If you're looking for a good binocular for a reasonable price, consider buying from Oberwerk. I ordered one of their 10x50 wide-field, waterproof binos, and was impressed by the quality of construction, but a little less so by the sharpness at the edges. I communicated this to the proprietor, and he explained the trade-offs with wide-field binos between the wide field-of-view, and edge sharpness. I at first accepted this explanation, but after some more informal testing I discovered that the distortion was unacceptable in only one side, which meant to me that the "bad" side was a defect. I wrote him again and he asked me to reurn the binos so he could take a look.

A few days later, I got a mail from him admitting that the binos did have some unusual distortion, and he offered a replacement 10x50 that he'd personally tried out, or an exchange for something else, such as his 9x56 or 10x56. After a couple more emails, I decided on the "something else" option, and ordered an 11x56 for $30 less (cost: $100). The 11x56 rocks! I've not put in a lot of time with it yet, but so far, it is very sharp to the edges and handles great (although it's a bit bigger than the 10x50, naturally).

In our correspondences, the proprietor was frank and open about the trade-offs and realities of his products. I believe he can do that because they speak for themselves. By the way, if you're more in the high-end market (like Fujinon), he can help you there, too.