I was looking for a set of $500 binos last year as I'd been using some cheap Nikon Action 10x50s for many years and wanted something a bit more compact such as 10x40s. The shock to me was that several I tried didn't even come close to the clarity or brightness of what I already had in the cheap Nikons. I tried Minox BL German 10x42s, Nikon Monarch 3 10x42s, Vortex Viper HD 10x42, and Zen Ray ED2 10x43s. I tried them out behind my house in bright light and as light faded in the eve, mostly looking at pine cones and leaves on trees from 200-350yds. My Nikon 10x50s were better than the Minox, Monarch, and Vortex, but the Zen Ray ED2s blew them all away hands down. I could resolve far more detail with the ZRs. I bought a set of the ZR ED3s after the comparison.
My bud that loaned me his ED2s for the test had told me that he thought they were comparable to Swaro and Leica. I thought that was a bit far fetched, but I was very impressed at how much better they were than the others for my little test.
