I have been switching from binoculars to binoculars over the years: Bushnell, Vixen, Nikon, you name it. I found all the binoculars are similarly made if the quality and price range are about the same. With the discussion of high quality ED glasses from some relatively little known brands like Promaster or Hawke, it seems I have paid too much for the name before. I guess I should keep my mind open and get whatever has the better performance/price ratio. Thanks to the internet, we can read the real expert review on this forum, instead of reading from magazines, each one of which has its own winner binoculars (covert paid winner? ;))

I like the test of time the bestest.....

I have been running a test of to end binoculars for the past three months and Hawker does have a point. The difference between the top names is not as much as many believe and some of the biggest name (and most expensive) are not always at the top in resolution or brightness. They are all close though and often times the real quality (durability and handling) aren't visible at the store.
I'll be doing a feature in either Successful Hunter or Rifle this winter but will say that there are many great binoculars available and it would be an unusually picky hunter who could not be happy with a Zeiss, Leica, Nikon, Swarovski, Leupold, Pentax, Kowa or Minolta.

At the SHOT show this year, I was able to meet with several aggressive importers who were willing to build binoculars for whomever would order the quantity they wanted. They had ED 8x42s for $80 a pop. Non-ED were only about $50. We took three home for T&E. They are actually quite good and right up there with Vortex and some of the other up and comers. I thought that the VERY best stuff was still the expensive stuff however. The sharpest spotting scope I have ever looked through is hands-down the Kowa 88 mm TSN with Fluorite crystal lenses. They have to be experienced to be believed. They aren't cheap either. That said, there were some spotters that were 95-96% of this for <$400. That's a big shift for the last edge of performance. I guess kinda like the difference in price between a Corvette and a Lamborghini!

I'm gonna give some big Minox a run this fall, so I'm for hoping that it is possible to get excellent glass at 1/3 the price...

It is clear that products are coming from the same factories, likely with some of the same specs as much higher end brands. However, when one of those "new entries" doesn't make it a few years down the road, who are you going to for warranty repairs? If you're not hard on equipment, or travel to different climates, it may not be a factor.

Several years ago my first "real" entry level bin was an Eagle Optics Denali 7x32. After hunting hard with it for a few years, I took a fall and cracked the housing and broke the diopter. Sent them back and had a new pair in under 5 days. Initially I was concerned that buying from Eagle Optics would be a problem since they'd only been around for 20 years. I wouldn't hesitate to buy from them, and have several times over the years, again, but I doubt I'd be putting my coin with a new outfit if I was worried about warranty/repair work until the company settled into the market.

Just my 2 cents.

There's worlds of wisdom in what Phil said. Often times problems with bino's won't show until subjected to real field conditions. You can't tell much about fieldworthiness in the store....

But heck, if the binos completely fail in a few years and the company is gone, they may have been only 1/3 the price of the alphas and you can be in a new pair, with new technology, for again 1/3 the price.

this sight in particular gets you wanting to try other stuff. I bought my wind river Pinnacles a few years back, this year bought same size Bushnell Legend Porros for one third the price and so far like them better.

That's why I said I like the test of time the best.