Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2000/03/10
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]At 05:10 PM 3/10/2000 -0800, Jay Kumarasamy wrote: >After reading this analysis by Marc, I wonder, if it was EVER possible >by ANYBODY, to make lenses equal to, if not better than, ZEISS :-) ???? Jay Re-read what I wrote: it was limited to the time and place of the commentary, none else. In more recent years, as Zeiss has cheerfully admitted, JSK, Pentax, Rodenstock, and Leitz have certainly equalled Zeiss on many popular fronts, while Nikon and Canon have rivalled Zeiss on industrial and commercial applications. And, in night vision gear, even the Europeans buy ITT stuff over Zeiss, though these are for cost-regardless military purchases: ITT has as little idea of intelligent pricing as does Zeiss! (And the ITT Night Vision plant is about seven miles from where I am sitting, and I have heard the innards of the competition!) The ultimate point is that you can buy, in Japan, Pentax binoculars the equal of Zeiss binoculars. Pentax does not regularly market these in the US, as their premium gear costs as much and more than the Zeiss glasses: quality costs, wherever it comes from. But, having been privileged to enjoy some of these Pentax binoculars over the years, I would be honoured to own some, at some point when I can afford them. They show that the lower-quality and "popularly-priced" binoculars produced by Canon and Nikon, are NOT the best the Japanese optical industry can produce. "Fuzzinon", as amateur astronomers call Fujinon, has been a poor criterion on which to base Japanese binoculars. It is better to see that industry as one which concentrates more on marketing knowledge and does not broadcast their ability -- be it Nikon, Canon, Asahi, or whomever -- to produce top-quality items. But that law of diminishing returns does not observe the International Date Line. A binocular which costs $2,000 to produce in Wetzlar at the Hensoldt plant for Zeiss will cost $2,000 to produce by Luitpold in the US or $2,000 for Pentax to make. Quality costs, and there are no cheap answers to the best. But, then, why am I preaching to the choir? Marc msmall@roanoke.infi.net FAX: +540/343-7315 Cha robh bas fir gun ghras fir!