I think the biggest factors in getting a good product is not just country of origin and/or owned versus subcontracted facilities, it is in "reworking" and reworking costs, or problems with rejected goods. As long as QC (Quality Control) standards on the final inspections are tight then the product that gets to the retailers will be about the same, but the price is going to vary based on the percentage of "fallout". At the Zeiss - Hungary plant the German designers can work right on the assembly line to make small adjustments so that a high quality product like the Diafun 8x30 B MC can be produced for the best price. This might mean stopping the line to change a small production method or even introducing a small redesign better suited to the capabilities of the production staff or any number of minor changes that keep the lines producing at maximum efficiency and thus the least fallout. Sub-contractors meeting price points usually won't do that.
That's why some companies just outsource parts like lenses and then assemble in-house. But of course Japanese labor is more expensive han Singapore labor so you can only save so much, AND then you worry you will get enough usable parts to keep your expensive assembly lines producing at full capacity. Or you might out-source sub-assemblies that you could test when they arrived, but if there was a problem in one, there might be a problem in all of them and then the re-working in the home factory (if it was possible) would be costly, or your expensive assembly line could shut down again.
Some companies just take the approach that they'll order allot of something to a certain spec (that they've shown a sub-contractor how to build), and any binocular that doesn't pass they're final QC gets returned to whoever makes them and Company X won't pay for them so that is the subcontractor's problem. Minox runs the final QC on their Asian binoculars. But this can create an out-of-stock situation if an entire batch of product is rejected. Worse yet those same rejected binoculars could come back on the market either as identical-twin look-alikes (but rejected product not re-worked at all), or worse yet, in China they might come back with a Nikon or Minox or whatever brand/badge on them and then they would be quasi-counterfiets. All the problems I've described here and many more will eventually raise price of quality goods somewhere somehow, even if the brand is not important (Vortex, Eagle, Bushnell, etc.) and they can change product models numbers every week and no one will care.
Rejected Nikon, Carton, Pentax, Canon etc. binoculars may come back on the market as Bass Pro Shop, or JC Penney or Best-Price-Shop store branded items, but consumers may be told by salespeople (trying for their quotas or bonuses) that the XYZ brand binocular really IS a Nikon but with a different name on it. This creates market confusion (as counterfeits do). Based on the number of counterfiet product units dumped into the market, China has the worst track with that kind of problem of any nation that has ever existed in history. And market pressures are causing most legitimate manufacturers to teach their Chinese suppliers how to be able to make major products better technologically, which also teaches them how to make better fakes.
And finally there is no guarantee that a product made in Germany, like Eschenbach or Jenoptem/Jenoptec is absolutely better than one made in the Czech Republic, or Poland or Romania. Russia is a good example of this kind of problem. They CAN make great optics in Russia/Ukraine etc. but they also will meet shipping quotas by putting product out in the market even if it doesn't meet their own QC standards. If a company says they make a "cost is no object product" and you have the ability to return it to the manufacturer until you get a "good" one, then you will probably get something nice. But that puts the onus on all of us to return every single "problem item" that costs a significant amount, until we get one that is right. The country of origin is only one clue about how a product will work. Returning things if they aren't up to spec, is the buyer's responsibility (credit cards are good in this respect because you can cancel payment). Consumers seem to have gotten lazy and demaning at the same time now-a-days. That's helped put most consumer-goods markets into the messes we have today.
It is possible to make anything well anywhere. If your guts feel better buying something from a certain country then that confidence is worth something to you. But the reality is that there are no guarantees anywhere. It's all up to us. I find it is often best to trust a retailer who will pre-test every item they sell. Then you don't have the hassle of returning items. I also like buying military items because I know they use outside certified inspectors as the final QC. Other people I know prefer buying things at the lowest price and accepting the times when they get fakes or problems because in the big picture they feel they come out ahead. In this respect the country of origin is a very small consideration.
eetundra said:
Surprisingly the Nikon Monarch is Chinese made at $300+ and the Action is of Japanese origin for $70. I guess they have been making good porros in Japan for so long that it still makes sense to keep them made there. I believe my old abused Fuji porros were Japanese as well, nice indeed. That said China is fast up and coming in many areas of manufacture, consider the already mentioned Monarch as a very fine example of this. Quality control I feel has been the difference between Japan and the rest of Asia as far as optics are concerned.
