Steve C
Lil-Rokslider
The country of origin is less important than the quality level specified for a particular binocular by a certain customer. Each piece of glass in every specific place in the design requires a specific Abbe number. As far as I know every glass maker is capable of every level of quality. Not saying some places don't do better as a whole than others. But these days, technology transfer has pretty much occurred and company name quality levels that existed not so long ago are much less evident today. Some iconic glass makers, Schott for example, have their factories scattered all over the globe. So just because a piece of glass says Schott, does not make it German glass by default. Also there are likely several makers of glass responsible for various pieces of glass in different parts of the design. Swarovski, for example, might get their glass from Schott, Hoya, and O'Hara. The latter two are Japanese based companies. Hoya for example is a major supplier of the fine silicone sand used in the base of almost all glass type formulations. So I guess that might be construed to say that most of the glass is Japanese.
When a company like Vortex, for example or Leupold, who go to someone like the Japanese Optical Giant Kamakura, have several options. At one end of the spectrum they can present their own company specific designs to be made for them. At the other end is some outfit may come along and just buy a certain Kamakura design with their name being applied on the outside. There are many stops along this path to ultimately settle on what gets produced.
What really dictates the quality of the optics we buy is the quality of the design, the price level desired, the quality control levels required by the contract, the overall quality of the vision of the company ultimately selling the glass (they have to have a damned good idea of just what they want). So if we get a good design, and good quality control, and a good honest warranty, we get a good binocular. If not, we don't. Some bargain basement lines often cut enough corners the product is not what we might like. Any modern maker can make any quality level of glass. It depends on what levels were requested. That and how good of a contract they had with the maker. Glass counts, but so does everything else
When a company like Vortex, for example or Leupold, who go to someone like the Japanese Optical Giant Kamakura, have several options. At one end of the spectrum they can present their own company specific designs to be made for them. At the other end is some outfit may come along and just buy a certain Kamakura design with their name being applied on the outside. There are many stops along this path to ultimately settle on what gets produced.
What really dictates the quality of the optics we buy is the quality of the design, the price level desired, the quality control levels required by the contract, the overall quality of the vision of the company ultimately selling the glass (they have to have a damned good idea of just what they want). So if we get a good design, and good quality control, and a good honest warranty, we get a good binocular. If not, we don't. Some bargain basement lines often cut enough corners the product is not what we might like. Any modern maker can make any quality level of glass. It depends on what levels were requested. That and how good of a contract they had with the maker. Glass counts, but so does everything else