All Binocular Manufacturers (1 Viewer)

[Mark9473]

Did some more checking about Kruger optical.

http://www.krugeroptical.com/comp.htm

Name change, still Kruger components.

Interesting. They have an engineering lab in the US where they also do some assembly for certain products, but they also work with "partner factories in Asia".

 

[Troubador]

That's not to say that companies don't occasionally innovate specifically for their sports optics, but that by and large, it seems to me that sports optics benefit from innovations intended for other products and applications.

There is some truth in this eg Zeiss's LotuTec was originally conceived as a coating for spectacle lenses, but it's a big leap to characterise this as the main route by which innovations arrive in sports optics. And that doesn't mean I am disagreeing with this proposition, just that we would need to know a lot more to assess it. Sports Optics companies are filing patents all the time although relatively few of these seem to get applied to real life products. But for sure big companies with different optics-based businesses would be crazy not to cross-fertilise expertise from different branches.

Lee

 

[OPTIC_NUT]

Most coating developments used to trickle down from cameras.
Today that makes less of a difference with all the post-processing,
and binocs and spotters are excited about selling 10, 20, 30 layers!
I can't wait to see how some of them age.

 

[Arek]

I would mention Canon (with stabilized binos in offer), Olympus and Kahles.

I am not sure about Vanguard. The might have their own plant...

Still there is some insignificant production of binoculars from East European countries. From time to time limited series of Polish PZO 7x45Z are made for military purposes. The same might be with Romanian IOR.

 

[etudiant]

The number of independent optical gear producers is shrinking because the technology is sufficiently mature that it has become a commodity.
Offsetting this decline, sector specialists can now launch new 'Brands', based on the premise that there is enough profit to be gleaned by offering customized commodity optics as budget alphas. Probably some of them will be successful. The model certainly worked for Swift for decades.

 

[maico]

Docter did stop making the Nobilem range in 2016 according to their website, which is a shame.

Nikon and Canon make optical glass used for binoculars. Nikon's optical glass division is Hikari Glass Co.
http://www.nikon.com/products/glass/lineup/materials/optical/pdf/hikari-catalog.pdf
Their glass catalogue lists an enormous amount of different grades of optical glass including fluorite glass and crystal.
Some new additions
http://www.nikon.com/products/glass/lineup/materials/optical/pdf/new-glass-type.pdf

 

[maico]

Interesting. They have an engineering lab in the US where they also do some assembly for certain products, but they also work with "partner factories in Asia".

Chinese glass !

http://www.cloudynights.com/topic/315180-new-bins-kruger-caldera-10x42-roofs/