Epics and Vixens and X-cels, oh my!

Sorry for the cheap Wizard of Oz parody, but the Wizards of Eyepieces seem to be churning out a large number of affordable long eye relief eyepieces lately. Our selections include Celestron X-Cels, Orion Epics & Expanses, Antares' new W70s and the venerable Vixen Lanthanums. There has been a lot of discussion of all these on this forum lately.

I've never quite understood the need for a long eye relief eyepiece above 15mm, but obviously those of us who wear glasses like them in the 5mm to 12mm range for higher power lunar and planetary observing. Given the options we now have available, is there any consensus on which ones are the best in sharpness and contrast for planetary use?

My 10mm X-Cel is a disappointment in my f8.8 refractor for planets. It is not sharp and contrasty, IMHO. I've gone to using a 40year old 18mm Orthoscopic, and with a barlow, I can get high mag and sharp views while wearing eyeglasses.

Just picked up a 2" Siebert 10mm Ultra, but haven't had enough clear skies yet to give it a fair try...I'd look at the Vixens and others for ER at this point.

Exactly the question I've been trying to answer. I've never cared a whole lot about eye relief until last year's Mars opposition when I started sketching at the eyepiece. I needed my glasses in order to sketch, but had to take them off to look through the eyepiece. Glasses on. Glasses off. Glasses on. Glasses off. It got really old after a while. I've since picked up a couple Radians (4mm & 5mm) off AM, which are nice and sharp (although with some false color off axis), but pricey even used. Lately I've been looking for a high quality but lower priced alternative (if it exists) in the 7-8mm range. In particular, I'm wondering about the Orion Epic-ED 7.5mm, and the Siebert Ultra Superwide 7mm.

Doug Scobel

Somebody experienced with eyepieces at all quality levels needs to be loaned a set of each and given an opportunity to check them out and compare them. It's hard to get anywhere with just a few trials. I bought a 20mm Expanse type and a 5.7mm Antares W70, and I'm already tired of actually BUYING these eyepieces, at least at full price.

Anyway, I know that in the years past there were inexpensive Plossls that compared well to the expensive ones and inexpensive Plossls that did not do as well. Stands to reason that the same would be true of these new offerings of more complicated designs that sport long eye relief and wider apparent fields of view.

What I'd like to home in on in this LER and SWA category of inexpensive eyepieces are the moral equivalents of Celestron's old Plossl line as they compared to higher quality Plossls. They didn't perform as well as the Ultimas or Tele Vue's, but for the most part they performed without making themselves conspicuously inferior in any particular way.
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Mike