OK,What are the best 15 x 70 binoculars then?

[Highburymark]

I have used three different BA-1 15x70 types: Celestron Skymaster (returned due to black gunk in the optical pathway and bad collimation), Omegon Nightstar 15x70, and a TS 15x70 pair. The Omegon lasted me a long while, and bagged me loads of objects under southern skies. Great value for money, but both optically and mechanically not that good compared to heavy hitters like the BA-8 I own now (Helios Apollo HD). They are quite easily knocked out of collimation, and as I was comparing them to the Helios, the (fairly wobbly) bridge holding the EPs broke . The TS 15x70 is better in terms of coatings, but otherwise similar to the Omegon. The Helios Apollo is great, but I might replace it by the 16x70 Lunt, or the 16x80 Vixen Arc due to eye relief issues.

The Lunt looks very interesting - just read Steve's excellent review. Mighty tempted. But then the Vixen Arc also looks superb - definitely the style winner in this class. The pricing structure is interesting - the 16x80 Vixen is under £500 while the other x80 Vixen models are around £690, while the equivalent badge engineered Opticrons are all in the high £400s.

[Highburymark]

I should add to the above that the 16x80 Vixen is only under £500 because it is £250 off on one particular website. Elsewhere the whole 80mm Vixen Ark range is around £750 - stunning looking binos but much pricier than the Opticron.