Zeiss 10x40 SFL - Roger Vine's Review (1 Viewer)

[GrampaTom]

The Japanese are a very disciplined culture and take pride in their work. In less than 50 years in the late 19th-early 20th centuries they built a Navy that rivaled the world’s best.

Japan is the “Germany” of Asia IMO. I have zero qualms buying a Japanese product. In a matter of fact, Im more partial to Japanese products than some made here in the USA.

It is funny, maybe ironic, that in 2022 with globalized manufacturing now well established, that in certain markets traditional post WWII ideas of quality and value linger.

The US, with the exception of rifle scopes, long ago gave up any hope of making consumer optics, like binoculars, telescopes, cameras. We also long ago abandoned consumer electronics. TV sets come from over there... Somewhere. Clothing? Everywhere. Apple's I Phones have mostly been made in China till the recent changing political landscape has sent Apple to India. Taiwan is by far the largest maker of bicycles in the world, even though many/most come with decals inferring traditional brands from Europe and the US, while the attendant fan base for those brands does not know, or no longer cares about where the bike is made.. We still seem to think of made in Japan or made in Germany when it comes to cars, and apply certain subjective valuations, while most international brands of any size have well established manufacturing plants here in the US, albeit using parts from here and there.

Japan is today, has been for decades, a world class manufacturer, making most, I believe still, the CNC equipment that has modernized and enabled globalized manufacturing. Japan mostly makes the stuff, that enables the rest of the world to make the stuff we buy but still think of with very old ideas of subjective value pinned to country of origin. No doubt Leica, Swarovski, Zeiss make really good products, but its not because they're made in Germany, Austria, Portugal. Rather it is because those companies with whats left of the manufacturing base in those countries, have worked hard to hold on/prevail. Japan based Nikon with its cameras, scopes, binos and scientific equipment seems a more globalized entity. The Victory Pocket, and now the SFL, has Zeiss doing the same as Nikon with consumer optics, taking advantage of Japan's very high quality, and more efficient consumer optics manufacturing base.

In the end, we mostly get to benefit. Binoculars aren't like the World Cup.

 

[Ted Y.]

We still seem to think of made in Japan or made in Germany when it comes to cars

Made in Japan / South Korea for 4 cylinder cars, Made in USA for 6 cylinder cars.

 

[Maljunulo]

Made in Japan / South Korea for 4 cylinder cars, Made in USA for 6 cylinder cars.

Please name a US-made 6-cylinder car which you see as “better” than the Lexus ES 350.

 

[lilcrazy2]

Please name a US-made 6-cylinder car which you see as “better” than the Lexus ES 350.

BMW makes the X3, X4, X5, X6 and X7 coupes and SUV's, including performance models about 35 miles from where I live In South Carolina and exports over 60% of them to the rest of the world.

And Toyota started making the Lexus ES350 in it's Kentucky plant back in 2015

 

[Maljunulo]

Okay.

I foolishly assumed that your “made in USA” meant a domestic brand.

 

[Ted Y.]

Made in Japan / South Korea for 4 cylinder cars, Made in USA for 6 cylinder cars.

'Made in USA': yes, a domestic (USA) brand

 

[binomaniac]

I have a Zeiss Victory 8x25 binoculars made in Japan. I compared it with the Noctivid 8x42 that I have and with the NL 8x42 that I sold. In my opinion, the image provided by Victory is at least equal to that provided by NL and a hair sharper than Noctivid. I have astigmatism and Victory's smaller exit pupil helps me isolate my problem side and use the good side of my eye. It is possible that this is also an explanation for the fabulous resolution that Victory offers me. But the overall quality of the image remains, the freshness of the colors, the lack of chromatic aberrations and the protection against parasitic lights at the highest level I've seen in a pocket. That would be my very positive experience with binoculars made in Japan.

 

[edwincjones]

This is a never ending discussion. My guess is that most countries that make optics have examples of both very good and very bad products.
The good is that most people, of many/most economic levels, have access to adequate optics for their interests.

edj

 

[SUPPRESSOR]

My, there is some tommyrot posted on these forums. Don't you think Zeiss would have thought about repairs when designing the SFL binoculars....Not as if any of their optics need repairing very often, unlike Swarovski needing to be re-armourd every few months due to the biodegradable rubber or whatever they use, to be seen as eco friendly. All those units constantly being ferried to Austria and back is not very eco friendly .....Not as I believe in any of that BS.
Japanese optics are built every bit as good as European optics just look at the thousands of 35+ year old kowa spotting scopes still doing excellent service never having seen the inside of the factory since they left it when new.
Peter.

