I'm just gonna post in here on this old dead thread, one that was beat to death..., because I have been trying to answer some of the original questions myself with real world field observations.
Conquest HD 8x32 (420ft) vs Nikon MHG 8x42 (435ft) FOVs
I spent a couple evenings this week birding the last two hours before legal sunset and up to 30 minutes past sunset. I was looking at western bluebirds and eastern king birds, meadowlarks, nighthawks, and crows and flickers and the like both near and far. I enjoyed the image quality in the Conquest better. I just did. It seemed... sharper, and perhaps a little bit more contrast, blacker blacks and whiter whites. The 8x42 MHG image did not appear brighter, looking at open grassy hillsides surrounded by timber and indirectly lit, nor did it seem brighter looking into deep shadows, until AFTER legal sunset (sun below horizon completely). Call me crazy, and I really could not believe it myself, but this is what I saw, 35 years old eyes, 20/40 vision uncorrected in both eyes, no astigmatism or other eye disorders or concerns, full good color vision verified by FAA pilot flight physical vision testing. The brightness differences were NOT significant until after the sun had set below horizon. They just were not significantly different in overall edge to edge "scene" brightness or when finely focused on tree bark in shadows with my attention on the contents and brightness of the sweet spot.
I would prefer to bird with the Conquest 8x32 generally. The only time I can think I would prefer the 8x42 MHG would be for looking at and across water, looking into the sun/oncoming bright light, and hunting 30 minutes before and after sunset. Outside of those specific conditions, I personally would prefer the view (and ergonomics and lighter weight and lighter hand feel) from the 8x32 Conquest. It IS that good, to my eyes, in my conditions: mixed grasslands and forest about 50/50.
Now before people start talking about color differences (transmission curve graph across the entire visible light spectrum of frequencies) between the two binos, let me also add that I could not tell a significant or notable difference in color between the two binos, hand held, back to back on lots of different subjects, bushes, ponderosa pine trees, yellow grass fields, brown dirt hillsides, or the color of the birds. The images looked more similar with respect to colors, than different. Both appeared very accurate (naked eye). I did not see any warm or cool / green or yellow biases, at all.
FOV: 420 vs 435ft in the real world. To detect a meaningful viewable difference in FOV while birding, I had to be focusing on a subject at least 200 yards away. Closer than that, and I there was not a "noticeable" or funtional birding/hunting difference.
I am looking forward to putting all three head to head against my mom's new Swaro EL 8x32. I will post my observations in the coming weeks. Stay tuned. I will be looking at colorful posters and flowers and other colorful scenes not found outside to get a better understanding of the color differences. I will also test color in dim low lighting and bright daylight/natural light.