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Message: <blockquote data-quote="paddy7" data-source="post: 3499129" data-attributes="member: 88594">Now this is interesting.....For some time, i took great delight in walking about with Vanguard Endeavor EDIIs in the company of alpha-owners - not missing anything, and getting some admiring comments when they looked through them. I got quite smug about it - i'd done the research, tried a few pairs of all prices, and realised i was missing nothing with the Vanguards other than a few metres of FOV. I also might not weep bitter tears if they tumbled into 6 feet of dyke-water.I got to the point of almost inverse-snobbery, when i realised there were  some fairly poor birders with £2500 of glass round their neck. Punk birding, i thought of it....Of course, they could speak of R&D costs, build-quality, reliability, after sales etc but i cared not for that talk. At the price i'd paid, i could probably just replace them if anything went wrong (which it hasn't....)What i realised was that many birders actually aren't as knowledgeable about optics as the fine contributors to this forum, and buy because such-and-such make is 'the best' or because all the other top guys seem to wear them....So when they make the purchase, they may need persuading that anything is actually a fault with their intended new buy - not looking cheaper and examining what might be good, or making any balanced judgement based on their needs.And so - with their 'state-of-the-art' bins, they (in their own perception) have joined the elite of birders.This, of course, might inspire them to get more serious, go out more (due to the investment) and actually become much, much better. They may also feel they will be taken more seriously by others in the community.Thus, the alpha / non-alpha issue moves from being a logical, scientific, economic issue to one of psychology, confidence, self-image, seriousness etc.So, going back to the opening of this post, the use of bins other than alphas may just indicate that someone has done their homework, knows what they need for what they do and has sufficient self-confidence (or really doesn't care what others think) to wear them with pride and just get out there....</blockquote>

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