First impressions.
I spent a short afternoon with my new SF 8X32 and found the lighter weight to make a tremendous difference from my EL SV 10X42. They didn't make my neck uncomfortable. For the last six years the EL SV was my only binocular, and it was beginning to feel heavy.
Eye placement is much fussier than what I am used to, but monkeying with the IPD and eye cup height helped. I can't look around the field of view the same, but I seem to be adapting to that rather quickly.
The focus wheel fools me because I am used to reaching for the Swarovski wheel. The Zeiss wheel is indeed in a spot where the finger falls naturally upon it. Focusing is easier and less critical, due (I guess) to greater depth of field. (or is it depth of focus?)
The larger field of view certainly is impressive over a pond with assorted ducks, geese, mergansers, seagulls and so on.
The images are absolutely magnificent. The colors, shadings, contrast, and detail resolution are all breathtaking. I am convinced that I saw shades and details that I had never seen before, and the images have a certain "crispness" that is a new thing. I saw whites as pure and almost blindingly white on Canada Geese and male Hooded Mergansers, and I marveled at the subtle details in the patterns of a female Mallard. Six years of coatings development plus a different manufacturer? I saw detail in the breast of a perched Red-tailed Hawk, that I am convinced I never saw before. (I know no two birds are the same, but I have looked at this bird before, while it was perched in that spot.)
The field is quite flat enough for me, and I was not aware of any significant loss of sharpness at or near the edges. If it was there, it didn't bug me.
At no time did I have any impression whatsoever that I was seeing less because the image was smaller. I really wasn't aware of that.
I think my brain is still learning to process what my eyes see in the images from the new binocular.
None of this is in any way intended to disparage my Swarovski glasses, and I am still getting used to the Zeiss, but they are definitely keepers.
If I had to summarize, I would say that the Zeiss glasses are "easier to see with."
An afterthought: There was a definite impression that there was absolutely nothing between me and what I was looking at. It was as if I was seeing directly with my own eyeballs. I'm having trouble expressing what an experience it was. It wasn't like looking through an instrument. I'm floundering here.