Sorry Alexis. I appeal to your opinion but quite frankly its misguided. If you understand where the products are made and who engineers the optical system, you would understand. The Vortex is an off-the-shelf design by a Japanese manufacturer that has no credibility to speak of. The glass is very ordinary which resembles the kind used in Barska, Simmons or Tasco products. The product is heavy and very unbalanced and did you notice the jerky-nature of the focus wheel. On the otherhand, you should be impressed by the precision and well thoughtout design of the Elite e2 binoculars from a company that has been around a long time. The bino has very little aborations (chromatic or otherwise) due to the use of a special aspheric lens that is not, I repeat, not made of plastic like Pentax uses. Finally, the light transmission is astonishing and puts all the others to shame in that regard. Now, if its FOV that you want to pick on, try the Bushnell Excursion or or the new Double-Bridge ExcursionEX. Close-focus, Wide FOV and very Long Eye-Relief (19-21mm). As far as price, I have tried Swarovski, this Vortex, and Pentax DCF along with the Leica UltraVid. I get a better all around binocular for half a grand vs. spending twice or up to four times that much. Overpriced? I think not...not by a long shot.
