BirdForum is the net's largest birding community dedicated to wild birds and birding, and is absolutely FREE!

Register for an account to take part in lively discussions in the forum, post your pictures in the gallery and more.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="ovenbird43" data-source="post: 1247250" data-attributes="member: 64478">I don't run into a lot of optic snobbery myself, or at least I don't notice it when it happens.  I rarely notice what other people are using, let alone their opinions of my own optics.  But certainly cheap comes with extra cost: over the years I've broken 2 $80 pairs, and I wonder if I had started with a more expensive one, it might have lasted longer and essentially cost the same over those years.  The first time I broke mine I had no choice but to replace it immediately with the cheapest I could find, I was in the middle of a field season doing point counts but couldn't afford a better pair at the time... and besides, in the middle of Iowa all I could find was Wal-mart, and even that was a ways away!  When those inevitably broke several years later, I took more care to choose durable but still affordable (for me) binoculars.I do sometimes feel jealous though, not so much over nicer binoculars but over other equipment that I don't have at all... like a scope or a good camera.But anyway, it's not the price or the name, but how well you can use them<img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite2" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=";)" /></blockquote>