Big binocular choice?

[Alfian]

Hi all, I have some ageing 12x60 binos and am looking to upgrade to 15x70s or possibly 20x80s. I had pretty much decided on 15x70 Helios Quantum 4s but following online chat with Martin at FLO - I’m perhaps steering towards the Celestron Cavalry 15x70s.

However (there’s always a but!), I can’t quite get the idea of 20x80s out of my mind.

There are a lot of cheaper 20x80s on the market - Celestron, Revelation, Visionary etc. - most of which look almost identical - but are they? My Visionary HD 12x60s have been OK but I’ve never been sure whether the HD actually made them any better than the competition or whether the HD tag was just a marketing thing. The Visionary 20x80HD are some £30-40 more than Celestrons but are they better? The 15x70s seem a good practical package but any thoughts would be appreciated - and yes - I’d love some Apollos - but no I can’t afford them!

[BinocularSky]

If you are considering the Cavalry, you should first read the two 27/08/2013 posts of this thread on CN. My interpretation: better optical quality than the Skymaster (OK, so that's possibly damning with faint praise), and probably not stopped down so much, but prisms probably still only "clipped" in so prone to being bumped out of collimation.

[Alfian]

Thanks Steve, thats a useful link - an improvement on the standard 15x70 - but so they should be at effectively twice the price - sounds like the jury is still out on them. Mmmm! Looks like the Quantums are a better bet. Beginning to wonder - (as much as it pains me) whether to just wair - save more money and go for some Apollos.

To go off at a bit of a tangent though - I've noticed TS Optics do their own 20x80 "Semi Apo" triplets for £199 euro (about £190 including postage) - are they as good as they look?

[rowan46]

Thanks Steve, thats a useful link - an improvement on the standard 15x70 - but so they should be at effectively twice the price - sounds like the jury is still out on them. Mmmm! Looks like the Quantums are a better bet. Beginning to wonder - (as much as it pains me) whether to just wair - save more money and go for some Apollos.

To go off at a bit of a tangent though - I've noticed TS Optics do their own 20x80 "Semi Apo" triplets for £199 euro (about £190 including postage) - are they as good as they look?

I have the 20 x 80 ts semi apo triplets and optically they are fairly good almost no false colour, a very sligt hint of yellow/green on the one edge of the full moon, however I have twice had to take the screwdriver to them to collimate them which is twice more than I would have done on a good pair of binoculars. I have a pair of 8x42 minox second hand which get fairly banged about as they go everywhere with me. I have never touched them and they must be 5or 6 years old by now. My ts are a little too fragile for my taste so I probably havent had them out in a year

[Alfian]

Thanks Rowan, useful information. Binos keeping their collimation seems to be a bit of a issue on some models.

[Damo636]

There's a 15x70 Helios Apollo in the classifieds at the moment.

[BinocularSky]

an improvement on the standard 15x70 - but so they should be at effectively twice the price

Yup, they cost about the price of two decent astronomical eyepieces instead of just one.

Sorry to continue banging on about this but, given that comparison, exactly what quality and, more importantly, quality control, is it reasonable to expect?

[Alfian]

Point taken Steve - thanks. Thanks Damo.