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Where is it made? (1 Viewer)

I don't know about binoculars but some top lenses are currently made in Germany and England.
Glass material can come from various sources.

I don't know who makes castings.

Meopta may make their own binoculars.

I doubt that any one company nowadays makes every part including mining the metals and glass.

Barr and Stroud probably made every part of their military binoculars including the best Scottish sand, which actually wasn't very good.
Ross also used British sand.

Thorium glass may have used sands coming from India.
Uranium glass filters I don't know the source. These were used on military lenses. Some filters are large.

Apparently, the sand around Wetzlar was very good for optics and probably helped the local optical industry.
 
Binastro said:
I don't know about binoculars but some top lenses are currently made in Germany and England.
Glass material can come from various sources.

I don't know who makes castings.

Meopta may make their own binoculars.

I doubt that any one company nowadays makes every part including mining the metals and glass.

Barr and Stroud probably made every part of their military binoculars including the best Scottish sand, which actually wasn't very good.
Ross also used British sand.

Thorium glass may have used sands coming from India.
Uranium glass filters I don't know the source. These were used on military lenses. Some filters are large.

Apparently, the sand around Wetzlar was very good for optics and probably helped the local optical industry.
Click to expand...

Uranium salts were used to make colored crystal, they offer a nice range of yellows, greens and browns. The ore for this was found in Bohemia, so there was a traditional mining supply chain well before the optics industry became interested.
 
I don't think it matters where the raw materials are mined, extracted, reaped, collected, or gathered as long as they are fashioned into the final product in the country claiming origin; e.g., there's likely no home-grown cacao in Belgian chocolates.
 
St. Elmo said:
Is there any binocular made in Germany?

Really made in Germany.

Not just enough to plaster, "Made in Germany" on the product and have reps say, "It's made in Germany" over and over again as they did with the latest Conquest, but really made there.

I'm not talking about screws or cases, I'm talking about the frame, the lenses, the focussing mechanisms, and all other important internals being manufactured from raw materials (which can be sourced anywhere).
Click to expand...

Zeiss SF, HT, FL.

Lee
 
140 jobs are being lost and 80 jobs being created in Oberkochen (where photo lenses are produced) as Sports Optics is transferred to Oberkochen. So a net loss of 60 jobs, but not all of these are in production. Customer Service (warranty and repairs) is staying in Wetzlar.

I have no idea of the long-term impact of this move but in the short term it will certainly be very disruptive. I have been in companies where this kind of re-structuring took place and you lose key personnel and it takes time to recruit suitable replacements.

One thing that is very encouraging though is the high standard of equipment, personnel and quality of product coming out of Oberkochen. I have been there it is very impressive. Long term this should be good for Zess Sports Optics but the short and medium terms will be painful.

Lee
 
Troubador said:
140 jobs are being lost and 80 jobs being created in Oberkochen (where photo lenses are produced) as Sports Optics is transferred to Oberkochen. So a net loss of 60 jobs, but not all of these are in production. Customer Service (warranty and repairs) is staying in Wetzlar.

I have no idea of the long-term impact of this move but in the short term it will certainly be very disruptive. I have been in companies where this kind of re-structuring took place and you lose key personnel and it takes time to recruit suitable replacements.

One thing that is very encouraging though is the high standard of equipment, personnel and quality of product coming out of Oberkochen. I have been there it is very impressive. Long term this should be good for Zess Sports Optics but the short and medium terms will be painful.

Lee
Click to expand...

Hi,

the article I read in a german newspaper quoted a Zeiss spokesman telling a total of 220 jobs were going to be axed in Wetzlar and 80 of these doing product management and development, sales and marketing were offered relocation to Oberkochen as their departments were going to be merged with the respective photo objective units.

He also mentioned that 140 production jobs were to be cut in Wetzlar with the remaining 110 only doing final assembly, service and repairs. A trade union source was quoted with production going to Hungary.

See https://www.birdforum.net/showthread.php?t=352471&highlight=wetzlar and https://www.mittelhessen.de/lokales...-und-verlagert-220-Stellen-_arid,1080630.html

So so hurry if you want a made in germany Zeiss Victory...

Joachim
 
jring said:
Hi,

the article I read in a german newspaper quoted a Zeiss spokesman telling a total of 220 jobs were going to be axed in Wetzlar and 80 of these doing product management and development, sales and marketing were offered relocation to Oberkochen as their departments were going to be merged with the respective photo objective units.

He also mentioned that 140 production jobs were to be cut in Wetzlar with the remaining 110 only doing final assembly, service and repairs. A trade union source was quoted with production going to Hungary.

See https://www.birdforum.net/showthread.php?t=352471&highlight=wetzlar and https://www.mittelhessen.de/lokales...-und-verlagert-220-Stellen-_arid,1080630.html

So so hurry if you want a made in germany Zeiss Victory...

Joachim
Click to expand...

Hi Joachim

Thanks for this. The second link you sent seems to say the same as my information: 140 jobs going and 80 being created in Oberkochen.

Lee
 
Troubador said:
Hi Joachim

Thanks for this. The second link you sent seems to say the same as my information: 140 jobs going and 80 being created in Oberkochen.

