Hi Pluto,
Providing you’re not in a hurry to buy, the way to maximise the price to performance ratio is to buy second-hand
Most of my binocular purchases have been second-hand. And particularly when buying from overseas, my strategy is to choose:
- sellers with large feedback numbers along with positive feedback percentages of 99.8% or better, and
- units that that are obviously in very good external condition (especially the lenses)
Using this approach I’ve had no problems
Two 8x30’s that I bought this way are:
A) Swarovski’s SLC 8x30 neu
It includes both phase and dielectric prism coating, though with a longer close focus at 4 m than most current production
and it has a slightly unusual front focuser that is no big deal to use
The neu version was made from 2005 to 2011. And as a second-hand purchase it still has the advantage of Swarovski’s service support
For a good description of the performance of it’s immediate predecessor, see Roger Vine’s review:
http://www.scopeviews.co.uk/Swaro8x30WB.htm
- the neu is marginally better in terms of coatings (see the graph in post #7 in the link below)
And for a whole lot more detail than you really need to know about the x30 SLC's, see this recent thread!:
https://www.birdforum.net/showthread.php?t=380550
B) Nikon’s E 8x30 - the multi-coated version
This is the predecessor to the EII 8x30. And like the EII it is a traditionally styled, unsealed, external focus Porro prism binocular
It was made from 1988 to 1999, and numbering runs from 400,000 to 448,643+
It’s immediately identifiable by the marking on the left hand prism plate. See the image in Roger Vine’s review:
http://www.scopeviews.co.uk/Nikon8x30E.htm
(the earlier single coated version has smaller more conservatively styled prism plate markings and is numbered from 880,000 to 936,734+)
The multi-coated E series offers the best value that I’m aware of - I’m amazed that they’re not a constant topic of discussion in the way that the EII's are
Using the approach I've described above, mint/ near mint units can be bought online for around $250 US
- though you can obviously get much better deals by not taking my deliberately cautious approach
John