LAST EDITED ON Mar-15-06 AT 01:48PM (MST)[p]Droptine makes a good point regarding the roof prisms. That said, to get the clarity that is worth having in a roof prism binocular, make absolute certain that the have "Phase Coating or Phase Corrected" prisms. With out this level of glass, you are much better off using a good pair of porro prisms.
There are alot of good roof prisms with PC or Phase Coating now that are in the $300-$600 range. I don't know which binos you are looking at, but the Phase correction or coating is extrememly important to the utility of a roof prism type of binocular. Some good options include the Leupold Wind River (only the Phase corrected models), Burris Signature, Nikon Monarch ATB, Pentax WP, Minox, Kahles, Swift Autobahn (sp?), Weaver Grand Slam, Bushnell Discoverer, Eagle Optics Platinum series etc.
I went with the Minox 10x42 BR. These are really nice but I was used to my old Nikon Action 8x40 porro prism binos. The 10 power binos were hard to get used to. I really noticed how much shaking I was doing when I switched. You really need to "hunker" down to use those glasses properly. The 8 power binos were much easier to just "pull up and check" etc. The 10 power binos are now really good for "picking apart" a hillside etc.
This is my .02 worth. Have fun.
Firehawk