Hi John,
Well of course the Nikon 8x32 HG's are great glasses and I was generally happy with them over the 4 - 5 years that I owned them. The focussing mechanism on the Nikon is beyond reproach from an engineering point of view, depth of field and field of view are excellent and of course, there is that great Nikon glass that gives such a nice natural colour and contrast. (I still use a Nikon ED 78A scope and love the view).
However, having previously owned a Nikon 8x32 SE binocular, the HG never quite matched up, particularly with that special 3D view that you get through a good porro. In particular, the HG focus is very 'fast' and it is easy to rack past the sweet spot, particularly if you are viewing against a busy background such as in foliage. I also found that, partly because the DOF is so good, that the bird would fail to stand out from the background in the way that they had with the SE - maybe the small distance between objectives on the HG contributes largely to this. My eyes are fairly close together and I seem to need a porro to give me that 3D separation.
I was keen to go back to a good porro and tried the HR WP by chance while on holiday on the Algarve and was absolutely amazed by the view, especially at the price. They gave me that 'standout' 3D view that I had missed in the HG and as the focus is 'slow' (as is the Nikon SE), I found that I was able to consistently settle quickly on the target without fidgeting to find the sweet spot. It would be nice to have a wider FOV but the HR view is pretty sharp to the edges and as any habitual user of 10x bins will tell you, technique and practice will prevail.
They have the apparent advantage over the Nikon SE of an internal focus and being waterproof, plus I know that Opticron service is of the highest order should I need them.
The HR WP's are Japanese made and seem to be very well put together indeed.
I have had my HR WP's about 18 months now and am very happy with them and still get them out occasionally simply to enjoy the great view. I enjoy using them much more than the Nikon HG's and the only other binocular that would challenge it for me is the superb Nikon SE.
Sorry to bang on a bit. I'm no 'expert' on optics but binoculars are like beer - you don't need to be a heavy drinker to recognise a first class pint! B
Steve