · Aug 29, 2025, 04:46 PM
I cannot speak to why the 4 is cheaper, but I’m using the 3 Max, and very happy with it.
Easy and precise.
Some told me Ocal is not selling enough 3.0 so they decided to lower the price of the 4.0 but.. Hum not convinced 🙄
My question is, why is the 4.0 100€ cheaper than the 3.0 pro max ??
if you have any advice about this or an advice for which one should I buy, I’m taking !
There’s a page on OCALs website showing differences between these cameras. It is vague though.
I am new to newtonians, using the Ocal 3.0 max and I am very happy with the results. (My setup is F2.8 and very sensitive to collimation.)
When I purchased them, there were not many videos on how to use them and it took time to figure out how to use it to get perfect results.
Just an extra piece of advice, Ocal is just a digital cheshire and will not solve all the problems related to collimation. If you have a good understanding of the collimation, you’ll find it easier to collimate with it. .
Hi.
I will Post a comparison image between 3max and V4 this Saturday.
I will try it on a 10” newt F4 with a starizona Nexus reducer installed which makes focusing challenging and also I would be happy about the extra resolution. (But it worked with the 3max)
Ocal 3 MAX:
Ocal 4:
verdict: the sensor resolution when zoomed in and noise is much much better on the OCAL 4.
This would allow much finer positioning of the centric circles and collimation.
BUT - my example has a quite severe sensor tilt on focus.
you can see that I dont have to go down to 0 to get the main mirrors center mark into focus with the ocal 4. but way before that, the image is shifting quite a lot.
With the ocal 3 max i need to go down to 0 but the image stays stable all the way.