I've got a pair of zen ray ED2 8x43's that I bought on closeout/demo from cameraland. I like them a lot for the $200 I paid for them. I've got a pair of Swarovski 10x42 slc's and the swaros are nicer, but the price differential is huge. For the money I think the zen rays are a great value, you'd have to pay at least 3x what they cost to get anything close to them. Quality seems pretty good, I haven't had any trouble out of them at all. I doubt they'd be as rugged as a set of $2000 alphas, that's just asking a bit much of the price point. I use mine as truck binos and loaners for anyone that doesn't have any or has forgotten theirs. One friend I prairie dog hunt with doesn't own any binos and he goes straight for the zen rays whenever we go out west, I've got my money's worth out of them just from that use alone. Cameraland has the zen ray ED3 demos for $330, that's a great deal. I bought my ED2's that way and they were perfect, I've also bought a demo Swarovski scope from them that was perfect.
