You guys may not believe this but quality optics can be considered a good investment in a couple of ways. First you can use them all your life, so you are investing in yourself. Second they can be a monetary investment. I gave $1200 for my Swaro 8X56 SLC's. A fellow begged me to sell them to him the other day for $1600. Not a bad return when you consider the fact that I have been able to enjoy them all this time, and still make money. However I will not sell them. The real problem is the price of the new Leica's I want to buy(with the rangefinder). I have been saving for about a year now. Hopefully the dollar will increase a little more and the exchange rate(euro) will lower. Then hopefully the price on the Leica's will go down a bit after the first of the year. Tom.