I did a comprehensive comparison in 1993. My goal was compact and high
power, in a $150 to $400 budget. I looked at Nikon, Pentax, Olympus, Leica,
Steiner, Zeiss. I limited my comparison to 8 to 12 power models, with
objectives of 20mm to 30mm.
My choice? Zeiss 10x25B, solely on low-light performance. They were the
only ones I was able to actually read a sign inside a nearby parking garage
-- it even out-performed models with larger exit pupils, although I didn't
go to the trouble of dark-adapting my eyes. The Leicas and Steiners were
close, but as a pack, the German binocs were all brighter than the Japanees
binocs.
I believe I paid about DM400, which was about $250 at the time. I bought
them in Stuttgart.
Additional niceties: sealed, nitrogen filled construction with internal
focusing, smooth and easy focus/correction mechanism, and roof prisms and a
unique symmetrical construction made these the most compact when folded,
very lightweight at ~200g (about 7 1/4 ounces).
I don't recall anything in particular about the Olympus ones, except that
all of them I interviewed in this price range were very close on the whole
-- not a dog in the group.
: Jan Steinman <mailto:jans@xxxxxxxxxxx>
: 19280 Rydman Court, West Linn, OR 97068-1331 USA
: +1.503.635.3229
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