You will hear negative things about the Minox porro's lack of FOV but its only noticable if you are stacking it next to a premium roof. The image sharpness and brightness in the sweet spot of these porro's are as good as any bino I have looked through-the smaller FOV is a no brainer compromise IMO. The 10x minox is my back up 10x glass to my Zeiss FL.
A couple more binos to keep a look out for in your price range.
The new Bushnell Elite ED is great, I have seen deals on them. ED glass, diaelectric prism coatings. Bright and sharp, flat field quality Japan bino. I had a pair of these and a pair of the Original $1000 elites and had a hard time deciding which to keep. This bino is like a new diaelectric nikon monarch with the addition of ED objectives.
Used or new Vortex Viper
A used original Bushnell Elite (split bridge EL styling).
IMO the Pentax DCF WP and SP have been outclassed by other binos in the same price range in the area of brightness. They are not as bright as more recent designs.
I was not impressed with the Bushnell china made Legend ultra HD, wide fov but lots of distortion and small sweet spot. I was also not impressed with the discontinued bushnell elite E2.
Last edited by Timberbuck; 04/15/11.