 

[Richard D]

My, there is some tommyrot posted on these forums. Don't you think Zeiss would have thought about repairs when designing the SFL binoculars....Not as if any of their optics need repairing very often, unlike Swarovski needing to be re-armourd every few months due to the biodegradable rubber or whatever they use, to be seen as eco friendly. All those units constantly being ferried to Austria and back is not very eco friendly .....Not as I believe in any of that BS.
Japanese optics are built every bit as good as European optics just look at the thousands of 35+ year old kowa spotting scopes still doing excellent service never having seen the inside of the factory since they left it when new.
Peter.

I've no problem with the quality of Japanese optics (two of my scopes are Nikon). The dig at Swarovski armour is a bit of an exaggeration though. Generally if Zeiss Terra's fail they get replaced with a new unit rather than repaired, I assume the higher cost of the SFLs would suggest they'd be repaired somewhere.

 

[GrampaTom]

Think he was joking...

 

[SUPPRESSOR]

Think he was joking...

Think he was joking.Indeed I was.
So hard to find a sense of humour on here....Sometimes.

 

[SUPPRESSOR]

I've no problem with the quality of Japanese optics (two of my scopes are Nikon). The dig at Swarovski armour is a bit of an exaggeration though. Generally if Zeiss Terra's fail they get replaced with a new unit rather than repaired, I assume the higher cost of the SFLs would suggest they'd be repaired somewhere.

I have a pair of 15, year old Zeiss Victory 10x42 fl's and used regulary ....not a mark on them inside or out.

 

[pbjosh]

I’ve already seen several pairs of NLs going through their first shed… no binoculars are perfect but Swaro perhaps does trail behind others in armor durability (well not behind the lower end Nikons with spongy armor). It might prove to be the case that the NLs are even worse there, time will tell.

I personally view MIJ as just as good and even frequently better than Made in Europe… but as others have said, there tends to be good and bad in every category from any country of origin you can name.

 

[Zedster]

This is the weirdest discussion ever. I have a Prius Prime and the sensor for the rear seats went out. It was horrible having to ship the car back to Japan for the warranty. Oh wait, they did that in the US.

The same is true for binoculars. There is no requirement that they be repaired where manufactured. In fact that is usually NOT the case for most products because the production environment required is often quite different in repairing an item.

 

[Viewerinsweden]

Roger stated that his victory pockets were not repaired when they had issues. Instead Zeiss sent a new pair. The question is if that was because the do not do repairs or because it was beyond repair.
When I asked Zeiss if the are able to do repairs on the sfl in Germany they replied that the could. The question is for how long…

 

[Zedster]

For as long as needed. They don't have to be repaired where they were manufactured. As I noted those are typically two different operations. I imagine Zeiss could repair the German ones in Japan if they needed to. There's nothing magical about the place of manufacture. So long as the repair spot has the correct equipment anyone should be able to perform these operations. The challenge would be if a element is damaged and they didn't have a replacement. could still be done but would cost a lot.

 

[pm42]

Roger stated that his victory pockets were not repaired when they had issues. Instead Zeiss sent a new pair. The question is if that was because the do not do repairs or because it was beyond repair.

Or they send a new pair immediately to keep their customer satisfied and repair the faulty one later.

 

[Zedster]

Or they send a new pair immediately to keep their customer satisfied and repair the faulty one later.

Often a company will send a new pair to a customer then refurbish the old pair. Next repair they give the customer the refurbished unit and then refurbish their pair. This process has the benefit of rapid turn around for the customer and flexibility in schedule for the manufacturer.

 

[thedarkbird]

I sent a mail to the Zeiss European customer service about the SFL's asking about 1) the warranty period and 2) repairability.

"Thanks for your inquiry and your interest in our products.
Like for all of our high end binoculars (e.g. Conquest and Victory models), we offer a 10 year warranty for our SFL models in Europe:
COP Community

At the moment, we typically can offer repairs and spare parts for high end binoculars out of our product lines from around 30 years ago or older. Of course, it is impossible to forecast the situation in 30, 40 years from now on."