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Message: <blockquote data-quote="ewsjr" data-source="post: 1284812" data-attributes="member: 1787"><p>Spending a few hundred dollars on a good binocular changed my attitude toward optics.  I'd always used cheap stuff until about a dozen years ago when I sprang for 7X42 Swarovski Habichts'.  Those are my baseline now and everything gets compared to them.  I bought a 10X50 Swift Kestrel and that binocular humbles a lot more expensive glass but it isn't waterproof.  My other keeper came as a good buy on an older Swarovski SLC 8X30.  That's not the newest binocular but whenever I think of upgrading I stop as that one's good enough.  The last keeper is a 10X43 Pentax DCF SP.  Center field resolution doesn't match the Kestrel but is close and it is waterproof.  Plus, it was a great buy and I'm not afraid to use and abuse it in the field.</p></blockquote><p></p>