Glass country of origin??

[West.mass.hunter]

What's the difference in quality for glass made in say Japan vs. China vs Philippines? Is one country generally better then the other for scopes and/or binos? If so please let me know which way one is better then the other
Thanks in advance

 

[The Real IronMan Fierro]

Companies like Vortex and Nikon will manufacture their cheap stuff in China or Philippines and their higher end products in Japan.

 

[West.mass.hunter]

But what's the difference between the quality?

 

[Researcher]

Japan is the best. China and Philippines are a roll of the dice, sometimes you get a good one sometimes youre requesting warranty service after a year. Its not just the glass quality either, its all the parts and the assembly. The Japanese know how to assemble things well and how to do it very consistently.

I would rather by a discontinued or used Japan scope over a new Chinese or Philipino scope.

 

[The Real IronMan Fierro]

But what's the difference between the quality?

^what he said Japan is the best for quality and quality control. The next tier after Japanese optics would be European optics and that's a sore subject for some folks. Lol

 

[fiskeri1]

My Japanese-made Vortex UHD's lasted 2 minutes in my living room before failure. Only one data point but still......

 

[The Real IronMan Fierro]

Yes sir my razors have been back to the shop 3 or 4 times for the same reason. I will never buy another vortex product again.

 

[Spiral Horn]

There is a vast difference between quality of materials, manufacturing processes, and quality control.

Kowa for example uses pure fluorite crystal in their Prominar Series, Chinese optics don’t use those kinds of cutting-edge materials. The general theme appears to be - give us the basic design and we’ll lower the manufacturing costs. The end result usually being inferior materials and less QC.

 

[pc3]

Companies like Vortex and Nikon will manufacture their cheap stuff in China or Philippines and their higher end products in Japan.

It seems now Vortex is also having some of their higher end stuff made in China..............I think the RF Bino's.....Fury's ?? which retail here for 2k or so are Chinese made, i'll pass. Also is it correct some of their razor line is now made in China ?

 

[The Real IronMan Fierro]

It seems now Vortex is also having some of their higher end stuff made in China..............I think the RF Bino's.....Fury's ?? which retail here for 2k or so are Chinese made, i'll pass. Also is it correct some of their razor line is now made in China ?

??? I don't know about that, I'll have to look into it. The Fury line is definitely not higher end so that I would expect to be made in China. I think the whole Razor line is Japan but I could be wrong. I wrote vortex off a few years ago and haven't kept up with their stuff since then. I still own a pair of razors but only because I want more than others are willing to pay, and Vortex won't replace them so they'll keep going back to the shop every couple seasons.

 

[TK161BOONER]

Most NF riflescopes are made in Japan .

 

[DangerRanger]

Razor binos are China now

 

[Enel]

I love American and Japanese glasses

 

[pc3]

Razor binos are China now

Its a mistake in my view to have their premium range made there

 

[307]

You cannot generalize based on country of origin. There are items of phenomenal quality made in America, and there are also items that qualify as trash made here too.

 

[fatrascal]

Generally the top glass is European like Zeiss, Leica, Swarovski. Kowa has come into the hunting market a few years back and is also top tier and is as good or better than the European glass according to the people who own Kowa products. I'm a swaro man and I'm very happy with the quality. Everybody compares their bino's or spotting scope to Swarovski and theres a reason for that. Fatrascal.

 

[WCB]

Euro and Japanese glass ans build quality is generally better...some Euro companies use foreign glass in certain lines or at least have used it.

Philippines is generally decent quality all around

Chinese is generally last

With that said companies can get better quality stuff out of say the Philippines than Japan if the money is right. You can get cheap crap made from any of them and good solid quality of of most of them.

 

[Hunyuk]

??? I don't know about that, I'll have to look into it. The Fury line is definitely not higher end so that I would expect to be made in China. I think the whole Razor line is Japan but I could be wrong. I wrote vortex off a few years ago and haven't kept up with their stuff since then. I still own a pair of razors but only because I want more than others are willing to pay, and Vortex won't replace them so they'll keep going back to the shop every couple seasons.

I have an email into Vortex RE: where are Razors manufactured. Stay tuned.

 

[JGRaider]

Current Razor binos are Chinese, which is why they're so overrated IMO.

 

[Kenn]

I bought Zen-Ray binos (Chinese) several years ago and they were amazing for the price. Encouraged others to buy them and almost every one was returned for repair. They have since gone out of business. You hear similar stories about Vortex - they look great, but don't plan to pass them down to your heirs.