SE Heresy
Each to one´s own and all that, but I simply don´t like the SE 8x32 that much. I´ve owned two, and four EII 8x30´s, and I think the latter is a far superior binocular. The SE has nice armouring and is nice to hold, but you need some kind of prehistoric brow-ridges, a forward-tilting head and upward-pointing eyeballs, and if you move your eyeballs a millimetre off-centre, you´re cast into darkness.
The EII´s, on the other hand, might look and feel a bit old-fashioned, but the view is the bino-addict´s version of opium (I imagine...I´ve never smoked opium). An argument for the SE is often the flat-field, but if you stop down the EII´s 8.8 degree field to the SE´s 7.6 degrees, you´d get just as flat a field. It´s a long time since I compared the two, but I remember thinking that the EII was actually a bit sharper in the centre than the SE. And nowadays, the SE is ridiculously over-priced for a fairly standard design non-waterproof binocular, whereas the EII can still be had for less than 300 sterling (if you know where to look). I suppose it depends on where and how you´ll use them, but I wouldn´t take either EII or SE on a rainy seawatch anyway.
Damn, I´ve just talked myself into buying another pair of EII´s. I must tell OH, she´ll stop me.
All the above is obviously IMHO, based only on units I owned, and I may have been eating porridge from a plastic bowl before testing.
I´ll come quietly to the Stake now, Torquemada.