You should look at IOR Valdada, Docter Optik, Optolyth for European optics.
For Japanese binos, Check out Swift, Fujinon, and Sightron. The Sightron SII binos were given a best buy by Outdoor life's gear review.
You can get a apir of IOR valdada7x for 379.99. They use Schott glass (Like Zeisss) and use actual Zeiss T3 coatings.
If you can find a used pair of Dicter 10x40 roofs, go for it.

Swiftmakes the grand mac daddy of briding binocs in the audubon 8.5x44 porro prims. $279.99. The roofs are 379.99
Never heard a bad thing about them. Extremely popular and near legendary status among birders
I don't care for the Nikon glass until you stepup to the LX or superior e series. But an awful lot of people on this site do.

Don't forget to check out Eastern block and european army surplus binos.
Ceck out a few binocular sites like one form Holger merlitz and another from a guy named binofan.
East german and russian binos are good and durable ans well as cheap for the quality but they can be heavey
okcmco