The hinge issue you mentioned may or may not be something I can comment on. If there is some type of issue then I would be willing to be that it would take a good amount of time before it would become obvious. I would have a hard time believing anybody would charge $1800 and then produce a product that goes out of alignment fairly easily.
As for the price, well, I guess part of competing with the best is perception. How much attention would a company get initially if they introduced a product set to compete against a $1700 binocular but were only charging $1000 for it? There would be a perception of a lack of quality because of the lower price...at least that is my take on it.
As for the actual comparison with my current model...I will be quite honest in my impressions. I have owned alot of the high end glass and finally settled on the 7x42 FLs because of their unique combination of handling/style and optics. It is going to take alot to knock them off.
The month of May cannot come soon enough.
