I've had these for several years using them for general nature viewing and the night sky. The optics are sharp, gather a lot of light, and the image stabilization is top-notch. Now for the downside. They are very heavy. You may well need to rest your elbows on a convenient (if available) surface to steady the image a bit more and to reduce fatigue. The eye relief is too long to acquire the entire field of view with the cups in the standard position. But when folded down, they are hard and very uncomfortable on your eye socket. I asked the pros at an optics shop if they could slice a ring of rubber off the bottom of the cups and slide the rest down for proper relief, but they said that the cups have a transverse tongue and groove connection with the eyepiece barrel and that it wouldn't be a good idea to alter them. Canon should come up with an optional, shorter replacement eye cup. Also, they really should provide, standard, objective lens covers. The afore-mentioned optics shop found a pair of screw-on caps from an old Tasco telescope that fit perfectly, but removing and replacing them can be a bit tricky as they are difficult to grasp. I am extremely pleased with, and use, my Canon IS 10x30s much more frequently and would recommend that you be prepared to return the 15x50s for a refund if you're not happy. We're talking about a lot of money.

Recommended: No