BirdForum is the net's largest birding community dedicated to wild birds and birding, and is absolutely FREE!

Register for an account to take part in lively discussions in the forum, post your pictures in the gallery and more.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Themoog" data-source="post: 3514703" data-attributes="member: 140925">Caveat emptor eh?Thanks Troubador.That's quite a lot more real estate from an occular perspective.Just been reading about Ruger270's shocker with some ex demo Conquests back in 2014. I gotta say the whole, 'Made in xxxxx' cannard absolutely simmers my waste waters. I'm surely going to find that all of these established brands are using third parties like Kamakura to design and manufacture some of their key components. I know Conquests, Trinovid HD's, Nikon MHG's and all sub £1000 binoculars are not the top tier but that's still a hefty amount of money. At least to me it is.I think consumers are still pretty price to value aware at under £1000. At least the Trinovids say what appears to a more honest 'Made in Portugal' on the central focussing dial.If it's assembled in country x then it should say 'Assembled in xxxxxx' and not 'Made' or 'Manufactured'.It appears disingenuous, slightly patronising and misleading Imho. I have no doubt Kamakura are top guys at what they do but when one buys into one of these prestige marque, one has a right to expect that they didn't just wave a hand over them or bung a sticker on, in for example, Germany during a QC conveyor belt pass and consider that enough to justify their prestige prices and lack of involvement.Neither am I necessarily suggesting that production outside of the base country, as declared, is inferior per se. Globalisation has brought on hybridisation of production in many things. It would be naive to think otherwise.The benefits and costs of off shoring production are beyond the scope of this thread but ask the kid who just got an Epiphone Les Paul 'burst for his 12th birthday if he gives two toots his guitar was made in Korea. If he's good enough he'll sound like Billy Gibbons wailing on Pearly Gates  (Billy's '59 Les Paul- now beyond price) one day. Gibson isn't hiding this. Neither is Fender. You want a USA made Gibson or Fender? - fine. Gibson Studios start around £900 and go up to prettymuch as much as you feel like paying.....but that IS manufactured in The US . Korean made? - starts at £200 or so.Going back to bins- second/third tiers are partly price/value competitive because compromises must be made and a differentiation made between them and their big brothers at 2-3 or 4 times the price. I know that. It's the slight-of-hand that bugs me. The ol' switcheroo. I thought these guys might have had more integrity.It should be enough for a good piece of product to stand on it's merits alone without having to hide behind the heritage of it's 'parents' endeavours..when in fact it's actually a second cousin one removed, so to speak. Fine, it's part of the blood line but call it a second cousin and be let it stand or fall by it's own merits against it's peers.I'm probably way late too the party and will find out with further research that ALL genuine site manufacturing from blue prints to final polish and ALL points in between may have ended a long time ago in European optics. Did that ship sail years ago ? Maybe, maybe not. Perhaps someone can fill me in?Just goes to show that one musn't allow a top European (or Japanese too maybe) marque any additional price or technical latitude simply out of a sense of buying into it's heritage and provenance...especially if it's like going to be like buying a Versace t-shirt eh? Anyway, got that out of my system.Phew :smoke:I actually really like the Conquests on paper and from pictures irrespective of where they're 'made'. Look like a solid bit of portable kit with good back up. I'm (rather unfairly) just scribbling up their 8x32 stats. against a bunch of similarly priced 8x42's. Guess because the MHG's seem to have pushed the envelope about standard thresholds of an 8x42. I want to see how they stack up against a full blooded and proven 8x32 like the Conquest as well as some more conventional 8x42 competition in that braket.All the bestTm</blockquote>

Verification