Being a rank amateur, I get confused by the terminology. I don´t know where the dividing lines are between resolution, clarity, sharpness, contrast, brightness, etc. etc., and I don´t have the patience to read through helpful posts by experts who kindly try to explain these to the likes of me. Such experts probably become frustrated with my ignorance, in which I imagine all these concepts to be like partially overlapping Venn Diagrams, with fuzzy lines where they intersect. So I lump them all together and call them "resolution" (well I would if I ever used the word in real life, to mean something other than a promise to improve as a person in the New Year...). I can honestly say, using layman´s terminology, that comparing an 8x compact of the highest quality to an 8x SE, or 8.5x SV, and viewing over long distances (for example distant seabirds or over a marsh), I can discern far more detail with the larger binos than with the compacts. By this I mean I can identify birds at a greater distance, and see more detail of their plumage, etc. I don´t know if this is because of brightness, or whatever, but it´s there to my eyes. I can´t swear that other people will or won´t agree, using the same binoculars in similar circumstances. I get the same effect with similar magnifications when comparing an ED50 to an 80/82mm Nikon or Swaro scope. This doesn´t mean that compacts or ED50 are not useful, they obviously are, and for obvious reasons. But when viewing over longer distances, when I can put up with the extra weight and bulk, I prefer the larger objective optics of similar mag., as I can "see" more, in similar conditions. As Dennis intimated, otherwise we´d all use compact binos/scopes and nothing else.