CalvinFold
Well-known member
Or it could be some of us just can't justify thousands of dollars on binoculars even if we wanted them, no matter how badly we wanted them.Of the hundreds of birders I meet a year, I doubt more than five of them could describe more than three features of their own binoculars.
I'm sure this is true in many activities that have the potential to involve expensive gear. Cycling, Archery, Air rifles, Sailing. You can do all of them for either very little money, or you can go broke doing them if you want.
I've had to engage in my hobbies like "birding" (which is really 95% "bird photography") on a fairly tight budget, so the camera (such as it was) came first, binoculars second. Always sub-$100 binocs. They served me well, and let me "see things far away I would not have seen otherwise."
But I will admit, when I got a free pair of Nikon ProStaffs for my 15th year at work, that was a revelation! So clear, so sharp, so much better viewing area, etc.
Now if these other more expensive brands are even a leap beyond that then...I'm envious! But that doesn't change the fact that I'll likely never own a pair and if my Nikon's ever broke I'd probably go back to using my old pair of cheap binos.
Life is a balance. So maybe some of those birds with less expensive binocs are just making do with what they can afford, and likely don't even realize they are "making do" at all.
(And a side note...reading about all this optical wonder and wizardry is fascinating...)