Do you use the 8x25 Victory while wearing your glasses? I think I recall you writing that you used your Leica 8x20 Blackline while wearing your glasses...
Yes, I always wear glasses while birding, which I agree is an advantage with pocket roofs since their eye cups are too small to fit an adult human face! I've played around with the Zeiss 8x25 Victory Pocket without glasses too, and found it to be very easy to use in direct comparison to some top-end 8x20 and to some 8x32 models. For me, the view is _exceptionally_ easy. I say this as someone who generally finds small exit pupils (e.g. of 8x32 bins) uncomfortably restrictive because I like to look around the view (off-axis), rather than always keeping my gaze trained down the center of the telescope. Looking around the view is facilitated by small shifts in the bin relative to the eyes, which this bin (like many good bins) tolerates (even though one is not supposed to do that
. Some optics (e.g. Zeiss 8x32 FL, Zeiss 8x25 Terra ED, B&L 8x42 Elite waterproof version, Nikon 16/24/30x DS Fieldscope eyepiece) do not tolerate decentered viewing (usually because it leads to astigmatic smearing), so I don't get on with them as well. Having played with the 8x25 without glasses a lot, I think the main problem that some users might find is that their eye comes too close to the oculars. Either adding an eyecup extension or expansion (or both), or holding the eyecups against the upper edge of the orbit rather than deep in the socket, should solve the problem.
Another factor that makes me so enthusiastic about this bin is that it fits my hand like a bigger bin, with the optical axis properly aligned to my hand, so that I am able to bring the bins to my eyes and already be on target (i.e. pointed at the object of interest), even in awkward situations (e.g. while twisting my body to see out of a side window of my car, or to find a bird moving high overhead in the canopy). Last weekend, I walked ~6 miles through forest (brush-busting, no trails) on a very hot and thoroughly humid day, literally raining sweat (clothes saturated) from my body. Those are conditions (tricky lighting, awkward viewing angles, only quick glimpses of most birds, physically uncomfortable, possibly tired/shaky hands) in which I would not even think of trying to enjoy use of an 8x20, and would generally also avoid choosing an 8x32, but I found that the Zeiss 8x25 Victory worked perfectly. Not once did I find myself frustrated with its limitations. That's something, under those conditions, that I think I could only say about one other of the many excellent bins that I own, namely the Swarovski 8.5x42 EL SV. I know many factors are a matter of taste and fit, so I'm not arguing that the claim should be universal, but for me this Zeiss 8x25 Victory is the most exciting birding bin I've tried since the Zeiss 7x42 BGATP. After the Swarovski 8.5x42 EL SV, the Zeiss 8x25 Victory Pocket is now my second favorite bin of all time. Going forward, my main question will be how well it holds up physically. Generally, I've had a good experience with Zeiss, but this bin is a new Japanese produced effort, and not all Japanese bins (esp. rubber armor) hold up as well as have my Zeiss and Leica bins.
--AP