As the title says. This is motivated by my seeing a Hawke Frontier 8x43 ED, which is a lot of binocular for the money. It includes a lot of technology: glass, optical design, prisms, and I assume dichroic coatings. Whilst I have not used this instrument for more than 5 minutes, the only obvious flaw is lots of edge softness. They seemed to have a bright clear view with almost no colour fringes, and a wide field, albeit with lots of edge softness.
Dyson moved production overseas. Pure (radios) manufacture in China. iPods are mode in China. The quality is great.
And where do the Chinese get their knowledge from? Are they learning from Western and Japanese companies who have factories in China? Are they hiring Western/Japanese engineers? How do they get coating technology (dichroics for example)?
I have heard that the Chinese government have put a huge emphasis on knowledge transfer (to China), and they are known as a hard working intelligent people. I imagine Western companies are not unaware of the competition (that is understatement).
dichroics? Is that the Brit equivalent of dielectrics? Sort of a fries and chips thing?
Long before you started this thread, and I'm talking maybe 5 or 6 years ago, I started a thread on Cloudy Nights tilted "Haute Chinese?" which asked the same question you're asking, so you're not the only one to think of something before somebody else and not get credited.
This was before Hawke came along, and when Zen Ray 7x36 ED2 was still a twinkle in Charles' eye (or was that veiling glare?
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Generally, the opinion was that we were decades away from seeing a premium bin coming out of China, but I was more optimistic (had to be, I couldn't and still can't afford an alpha!). They have certainly "come a long way, baby" since the first Chinese Monarch with its stiff focuser and floppy eyecups (well, they still have floppy eyecups) to the ZR ED2 and its twin Hawke ED.
I tried a Hawke 8x36 ED and compared it to my 8x32 SE, and I was impressed with it, particularly for the price: $299. Same identical body as the ZR 7x36 ED2, which I find very comfortable to hold. Less pincushion than the 7x ED2 though not as wide a FOV. Only tried them in the sun, so I'm not sure how I would react to the edges under dimmer light, and the CA control seemed pretty good (and you know how bad CA can get on sunny days!
I think the recession was a good thing for Chinese bins and perhaps, as someone suggested, why Zeiss made the Terra ED (not saying it's Chinese, to be be clear, but rather that perhaps sales have dipped a bit at the top shelf over the past four years - not that you'd know from reading these forums -- and that the fastest growing segment is not the top nor the bottom but the middle).
It reminds me of how Japanese cars, which were previously shunned by just about everybody besides college students back in the 1970s, suddenly became popular when the gas crises hit the US in the mid and late '70s.
Similarly, this recent financial crisis gave ChinBins an opening to grab a bigger market share. Even the "Red Scare" crowd over on Optics Talk and 24hourcampfire seemed to finally be coming around to the economic reality that they could get decent quality optics from China. Companies such as Zen Ray, Hawke and Theron stepped in and helped bridge the gap between the haves and have nots in the hunting world.
I think it's actually easier to sell hunters on ChinBins these days than birders, who are fussier about their optics. While those with deep pockets and upturned noses might still snub ChinBins, I don't think there's any going back now.
Here's an excerpt from an article on this topic by Holger Merlitz, who works in China:
"How far have binoculars "Made in China" come during the past 5 years? In my opinion, the review on this page has confirmed that by now there exist several lines of binoculars which offer a decent performance level. The quality of coating has been continuously improved over the years. It is also obvious that the optical designers know how to operate their software in order to generate binoculars which are well corrected over reasonably wide field of views. Five years ago, decent binoculars from China were still rare items, and to find a good one was similar to winning a lottery. Today, it is easy to find binoculars of considerable performance and reliable quality for a reasonable price, and this is the case for many different sizes, including giant binoculars for astronomy."
The rest of the review:
http://www.holgermerlitz.de/chinese8x40.html
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