Lee
Click to expand...

Hi,

I beg to disagree, the german newspaper piece says 220 jobs axed in Wetzlar, 80 offered to move to Oberkochen, 140 in production to be laid off.

My german is a little bit better than my english ;-)

Joachim
 
jring said:
Hi,

I beg to disagree, the german newspaper piece says 220 jobs axed in Wetzlar, 80 offered to move to Oberkochen, 140 in production to be laid off.

My german is a little bit better than my english ;-)

Joachim
Click to expand...

Joachim
I can see what has happened now. The information I have seen previously only mentioned 140 job losses in Wetzlar and 80 to be created in Oberkochen but now I can see these 80 are jobs transferred from Wetzlar so Wetzlar is indeed losing 140 + 80= 220.

Alles klar!

I have wondered whether Zeiss might do the same as Leica has done with Portugal and produce everything in their factory in Hungary but apart from the concern mentioned by the trade union spokesman I haven't seen anything more about this possibility.
Lee
 
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After WW-2 Zeiss was situated in Jena, then occupied by the Soviet troops. A new Zeiss company was brought into life in then Western Germany, at that time occupied by the western allied forces. That was in the a little later situated in Oberkochen. A fierce battle started which company was allowed to carry the name of Zeiss, since there was now a Zeiss-East and a Zeiss-West. I will not elaborate further into all the developments, but it turned out that in Jena among others a complete binocular programme was brought into life and that was also the case in Oberkochen. When the political situation dramatically changed Zeiss-west moved to the original Hensoldt factory in Wetzlar, but the Oberkochen facility stayed there also. In Jena production was continued and when the Iron curtain disappeared the Jena facilities were sold among others to Docter Optik, who originally had a company in Wetzlar. Docter optik continued production of part of the binocular line of the former Zeiss-East company, whereas Zeiss Wetzlar started production of the now well-known binocular programme as well as a lot of other optical instruments and lenses. The production of Zeiss military optics was also situated in the old Hensoldt facility in Wetzlar. This is in a nutshell some aspects of the history of the Zeiss binocular factory. In the years 1990-2000 Zeiss considered the binocular programme as the proud flag on the optics division allthough it was only a small part of the whole production programme (I am quoting now the director of Zeiss Wetzlar at that moment, when I was visiting there). That seems to have changed drastically if I look at the present developments.
If one is interested in a lot of details around this history I can supply the titles of some excellent studies about it.
Gijs van Ginkel
 
Nice summary Dr. G. Thanks!

I think of the west German Zeiss as Carl Zeiss and the now gone east German company as Zeiss Jena. Is that correct? How did "Zeiss" label their products pre WWII, cold war, and after the reunification of Germany?
 
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Troubador said:
......
There is a great history of Zeiss here and it touches on product labellng a little:
http://www.company7.com/zeiss/history.html

Lee
Click to expand...

Lee .... That is some article loaded with information. I skimmed through a lot of it put did pick up a lot of knowledge on the names.

It has the following illustration of the various logos (and names) used over the years that sums things up nicely. The logos at the top center are pre WWII before the split. The center logos are Zeiss east Germany on the left and Zeiss west Germany on the right, and the bottom are the reunified Zeiss Company.

http://www.company7.com/zeiss/graphics/zeiss-logos-in-C7s-collection500x613.jpg

I did not pick up previously on the fact that the earlier logo design represented a doublet lens outline. That is neat to know!
 
Thanks Lee for the history lesson - this is even better than what can be found on the Zeiss pages (in german).

Joachim
 
Lee, post 34,
Excellent review paper saves me a lot of typing. Some of the war details are described in other sources slightly different, but that requires further reading/study.
For those who look for more historic details, read:
-1- Frank-Ferdinand von Falkenhausen et al., "Carl Zeiss in Jena 1846 bis 1946"Sutton Verlag 2004
-2- Edith Hellmuth and Wolfgang Mühlfriedel, Carl Zeiss, die Geschichte des Unternehmens, Band 1 , 2 und 3, 1846-1990, Böhlau Verlag, 1996-2004
-3- Armin Hermann, "Carl Zeiss. Die abenteurliche Geschichte einer Deutschen Firma", R. Piper GmbH, München, 1992.
-4- Frank Markowski, "Der letzte Schliff, 150 jahre Arbeit und Alltag bei Carl Zeiss", Aufbau Verlag 1997.
Gijs van Ginkel
 
BruceH said:
Lee .... That is some article loaded with information. I skimmed through a lot of it put did pick up a lot of knowledge on the names.

It has the following illustration of the various logos (and names) used over the years that sums things up nicely. The logos at the top center are pre WWII before the split. The center logos are Zeiss east Germany on the left and Zeiss west Germany on the right, and the bottom are the reunified Zeiss Company.

http://www.company7.com/zeiss/graphics/zeiss-logos-in-C7s-collection500x613.jpg

I did not pick up previously on the fact that the earlier logo design represented a doublet lens outline. That is neat to know!
Click to expand...

Bruce

And note that the current logo with a semi-circle cut out of the bottom of the blue shield is a reference to the old doublet logo which had the same feature.

Lee
 
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