Well, I stumbled into this discussion recently and read much of the 50 pages.
A few years back I bought my first "real" binoculars and I think Frank D gave me some advise. As a result, I took advantage of Camera Land's a close-out sale of the Minox BD 10x44 BP and I've been enjoying them very much. They are very sharp, are great in low light and have an awesome build quality. The internal focus is very unique indeed!
This time I’m going to buy 2 binoculars to share on an Alaskan cruise. I’ve come to understand that 10 power binoculars on a ship may be a little too much magnification due to the slight motion of the ship and that 6 or 8 power with a decent field of view may be more appropriate. I went to Zen Ray's site and saw their ZRS 8x32 and I began a search for reviews which ultimately landed me back here. So this topic gets bump up again to the top! Again!
Anyway, this Sightron seems to do everything right. The only thing missing in the optics is ED glass but it appears the Sightron is pretty darned good at bringing the colors together. I suspect the longer barrels have something to do with that similarly to the way longer refractor telescopes manage. It's the short tube refractors that benefit the most from the ED glass, know as semi apochromatic.
I was also looking at the Carson 3D ED but there are not nearly as many reviews of that model and there are certainly no comparison reviews between the Sightron and the Carson.
Frank D, if you're reading this, you mentioned earlier that Sightron had new coatings possibly making the BS ii brighter. Anything to that?
Anyway, thanks for bringing this binocular to everyone's attention. I suspect I'll end up with two pairs of these for the cruise and will continue to enjoy them for years afterwards!
Walter, I own a Carson 3D ED 8x42 and have owned the 8x32 BSII. I would put the Carson very close to the Mojave 8x32 (my favorite 8x32) in terms of clarity and brightness. It is a very good binocular for the price. Sorry, that's about the best explanation I can give as I'm a pretty amateur reviewer. I have owned something like 46 pairs of binos over the last few years and still have the Carson ED. The Sightron did everything right optically but the focus tension was too much for my use. I do a lot of glassing in sub 20 degree temps.
The Carson 8x32 is on my shortlist. With a good eye relief @ 19.5mm, an adequate FOV, and if it has a view equal to the 8x42 version I suspect the 32mm Carson might be a real sweetheart.