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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Alexis Powell" data-source="post: 1333830" data-attributes="member: 5327">More like intensity of abuse.  I've known plenty of folks who use their binoculars heavily under all conditions, but the best predictor of whether their binos deterorate is if they abuse them.  It seems to me that there is a contingent of birders (tropical high altitude and otherwise) who think that real birders abuse their binoculars.  For example, they take every opportunity to scratch the lenses by never casing their bino when packing it, and by not removing sand or salt before cleaning the lenses in the field.  Actually, one of the most extreme forms of abuse is to leave them on the dashboard of the car/truck for days at a time in the heat and sun, and while bouncing down unmaintained vehicle trails.  They never engage in preventive maintenance (e.g. by using rubber preservative on armor or eyecups). All the "intensly used" binos that I've seen that look heavily worn are ones that have been similarly abused.  In general, the top-end binos can survive a lot of unnecessarily rough treatment, but it's always possible for the odd Leica, Zeiss, or Swarovski unit to have problems with rubber armoring, waterproofing, or other such issues.  However, from what I've seen, for problems to occur is just as likely with the older models (SLC, Trinovid, Classic) as the newer ones.  --AP</blockquote>