Scope manufacturers (1 Viewer)

Hi everyone
I have been snooping around on the net because I have been considering buying a scope and some binoculars. It seems to me that apart from the big five zeiss, pentax, leica, swaro and nikon, that all the other main names in scopes get theirs from one or more of three main manufacturers in either Taiwan or China. Longpern in Taiwan (www. longpern.com.tw) make many of the scopes sold by Tasco, Bushnell, Opticron , Cabela's, Smith & Wesson, Simmons, Seben, Celestron and Luger. If you look at the sites of wuyanoptics.com, swocoptics.cn, chinatelescope.cn and zoscn.com you will find a few more that you might recognise. The unit prices of these are very cheap and although some makers require a large minimum order or have some scopes exclusive to the main makers in the european market some might well sell privately or send out a sample. In the upper end (80mm) the savings are enormous. So clubs out there it might be worth making bulk orders to these makers for some real bargains.
By the way I use microscopes in my work and I know that the same is true even for some of the the leica, zeiss and nikon models which are made (albeit to their specifications) by chinese factories.

All this is true. Many stores/makers give a lifetime warranty. I get a new scope, the same model, if I drive over it with my car and damage it.

Thanks for the information.

The first site you mention is: <www.longperng.co.tw>.

All the other sites came up except: <www.wuyanoptics.com>.

Another local birder is interested in an 80mm ED Acuter, which looks somewhat similar to the Bushnell 80mm Elite, but retails for about $250. CAD less. Do you happen to know whether these scopes are made by the same company? Did you make inferences about the manufacturers of private-branded scopes that you refer to, or did you find a source for this information?

Mike
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