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Message: <blockquote data-quote="brocknroller" data-source="post: 1598865" data-attributes="member: 665">I had to laugh at his description of the 8x32 SE as "a Birkenstock-ugly, stubby little porroprism binocular."I think there's more going on here than meets the eye, good citizens, as I proposed in my "thought experiment" above. If the Nikon SE and EII are the standards by which other birding bins are measured, why won't Nikon capitalize on that fact, literally, and reissue WP and WP ED versions of the SE and EII like Swift did with the 820 and 820 ED Audubon (though admittedly inferior in some ways to their 804 predecessors).Because "People just won’t buy porroprisms"? If companies could sell a "pet rock," the no-talent lip syncing "Milli Vanilli," gas guzzling SUVs, "no-doc" mortgage-backed securities and credit default swaps for those securities that had no reserves to back them up, then surely Nikon could sell a WP SE! (I'd add "put a man on the moon" but that's been so overdone <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite1" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":)" />It would have been a snap to update the SE compared to starting from scratch and creating the EDG, and even if the new 8x SE cost $799 or $899, don't you think more birders would buy a WP SE than a $2K EDG? Especially in this bad economy?Not according to what you've posted about dealers not being able to move their SE stock, and what BVD's Wayne Mones, echoing his predecessor's love for this bin, said about the response he got from his "several friends in the binocular industry." WHY have the avid birders and optics aficionados who don't give a damn about the "cachet of the red dot in the field" but only what they see through the EP, turned a blind eye to the SE? If it's merely lack of WP, wouldn't updating the SE with WPing overcome that objection? I don't think it's that "simplistic," to borrow a word from your earlier post. As you or someone else mentioned, Nikon never did a very good job of promoting the SE or the EII for that matter, and that combined with a "follow the leaders" attitude (Big Three), and the Chinese economic revolution (made possible, in part, by tax breaks to take US companies to China) that allowed roof prism bins to be manufactured more cheaply, had more to do with our present dilemma than simply optics companies trying to "Give the People What They Want". Consumers are manipulated into buying items based on advertising (sometimes including false or exaggerated claims), subliminal suggestion, and the promise of prestige, happiness, and being better liked or accepted by their girlfriends/boyfriends, wives/husbands, their peers, their employers, etc.  And, like the former quality porro manufacturers, many birders too have played "follow the leader".I've conducted some focus groups for a real estate company, and the questions they asked potential buyers who met the economic and demographic requirements were very pointedly aimed at evoking emotions rather than reasoning. I believe that many birders have been seduced by optics sellers, advertisers, and reviewers (some of whom are paid by optics companies to hawk their wares).They have enticed birders into buying higher priced roofs over the diminishing (in both quantity and quality) porros while manufacturers have deprived consumers the right to chose an equivalent quality porro. Someone said: The best slaves are those that think they are free. Slaves which shut up and pay up. I urge the good citizens of the BF community who read this thread to throw off the shackles of roof prism oppression, and fight the good fight by raising awareness of the virtues of porro prism binoculars in every manner possible. Write your bin companies, write your Congresspersons, speak to your fellow birders. Then hold your head up high and proudly carry your Birkenstock-ugly, stubby little porro prism binoculars into the field and ignore the chuckles, insults, and rotten tomatoes being hurled at you.For SE and EII devotees everywhere, "the work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives, and the dream shall never die."Brock</blockquote>

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