I agree with most of your comments. Bins are very personal thing because everyone's eyes are different, so it is very common to hear different opinions. But I disagree with the comments regarding "Chinese made" bins as you stated again and again in this thread. I found the discrimination against Chinese made is ignorant. Things made in China vary largely from top to the bottom, but usually when you invest the same amount $$ over "Made in China" vs "Made in Japan", you will get better quality and the value is in favor of "Chinese made". I think many people appreciate that and so do the smart companies like Apple, Sony, Leupold, Zen-Ray, etc.
Made in Japan has been a symbol of quality but it is losing its edge. Over the last 2 decades, the MFG process they invented (like the Toyota way, 6 sigma) has been learned and mastered by many countries. In the global trend, the origin of the product is becoming less and less noticeable and irrelevant to the quality. And binoculars are not exceptional. In the end, it is not about the place where it is made, but about the standard it applied.
Zelda,
The other reason "Made in Japan" is losing its edges is pricing. After the tsunami/earthquake, Japan shut down all but two of its 50 nuclear plants. They are now importing a lot of liquid natural gas, which costs about three times as much as dry natural gas in the U.S. So energy costs have risen, which drives up the cost of manufacturing and the cost of MIJ goods. Just check out the prices on the EDG, LXL, SE, and EII. All $100 to hundreds of dollars more than they cost before the tsunami.
With quality going up on Chinese-made optics and prices going up on MIJ products, and wages largely stagnant in the U.S., buyers who cried "Better Dead than Red" before are now taking a look at Chinese optics. The real stigma is no longer the taint of communism but that of the perception of poor quality.
Unfortunately, many mass produced items from China do have poor quality. Buy a fan from Walmart or Target and leave it on all summer and see how long it lasts. Of course, it's cheap, so you're not going to get it fixed, you throw it away and buy another one for $20. China has made the US the "Disposable Society." Where are they going to put all that crap when its built-in obsolescence expires?
However, it's true we are seeing more of what I called "Haute Chinese" optics (and other items) on Cloudy Nights about eight years ago, predicting that eventually, like the Japanese products, which when I was a kid were synonymous with "trinkets" and "baubles," would improve in quality. But AFAIK, no modern equivalent of E. W. Deming has emerged in China to lead the way. What the Chinese do is copy stuff. 60 Minutes recently aired a segment on how some Chinese companies were illegally duplicating original art and selling it. They have a large room where 50 artists are forging copies. They could do the same with manufacturing as they did with art and our satellite technology - copy them.
60 Minutes also aired a segment a couple months ago that showed middle-class Chinese were perturbed about the low quality of most Chinese products and were banding together to form an organization to advocate higher quality, better QC Chinese products.
You've probably seen some of the amazing commercial buildings in China's big cities, so it's not like they can't make "top shelf." The problem is people want cheap Chinese goods. Where there's a demand, there will be a supply to meet it. I would pay $50 for a good fan that would last for years like my old US-made and Japanese-made fans did, but they are nowhere to be found, at least not where I live, which is a rural area. Many people wouldn't pay that much for a fan. They'd rather just buy a $17-$20 fan or a $10 coffeemaker, etc, and keep replacing them as they break.
So you can't really blame the Chinese for lack of QC in cheap items, they are giving the people what they want, and in some Third World countries, $20 might be a week's wages. So they serve their purpose.
You mentioned Apple. You might remember that Apple workers in China were getting paid so low that several committed suicide so they could leave the insurance money for their families so they could have a better life. And we know what happened in Bangladesh to keep the cost of jeans and other clothing low. There's a price to pay on the other side of the world for cheap goods on this side.
I think a better life for Chinese workers and better quality products for US and European buyers are closely tied together. Better trade unions would solve both problems. But there go your $200 Chinese binoculars. Don't worry, they will be manufactured in the Philippines or Southeast Asia (except South Korea), or if wages don't go up in the U.S., the will be made here.
Brock