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Message: <blockquote data-quote="WJC" data-source="post: 3310492" data-attributes="member: 25191">Thanks, James; you're kind. It's not, however, that the variance is great, it's actually minuscule. But each minuscule difference, can degrade what the designer had in mind. It’s like the observer who gets weak in the knees because he has a binocular with “aspheric” lenses, without understanding why that SHOULD make a difference or knowing that the process was carried out professionally. Words are powerful, but performance is more so. I bought once bought some Russian binos for Captain’s. The importer said:“They don’t have Western standards for QC.  If you buy 10, two might be great, two might be trash, with the other six scattered somewhere in the middle. And, if you want to be able to repair them, you’ll need to buy 'extras' with every purchase; their parts replacement department is non-existent, so you’ll need those extras to cannibalize for parts!" I only made ONE order.Now, if you dramatically lessen the differences, the same can be said for even the best “alphas.” It has been proven that two snowflakes CAN be alike. They haven’t proved it with binos, yet. :cat:Cheers, Bill</blockquote>