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Message: <blockquote data-quote="John Cantelo" data-source="post: 1246382" data-attributes="member: 2844">Snobbishness is so ingrained in our culture that it would be remarkable if there were not elements of it in the birding world.  I used to have a rather well used to have second hand pair of Zeiss Diaylt 10x42s, but occasionally used an old pair of Zeiss Jena 8x32 porros (as I still do).  It might be all in my mind, of course, but my impression was that I was taken much less seriously as a birder with cheaper pair of bins.  I then moved onto a pair of 8x32 SE porros and experienced a good deal of "roof-prism snobbery" - until folks looked through the SEs and had to admit, usually reluctantly, that they were better than Leica/Zeiss/Swarovski 8X32s.  In fact, I still tend to assume that anyone sporting one of the SE range will be a superior birder!  After all they've bucked fashion to go with top optical quality. Whilst binoculars by Leica/Zeiss/Swarovski do have a reputation for robustness, I little research, I'm sure, will unearth similarly tough binoculars in the lower price brackets.  Just ask any binocular repair specialist and I'm sure they can tell you which medium priced bins are well built and which are not.  However, I suspect that, although some may claim otherwise, this consideration is rarely that important.  If it were the Swarovski SLC range which those who know about these things tell me are very well built (and certainly more robust than the ELs) would be far more popular.  They're good optically, advertised as 'bombproof' and substantially cheaper than the ELs (which are in the region of £300 more expensive.  Yet very few people seem to be buying this binocular compared to its more expensive cousins.As others have observed the choice of binoculars is subject to a whole set of variables  amongst which income level and family/mortgage commitments are often paramount.  (Incidentally, am I the only one to have noticed that, after a divorce, many birders treat themselves to more expensive optics?)  These bare no relationship to one's ability as birders.  John (current bins - 8x42 Zeiss FLs)</blockquote>

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