Hi Duncan, I had a VC200l and sold it to buy an 8" RC. I am still yet to be convinced it was the right move to make.
Imaging with the VC200L was effortless, the field was flat right to the edges of the field with the only thing I didn't like was the thick spider vanes which gave bright stars a very large diffraction spikes and tended to make the bigger stars appear as diamond shaped. The focuser was not the greatest but did work OK. No replacement focuser was available but I think that has changed. Vixen also make a dedicated reducer for this scope which reduces the focal length to 1200mm.
The 8" RC suffers from a dodgy focuser which must be replaced and works quite well once you get a suitable field flattener and position it correctly.
All up both scopes have their faults and with some expense they can be overcome. Same choice again and I probably would have stuck with the VC200L and arranged a machine shop to reduce the thickness of the spider. Both are a bit touchy on collimation and require good collimation for good results.
I hope this helps.
Some images taken with a stock standard VC200L and some with the reducer can be viewed on my website.
http://www.darkskyau.com/cm/thumbnails.php?album=10