Vortex Razor HD 16-48x65 Angled Spotting Scope

For some time now I have been looking round for a 65mm travel scope to take the place of my excellent, but large and heavy, Kowa 88 prominar. I do a lot of birding in the neotropics and lugging the Kowa up and down mountain trails can be a bit wearing. Also, it takes up a lot of room in my carry-on. So, I was looking for a light 65mm scope with a good zoom lens that preferably zoomed down to less than 20 ( to provide the wide fov necessary for picking out birds in the canopy). At first I thought of a swaro 65, but was put off by the sticker shock for what would be essentially a scope that I'd use only sporadically. Then, I heard good things about vortex and decided to try one out. I ordered the 65mm angled with a zoom from 16 to 48 power and took it for a spin. I was blown away by the quality of the instrument. Not only does it meet my specs in terms of size, weight, fov, and magnification, but the sheer quality of the image is astonishing for a scope that is half the price of the bigger ticket kowas, zeiss, leicas, or swaros. It has me asking myself - how can the latter justify their much higher prices. So, would I recommend this scope ? My answer would be an unqualified yes. It now has me thinking that if the quality of the vortex scopes is so good maybe I should also be checking out their binoculars!