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Message: <blockquote data-quote="bcl05" data-source="post: 1420216" data-attributes="member: 67995">I am new to birding and bought these recently.  If fell for birding last summer, but only had an old falling-apart Wal-Mart pair of bins.  I saved up ~$1000 for a real pair and spent a long time shopping around.  I tried everything I could get my hands on that was less than 1k (so basically no alphas) and was desperately trying to decide between a Vortex Razor and a Meopta 8x42 when the "chinese EDs" started showing up on this and related websites.  Intrigued, but not trusting, I decided to spend $100 on 6x30 Leupold Yosemites and wait a while.  The Yosemites are great - incredible field of view, very sharp through a reasonalby big sweet spot, and I like the relatively low magnification for woodland and backyard birds (most of what I do.)  Eventually, though, I wanted another pair so I could go out with my wife and kids and not be passing a single good pair back and forth.  I couldn't decide between the Promaster and Hawkes, and then the ZRs came out.  The price was lower, and people who seemed to know what they were talking about said they were a further evolution of the same basic model.I ordered them and got them in a few days shortly after New Years.  I couldn't be happier.  The FOV is bigger than any other binocular I've seen.  The brightness and color in very early morning shady forests is remarkable (to me).  Now, I haven't compared them to the Alphas, but I can't imagine that the view through those is so much better that they'd be worth 5x more money.  The combo of the Yosemite 6x30 and ZR ED 8x43 is terrific, and has left me ~$500 from my original budget to put towards a scope...So, short version is that I can't really say how the compare to the most expensive of the ALphas, but I am completely and totally satisfied with my pair and can't imagine spending ~$2k on binoculars.  If I had the same decision to make and a bigger budget, I think I'd end up with the same pair of binoculars and a bigger collection of field guides and maybe a nice trip...</blockquote>

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