I suppose I should add something to this thread since I own both of these binoculars. My EII is about 10 years old and my 8x30 W Habicht was made in March of this year (I also have a 30 year old Habicht 8x30 "standard field").
I've gathered a great deal of information about the Habicht 8x30 W in the last few months, but I've nearly lost all interest in writing what would be a very long review of a binocular I don't like very much. So, here are the basic pros and cons as I see them.
Pros:
State of the art light transmission and color accuracy.
Moderate pincushion, enough to avoid the globe effect without calling attention to itself.
Waterproof
Cons:
Too much spherical and longitudinal chromatic aberrations in the field center. As a result the center field image is not quite completely sharp for my 20/15 eyesight acuity. This is most evident when I compare the Habicht to a very low aberration reference binocular like the Zeiss 8x56 FL
Off-axis astigmatism and field curvature are not very well corrected due to the use of an old modified Erfle eyepiece design with well known deficiencies.
Prisms are so undersized that a prism edge actually cuts into the exit pupil. That makes already poor resistance to glare from inadequate baffling of the objective cell even worse when bright side light arrives at an angle that reflects off the prism glass back to the eyepiece.
I could move on to nitpicks, but inadequacy in the optical basics is enough for me. I've asked myself repeatedly in the last few months how this binocular could have gathered such a cult following? My tentative answer is that nostalgia for the Golden Age of the Porro, and admittedly a superbly bright and color neutral image thanks to the latest Swarovski coatings, are enough to carry the day for its enthusiasts. Everything else is forgiven.
My Nikon 8x30 EII has lower axial aberrations, better off-axis corrections and better glare resistance than the Habicht. However, it is visibly dimmer with an obvious red color cast. Choose your poison.
Henry