Any scope that I bought a decade ago is still just as good as it was back then. The elite top of the line models have increased in image quality over their earlier counterparts, to be sure, but a top-grade scope from a decade ago is still a very, very good optic.
But electronics? Not so much. A top of the line laser rangefinder from 10 years ago is a joke compared to a top current model. Electronics go obsolete far far faster than optics, not to mention suffering mechanical or other issues.
So things like the Burris Eliminators, which combine optics and electronics, seem to make little sense to me. A few years down the road you will likely have a fairly heavy, goofy-looking scope which provides an image just as good...or bad...as it did when new...but if the electronics still work at all, they will be laughably limited and out-of-date.
A digital-imaging scope? I dunno; almost every year new TV's come out that provide noticeable improvements in image quality. If scopes go down the same path, which of course they will, I wonder how buyers will feel a couple years down the road. Will they be amazed that those delicate electronics still function at all after some time in the field? Will they be embarrassed by the sad-looking images their "old" scopes produce when compared to the latest and greatest? And how many will then do what the manufacturers hope they will do, which is of course to buy another new fleetingly state-of-the-art toy to replace that dusty obsolete 3-year-old one on their rifle?
I hate living in a disposable world.
