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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Troubador" data-source="post: 3628610" data-attributes="member: 109211">I've just come back from a holiday where for the most part I used mid-priced 32mm (I usually major on 42s) binos with the occasional use of a Zeiss FL 8x32. First conclusion was that in 3 weeks viewing there was one 10 minute period one dusk when I missed having a 42. Second was that the little Meopta and Kowa were good enough to satisfy me for a lifetime. There was nothing that the FL did that the others couldn't do but it did it with a touch more brightness and with just a touch less CA (although the Kowa runs it very close on this) and a soupcon more contrast.However, in a couple of weeks I will be taking SF 42s to Islay and I will love using them.Its OK to strive for the best you can get and it is absolutely fine if this turns out to be a Nikon (MHG is fabulous value for money) a Meopta or Kowa, a Conquest or Opticron or GPO.I really doubt whether you would make any more identifications with an Nvid than with your MHGs and for sure, as you have hinted at, adding to your experience of birds both familiar and unusual, will gradually improve your identification skills. The more familiar you are with the general impression and habits and calls of the familiar, the more rapidly you will spot something new and spot why it is different and you will do this just as successfully through an MHG as an Nvid.Lee</blockquote>