One of my favorite TikTokers is Matt Lyons, who parodies being an expert in various outdoor activities. Whether it’s mountain biking, downhill skiing, skateboarding, camping, ice fishing or hunting, Matt has great fun imitating the experts, especially in talking about gear. He perfectly captures the smugness of self-important gurus of every trade.

But there is a reality at the bottom of all this fun. There are better choices for gear and worse choices. A lot of advice you can find is trivial. I recently learned from a local TV station that if you’re going camping this summer, you should take water and a good sleeping bag. Check to see if a campground requires reservations, watch weather forecasts and check road conditions. No kidding? Well, I guess you have to start at the beginning if you’ve never done it.

There are endless gear reviews on the internet, and I routinely check these when I’m ready to buy something I don’t know much about. And even if I have a favorite item — for me that includes expensive Salomon GORE-TEX trail shoes — I always fish around when I’m looking to replace a worn-out pair. Can I get the same basic product for less money? The answer on this one is, no.

A complicating factor, pushed by advertisers and social media, is that you need all the “right” gear before you start some activity. This works well for sellers, but it’s upside down for buyers. It strikes me as smarter to do the thing a few times and then see what you really need for how you engage in some activity. Yes, I realize just owning expensive, name-brand stuff may be a goal whether or not you truly love the activity.

For birders, there are many bits of gear to enhance the experience. I almost always wear a vest because I like the extra pockets for stuff. I hate things in my pants/shorts pockets because they bang around while I walk. Super annoying. But vests vary a lot. I now have a mesh version, good for 90-degree mornings and pounding sun. I have several different ones for cooler and colder temperatures, which I must say I look forward to very much! A good fleece base layer and a soft-shell vest can weather a lot of weather.

But shoes, vests, bird T-shirts and hats are all just sideshows to the main attraction — the right binoculars. Because I’m always nosing around this world, I get a lot of feeds about the best binoculars for birding.

Most of these “reviews” do not even mention the best optics out there — Zeiss, Swarovski and Leica. Yes, these are the most expensive binoculars, but they are also plainly the best. As I’ve argued for years, if you are serious about your hobby — you’ve tried it many times and you love it — get the best equipment you can find. Forget affordability — just do it. If you take care of that equipment, it will last almost forever. And you can hand it down to the next generation of outdoor adventurers. They will value it more than you can imagine.

My first pair of binoculars were United 10x20s. These came in a leather case, which to my eye looks like ostrich. The leather of this bird was not only fashionable in the old days, it’s much tougher than cowhide. The quality is amazing! Even the thin leather strap is in perfect condition after 76-plus years. The optics are marginal, but they worked for spying leopard frogs and painted turtles in the 1950s.

My next pair were Tasco 7-15 power zooms. My dad and I both thought the zoom was a great feature. But, as it turned out, I mostly ran them on 7-10 power because the optics above 10 power sucked. Still, I used these for many years all over North America and managed to identify my first 400-plus species.

Next up were a pair of very portable Nikon 10x25 bins. At the time, I was doing a lot of backpacking and road biking, and I wanted lightweight bins that were easy to carry everywhere. The optics were OK, but the small field of view was a killer.

On my first birding trip to the tropics — Puerto Rico in 1992 — I looked through the binoculars — 10x40 Zeiss — of a good friend and realized what I was missing. Holy cow! As soon as I got back home, I bought a pair. I still have them. They don’t have the close focus and some other recent tech advances, but the glass is outstanding. And, in the end, it’s all about the glass.

After multiple birding trips to the Neotropics, I bought a pair of Zeiss 8x42s. These had the advantage of close focus and more light-gathering capacity than my 10s. For understory tropical species in low light and relatively close range, these were just the ticket. I still have them and use them often, depending on where I’m headed. They seem to be bulletproof, having knocked around floorboards, seats, campsites, daypacks and thousands of miles on trails without a hiccup.

When Swarovski came out with 12x50 binoculars in 2011, many of my birding friends were ecstatic. Here was awesome power combined with a relatively wide field of view. A good friend told me he wished he could see every bird he’d ever seen, again, through these new bins. Despite the relatively high price, I grabbed a pair.

In the meantime, I’d loaned my old Zeiss 10x40s to my daughter-in-law. So, every day, I started by choosing between the 8x42s and the 12x50s. I quickly decided the Swarovskis were too heavy. With the slow focus wheel Swarovski is known for and the high power, I found it difficult to track a flying bird that is close — basically every flying swallow of every species. I now only use them when I need some extra power in my optics, for example when I hike along mountain ridges. The 8s became my go-to bins.

Fast forward another 12 years. Because I go birding every day, I decided to revisit 10 power. I picked up the new Zeiss 10x42s, having all the latest tech developments and close focus. I chose Zeiss over Swarovski due to the faster focus. Plus, I don’t like the Swarovski neck straps. The optics are a tossup. Both are superb.

I feel a little bad for not giving Leicas a chance after all these years. I have birding friends who swear by them. But I have a few years left (I hope), and Leicas will be my next purchase. I should be putting money into hearing aids. But after all this time, great optics still capture my imagination. I see Leica has an 8x32 in their Ultravid series. I don’t have that size so — to be fair to Leica — I should probably give them a go.