Excellent but not quite alpha - Nikon Monarch HG 8x30mm Roof Prism Binocular

A great, large, contrasty, pleasant and easy field of view. Perhaps a touch warm toned, with the contrast recalls the "look" of Leica but with better FOV than most of their offerings. Ergonomically they are great with good hinge tension and a smooth focus that is free of backlash. For me the eye relief works perfectly - The M7 8x30, Opticron Traveller and just about all other compact bins lack enough eye relief for me with glasses. With the M7 I have to mash my glasses into my face to get the full field of view but with these there is a couple extra mm available and I get a pleasant and easy, comfortable view without having to try too hard.

Optically they are plenty sharp in the center for realistic birders' needs. I would say a bit sharper than the M7 and with a larger sweet spot, but the edge of the field does go soft and they obviously aren't as sharp as a Swaro EL or Zeiss SF. I would say they are very close to as sharp as my Conquests, but with a much better FOV and a more pleasant, contrasty image. Though other bins might be visibly a touch sharper, I think hand holding and atmospheric distortion will be issues for birding with these before any lack of sharpness, so they reach the critical threshold for me beyond which more resolution is nice but not really necessary.

For my desires, these are nearly perfect. Sure it would be lovely if the view were even more alpha level but they would then probably cost more. I also hope I don't have any armor peeling issues that seem to have been a plague for my friends with EDG models.