mrbb you make a good argument and I won't doubt a word of it. But just to add to it some companies like Celestron, the brand I chose after looking at a lot of reviews, make several models of binos from <$100 to over $500. I selected a model somewhere in it middle and was more than happy with them. A person that is going to use them on just a couple trips out west where glassing is done for hours at a time and then most of the time just use them to help identify a game animal/target and only uses them a coupling minutes a day surely doesn't need a pair costing upwards and over $1000.