A Visit to Swarovski Optik

Above is an image from a clandestine gathering of the United Council of Birding Bloggers. This is a small but influential group of individuals who meet in secret to plot the course of the birdy blogosphere. They are to bird blogging what the Federal Reserve is to US monetary policy. Needless to say, I found myself in some good company.
At this meeting, we were invited to Swarovski Optik's US headquarters to share our insights on blogging and other "new media" with them. I won't bore you with the details here, but read ahead for a virtual tour of Swarovski's technical facilities in Rhode Island.

Here we are, vacating the insides of an SLC binocular of your run of the mill air and replacing it with nitrogen. Once sealed, this will insure that the inside of the binocular remains free of water vapors, making it internally fog-proof.
Corey from 10,000 birds took advantage of an opportunity to upgrade his own eyes to 8.5 power using this patented binocular vision machine. After this, his pupils were topped off with Swaro-Bright coatings to enhance color contrast and low light performance. Now he can bird without needing any binoculars. The downsides are he can no longer drive a vehicle and is only able to focus on objects 10 feet away or further.
This machine directs a laser into the binocular's lens system to calibrate the optic's prism alignment.
Here is what a $2000 binocular looks like before it's put together.

I've heard it said that a binoculars prism is the heart of the optical system. This piece of mirrored glass accounts for a great deal of the performance birders experience with fine Austrian optics. Stay tuned for a sneak peak at the newest addition to the Swarovski Optik catalog....