Overall:
I’m not going to produce an overall ranking, because the above factors matter to different degrees to different users, and the subjects vary in price by a factor of 5 even including maximum discounts. In my subjective case the newcomers did not unseat my existing go-to bins, the Zeiss Fls and the Nikon SEs. The EDGs have gone back to the retailer—a very fine binocular but the bottom line is that they are heavier than the ED2s and the SEs and less bright than either.
The jury is out on the Zens. Their strengths (center field sharpness and contrast, brightness, color rendition) are in areas that are very important to me. Their weaknesses (edge sharpness, stray light control and slowish focus) are in areas that don’t usually fuss me very much. They are substantially brighter than any 8x32 roof I’ve ever owned or auditioned, they have enough magnification to provide excellent center field resolution, and they weigh the same as the SEs and 2 oz less than the EDGs. However, the stray light problem is a serious demerit and I will have to use them for a couple of weeks before I decide whether it’s a deal-breaker. I know the argument has been advanced that this only appears when the bins are tilted up at the sky or the eye is not centered. Tilting them upward from the horizontal does aggravate the problem, but in my 35 years or so of using binoculars I’ve found that birds not uncommonly appear above the horizontal, what with being able to fly and all. The argument that a particular bin is perfect but that I’m holding it wrong or looking at the wrong things with it is not persuasive. They either do the job for me or they don’t.
I’ll make up my mind on these pretty soon, because I’m quite tired of looking through binoculars to find their optical flaws. It’s time for the fall migration!
