Seen the future and its a SONY! (1 Viewer)

RJM · Feb 13, 2012

Even though the DEV-5 was released last Fall I never bothered to look for them on my monthly trawls of the optics shops. But when I was at the CP+ show last Saturday I stumbled on the new SONY DEV-3 video binocular so gave them a brief looksee. "Whooa, this is way cooool!" was my first thought. And in 3D too!

Switching to digital eliminates many issues we have with analog optics. The field is always flat, relatively sharp, and bright. I suppose SONY must be using a similar hi-rez EVF that is in their NEX7 cameras. Not being accustomed to the feature, the 10x zoom was quite fun to play with. If they could boost the mag to 60x this would totally disrupt the sports optics market I think. Switch back and forth between 2D and 3D modes was cool too. In the hand they are similar to the Canon 15x/18x IS but the all digital view makes them easier to look thru though. SONY is pumping these tech marvels out for a MSRP of ~US$1300. Makes you wonder about the margins on a $2000+ Alpha!

Ripantuck · Feb 14, 2012

There is a Canadian TV series called , "How Its Made" that shows how various things are manufacured. They did a couple of programs on binoculars, one filmed at Zeiss and another at Steiner. These shows made me wonder why all the hand labor. They already use automatic grinding machines. With the recent advances in computer guided machines and robotics, it would seem to me that the human intervention could be drastically reduced and tolerances would not suffer- and in fact could be reduced.

It might be too much right now to have all the assembly functions automated, but but the machining of all components, polishing and inspection of tolerences could be fully automated with improvements in quality and tolerences. The cost of engineering might be high, but once set up the components could be manufactured fora long time with very little labor required. Right now, they have these highly skilled workers involved in checking each grinding and polishing step.

If Intel worked that way, a computer would cost many thousands of dollars. It will be interesting to see how long the major companies can continue to sell such a simple product (albiet one with exacting tolerences) for anything close to present prices.

Rip

brocknroller · Feb 14, 2012

Ripantuck said:
There is a Canadian TV series called , "How Its Made" that shows how various things are manufacured. They did a couple of programs on binoculars, one filmed at Zeiss and another at Steiner. These shows made me wonder why all the hand labor. They already use automatic grinding machines. With the recent advances in computer guided machines and robotics, it would seem to me that the human intervention could be drastically reduced and tolerances would not suffer- and in fact could be reduced.

It might be too much right now to have all the assembly functions automated, but but the machining of all components, polishing and inspection of tolerences could be fully automated with improvements in quality and tolerences. The cost of engineering might be high, but once set up the components could be manufactured fora long time with very little labor required. Right now, they have these highly skilled workers involved in checking each grinding and polishing step.

If Intel worked that way, a computer would cost many thousands of dollars. It will be interesting to see how long the major companies can continue to sell such a simple product (albiet one with exacting tolerences) for anything close to present prices.

Rip

Rip,

The HUGE difference is that Intel pumps out about 400 million chips a year. I'm not sure how many binoculars Zeiss makes per year, but at most its in the thousands, not millions.

At its height, Zeiss Jena produced 200,000 binoculars a year. Many were used by the military, and they didn't cost $2K each back then.

I would imagine that the total number of bins, FLs and Conquests, produced a year by Zeiss is much less than 200,000, maybe 2000 for each line?

Even with the high cost of labor in Germany, I don't think Zeiss could justify the expense of automation for such a small number of binoculars. Plus machines break down so you have the added expense of repairs, maintenance and upgrades.

Regardless whether automation would increase or decrease quality, the perceived quality of "handcrafted" binoculars "Made in Germany" vs. mass produced by automation is one of the things that sells Zeiss just as it sells Martin guitars, which are made in my state. I haven't visited the factory, but like you, I saw a program on TV that showed how they were made.

People who want to buy a luxury item don't want it mass produced. It's just not special enough. They want to feel special. It's an Oedipal thing.

Brock

Seen the future and its a SONY! (1 Viewer)

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RJM

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