Well, 20% is a pretty significant price reduction, and there's no such thing as a free lunch - something has got to give, and in this case it's been close focus (as it would appear has happened in the past with SLCs, no doubt Mr Roberts will have chapter and verse).
I appreciate the passionate arguments voiced here by those who, it appears, so regularly use their binoculars on targets closer than 3.3m, but it surely must be the case that the great majority of ELs spend 99% or more of their working lives focused beyond 3.3m, and it wouldn't surprise me at all if 90% or more of EL users hardly ever use their binoculars at less than 3.3m. Close focus would therefore seem to be the most obvious area to economize in. If Swarovski's business strategy demands that economies have to be made in the EL range, I would rather buy an EL with a longer close focus than one made "outside Austria" (ahem), or one with a narrower field of view. Indeed, if Swarovski decided to offer two EL versions - one with a shorter close focus but costing 20% more - a good many folks would probably go for the long close focus version.
Given that it's still possible to buy close focusing ELs, those who consider that quality to be so essential, and who need their next binocular to be an EL, should probably grab one now while they still can (and probably get a decent discount into the bargain). Guys like nodd, of course, already have close focusing ELs. If I had one I'd sit back and gloat in the knowledge that I had the ultimate EL variant!
