Re: recommendations on a nice set of binos
If you can afford them, internally focused roof prism binoculars are optically excellent, and near bullet proof because they can be sealed and can be made waterproof. With no moving parts in the optical path outside the sealed unit, short of breaking them, it is almost impossible to knock them out of alignment. Unless your two eyeballs has vastly different corrections (>3 diopter difference), Center focus is a lot easier to use.
If your eye sight is really bad, look for binoculars that offer large eye relief (large distance between eyepiece and your eyeball. This will allow you to wear your glasses while looking through.
For my money, the best price performance is probably the Bausch & Lomb Discoverer series.
These are not exactly cheap, but give you probably 99% of the performance of Zeiss or Leica Roof Prisms for about 1/4 the price in a 7 x 42 which is probably about the best all around size. It is lighter than roof prism 7x50's (and a lot less dear), 7 tends to be the useful upper limit for hand held, and if you are over about 35, there is no real difference in after dark performance, your pupil won't open as wide as the 7 x50. B&L 7x42 Discoverer can be purchased on the net for a little less than $300.
If you want to above 7X, consider image stabilized
(I think both Canon and Nikon make them), they have to be experienced to be believed, however none of these are expecially good after dark, and you will definitely pay for the honor. The difference between 12x and image stabilized 12x is startling.