I probably don't have $35,000 in binoculars but I do have quite a few. I used to have many more and gave many away to family and starting hunters. I didn't write the Bible in optics so I really don't have a dog in the fight. However, I do see a problem. A lot of people expect a pair of $400 - 650 binoculars to stand up to the alphas and they are close. This is when you check their optical clarity, sweet spots, chromatic aberration, field of view, eye relief and even the eye strain generated. They bank on what you say as a writer and when you tell them that their pair of hawke 10X42s are a good as EL 10X42svs they believe you. That part time job gives me a lot of insight in how many of those second tier binoculars stand up to bad conditions. We have failures in every brand including the alphas. However, the toughest thing that I see that believe a lower or mid tier pair of binoculars is better than the alphas. They might have a pair of diamondbacks that are whacked out of alignment and you get head aches just from looking through them. The owner sometimes will bring them in and we send them off to get fixed but nobody is happy. I have a pair of Glanz 8X30 porro prisms that I bought at an auction for 5$.
https://ibb.co/bXQ6Ss1The thing is with these binoculars that even if they are just coated they can run with mid tier binoculars made today.
If I had a budget I would research old brands of occupied Japanese binoculars and get a pair like these. You probably could get them for almost free. Why would you. The US government paid for german optics people from Zeiss to teach the Japanese to make top tier binoculars. Some of them are still right there. Its not the coatings which are fair but give a bluish tint but the optical quality of the glass and who worked grinding the glass to perfection.
Again I probably don't know that much but I try.
