binomania
Well-known member
Hi from Italy. Today, I had the pleasure of personally meeting 'Pinac', a retired lawyer who lives in the charming Canton of Bern (Switzerland). In his spare time, he is a keen binoculars tester and a collector of fine instruments.
His real name is Christophe; I will avoid mentioning his surname to give him some privacy. I have been a faithful reader of his website for a long time and no doubt you know him too: it is " Binoculas Today ".
A few weeks ago he contacted me asking for advice. As a matter of practice, he has been donating some of his binoculars to nature reserves for years and, having now exhausted those in his own country, he decided to help an Italian nature reserve.
I enthusiastically accepted his proposal and recommended the Palude Brabbia Regional Nature Reserve (LIPU), a place I know very well, including the staff and volunteers, known for their great passion and competence.
During our email conversations, Christophe also decided to donate a beautiful Canon 10x42 IS and a Zeiss Diascope FL 85 to me, to increase the number of instruments that I make available during the free dissemination days that I often organise with schoolchildren in my area, as well as to use as a yardstick for my tests.
To thank him for his generosity, I offered him to accept my gift: a pair of Russian Farvision 20x50 stabilised binoculars. Although the value of my gift was not comparable to his, I hoped that it represented a gesture of exchange between gentlemen and binocular enthusiasts, and I was happy that 'Pinac' accepted it.
We met at the visitor centre of the Palude Brabbia nature reserve with Elia Castiglioni and a LIPU volunteer, where Christophe arrived with a suitcase full of binoculars. As he is a very private and discreet person, I preferred to take a few photographs instead of the video report, as I had suggested at first glance.
I won't mention all the models of binoculars donated, but I can say that they were all in like-new condition, including high quality instruments such as Swarovski EL, Zeiss SFL, Conquest HD, Meopta Meostar, Nikon Monarch M5 and many more More!
We spent a pleasant morning on the two-storey watchtower, observing a fair number of birds of prey, from marsh harriers and brown kites to a few buzzards, and then admiring great egrets, red and grey herons, cormorants, grebes and more.
After a quick lunch, during which we also discovered some things in common, Christophe said goodbye to us. Honestly, I am looking forward to meeting him again. It is always a pleasure to meet such competent, empathetic, kind and passionate people, a very rare commodity these days. Thank you very much, Pinac, from me and the Reserve managers!
His real name is Christophe; I will avoid mentioning his surname to give him some privacy. I have been a faithful reader of his website for a long time and no doubt you know him too: it is " Binoculas Today ".
A few weeks ago he contacted me asking for advice. As a matter of practice, he has been donating some of his binoculars to nature reserves for years and, having now exhausted those in his own country, he decided to help an Italian nature reserve.
I enthusiastically accepted his proposal and recommended the Palude Brabbia Regional Nature Reserve (LIPU), a place I know very well, including the staff and volunteers, known for their great passion and competence.
During our email conversations, Christophe also decided to donate a beautiful Canon 10x42 IS and a Zeiss Diascope FL 85 to me, to increase the number of instruments that I make available during the free dissemination days that I often organise with schoolchildren in my area, as well as to use as a yardstick for my tests.
To thank him for his generosity, I offered him to accept my gift: a pair of Russian Farvision 20x50 stabilised binoculars. Although the value of my gift was not comparable to his, I hoped that it represented a gesture of exchange between gentlemen and binocular enthusiasts, and I was happy that 'Pinac' accepted it.
We met at the visitor centre of the Palude Brabbia nature reserve with Elia Castiglioni and a LIPU volunteer, where Christophe arrived with a suitcase full of binoculars. As he is a very private and discreet person, I preferred to take a few photographs instead of the video report, as I had suggested at first glance.
I won't mention all the models of binoculars donated, but I can say that they were all in like-new condition, including high quality instruments such as Swarovski EL, Zeiss SFL, Conquest HD, Meopta Meostar, Nikon Monarch M5 and many more More!
We spent a pleasant morning on the two-storey watchtower, observing a fair number of birds of prey, from marsh harriers and brown kites to a few buzzards, and then admiring great egrets, red and grey herons, cormorants, grebes and more.
After a quick lunch, during which we also discovered some things in common, Christophe said goodbye to us. Honestly, I am looking forward to meeting him again. It is always a pleasure to meet such competent, empathetic, kind and passionate people, a very rare commodity these days. Thank you very much, Pinac, from me and the Reserve managers!
