Copyright of optical system? Why no replicas of high grade binos? (1 Viewer)

[jgraider]

Pretty sure I remember the Zen Ray ED spotting scope eyepiece being a direct fit for the Swaro 80 HD spotter. It's been a few years but IIRC thats correct.

 

[Eric_D]

Cross-linking to the same topic on the other forum ... worth reading the whole threads ...

There is a current known copy of a Zeiss Conquest 8x20.

There are some thoughts on coating upgrades here.

 

[Ignatius]

Cross-linking to the same topic on the other forum ... worth reading the whole threads ...

There is a current known copy of a Zeiss Conquest 8x20.

There are some thoughts on coating upgrades here.

The Conquest 8x20 went out of production in 2013 and The Counterfeit Report about one fake appearing on AliExpress is from 2015. Not exactly what I would term current.

 

[Montereyman]

The Chinese are quite capable of producing very high grade products but the catch is that Americans and Europeans need to be willing to pay the higher price. People will spend $3,000 on a name brand binocular but are reluctant to spend half as much on a product that does not have the cachet of a Swarovski or Leica or Zeiss. Vortex understands this and so they concentrate on the low and middle segments of the market. Then the question becomes whether objectively the $3,000 binocular is twice as good as the $1,500 one.

 

[Ignatius]

And the question then would be: even if I accept that the Chinese do indeed produce some top notch gear on a par with well-known EU brands, and possibly even at a similar price level ... why would I support their economy and not that of the area I live in, or, if push came to shove, of my home country? Me, I would not even buy a Vortex Razor UHD, preferring EU offerings with more tradition and above all actual knowhow and expertise under their belt.