Bins obsession? (1 Viewer)

I'm new to the forum and have posted a quick hello, and most of this message, there but was advised to try here as well.

As for the title of the post...
My ancient (and now toddler smashed binoculars) need replacing. But I appear to have become a bit obsessed and wish to put myself out of my misery.
As a starter question for the forum I've narrowed down my choice to
Pentax 8x43 DCF SP
Minox 8.5x43 HG
I wear glasses so the eye relief, and the price of the pentax are attractive. Unfortunately I have no way to test the Pentax, where as a local dealer stocks the Minox and I'm afraid I'll be wowed by these and not bother looking any further. Now for the questions
Would I notice the difference between these bins in 'real life'?
Is the Minox worth the extra £150?
I'm sure both are excellent, but I tend to hang onto things for a long time, so want to make the best choice.
Please someone put me out of my misery...
Thanks!!
Harryscat

Wow,

I feel for you man. I just spent a month struggling over what binos under $200 to buy! I cant imagine having a budget over $600.

Your options are limitless.

Your 2 choices I am sure have excellent optics. I will say at that price point, I am not sure if $150 gets you anything extra or better.

Also, try posting on the opticsplanet bino forum. Joanie over there should be able to help you out.

Cheers!

Hello Welcome to bird forum , The Pentax 8x43 SP are very nice optics they also have nice click stop eyecups are waterproof,fogproof Minox is not well recieved in the USA however I never looked through one so I can not say anything about them Nikon Monarchs used to be good but now poor quality and made in China I own Kowa 8x32s and their optics are superb for the price I do not know if they are available in United Kingdom ? if they are take a look through them they make 8x42 also now with the falling dollar you could buy them from the U.S. for half price probably even with shipping it would be a deal however these are just suggestions and my opinion I looked through many binoculars carefully for high quality optics and build and I went with the Kowa 8x32 they cost $359- $439 or so in U.S. the Pentax are $599 in U.S. I do not know about the Minox ? whichever you choose I think will be just fine out of your selections.

Both of the Minox and Pentax bins have been praised on this site in the past, you'd probably find a few related posts if you do a search in each sub catagory.

Also...

I hear some guy's got a nice pair of Minox 7x42 Aspherics going cheap in the classifieds

Matt

Thanks for the reply. I agree that you need to look through binoculars to decide which ones work best for you. Buying in the US would be great, for about £60 less I could get the ED version of the Pentax (but to be honest I really doubt if I could tell the difference!). The problem would be with all the tax at this end which could mark them up by quite a lot (~20%). I also like the idea of supporting local shops, even though it might be a problem with the Pentax as no one I know stocks them! So I might be supporting my local amazon instead...
Cheers and thanks for the welcome/advice.