It seems to me that with binoculars, for serious users such as birders or aircraft spotters, ultimately only the best, whatever that is, can be good enough, and sooner or later the best is what such a person will own. Their path to this goal will be paved with upgrades and part-exchange deals to gain the next step on the ladder. That is all very well, but if the final cost of the exercise is considered, is there not much to be said for raiding the piggy bank and going for the top rung at once? The final outlay will be less overall.
There is a argument that can be made that way. The old "buy the best of everything" argument: they work the best and keep their value. They do also lock up a fair amount of capitol. Worthwhile if you know you are deeply into "the hobby" but what if you don't. And even if you aren't you can sell them on.
If you can't afford the new top end (with the current stratospheric prices) look for last generation used or demo or refurbs. All of my top end bins are one of those three.
The other good strategy is to "buy at the performance knee": a mid-priced bin (e.g. the Nikon Monarch is still the canonical example right now or Zen Ray or Bushnell or Opticron or ...). Then if you stick with the hobby the next move should be a jump to the top (rather than incremental upgrades which yield less each time).
Another strategy (when you have little money) is to buy the most with the least money: good, older, used bins or military bins (though for birding the military stuff is not so good being IF rather than CF).
But incremental upgrading can get very expensive though you do learn a lot on the journey but if you do stay with "the hobby" you will end up either mid-range (and happy) or at the top (and happy).
The next thing that occurs to me is, is there not much snobbery in all this? Where birders or aircraft spotters meet, inevitably in idle moments or in the pub afterwards there will be discussions about the merits of this or that posh and expensive binocular, while perhaps not far away there will be somebody else who will be outside the discussion because "all" that he has is an old, well used ex-armed forces instrument for which he paid comparatively little and which yet will be at least as good and very likely superior to anything that members of the discussion group will have hung round their necks.
Yeap, brand badges are used as a proxy for skill or worth. They do mean some commitment but they aren't perfect matches as you just need money not skill to by a "alpha" brand. But given the (mostly) male psyche "comparisons" are always going to be something to talk about.
I do get a kick out of the old guy (or sometimes a young guy) with an old pair of bins (sometimes a classic old pair ... that most won't recognize as classics) making a great ID that some with the expensive bins (including myself) missed! It's a good way to come back down to earth. Spotting well worn classic bins are another favorite of mine -- that's an "honest signal" for time spent in the field. A worn Nikon SE or Zeiss 10x40B both take a very nice patina with use.
The other argument for mid-priced "good enough" bins is to save the money you would spend on optics for traveling to exotic locations to see wither rare birds or or wildlife or rare planes.
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