[mental4astro (Alexander)]

Came across this old thread. So, replying to Steve's original post, I thought I'd share some of my own experiences with some of these eyepieces.

LVW: These are probably the most forgiving eyepieces I know. Forgiving in that they can be used in just about ANY telescope design and perform very well in all of them across their whole range of focal lengths, with the 30mm being the odd man out. I've used them in my fast Newtonians, in fast refractors and slow SCTs and Maks, and the only major change is a slight eye relief change with some. To ask an eyepiece to perform exactly the same way in a fast Newtonian to an SCT, to a Mak and to a fast refractor is a big ask. Very, very few eyepieces can do this and do it well, and even fewer across their whole focal length range. The 30mm is the weakest member, and this is also noted by Vixen with its different appearance despite the "LVW" label - it does not perform well in fast Newtonians.

XW: These are much more varied in their performance as they are very much telescope design sensitive. They do no all perform the same as the LVW's in different scopes. As an example, the 10mm XW is fantastic in fast Newtonians, but its performance in an SCT is no where as good - eye placement becomes much more critical and difficult. The 14mm shows significant field curvature in fast Newtonians, but it is a better optical match in slower Maks and SCTs [a coma corrector will improve the 14mm in a fast Newt, but the need for a coma corrector to improve field curvature in this eyepiece/scope combo shows a deficiency in the eyepiece/scope match]. One or two other XW's also show eyepiece/scope design optical mismatch. But when there is an optical match, damn they are good!

Which gives the better image? This is very subjective, but I would say there really isn't anything much between them as they are all stonking great (setting aside any optical mismatches). For me to split hairs is just too subjective for this post.

Which to get? Well, my cop-out phrase here is 'it is upto you'. Performance wise I would say the LVW's are stronger as they perform well in different scope designs. The XW's have a wider AFOV, but are more scope sensitive for which you need to figure out which is best for your scope/s.