Nikon CFI objective made in china...

[Litonotus]

I heard about it that some nikon products are chinese or mounted in china, but it still looks strange when you see 'made in china' and 'nikon' side by side... I bought it on ebay for $165 (US ebay price is about $200-250) it looks to be in perfect condition but it is a chinese product (the seller did not mention it in the description). What to expect? I can't try it because I'm on my long way to complete my CFI set.


I haven't seen this black label on any other objective I have or on any I have seen on ebay etc. there is always 'NIKON Japan', here there is not.

and by the way - the international color code for 2x magnification should be brown, nikon's 'brown' looks like light grey and is almost the same like white on 100x objective (; that's odd and a bit against the color code purpose (;

the seller is from UK and still has 4, 10, 20, 40 and - I'm not sure - 100 objectives, all are from the same plan series as the 2x.

[Pau]

My CFI 10X 0.25 is both excellent and made in China. Lots of Nikon products are made outside Japan. Every year more and more makers move the production to China and SE Asia.
Not a big problem if the QC is mantained, altough I don't like it.

You can test it without a microscope, using a tele lens as tube lens.

[SONYNUT]

it was odd to see pratt and wittney jet engine turbine parts made in Israel ,china...that's when i got out of aviation...........

I have the same objective....without having one from japan to compare to I guess we'll never know the difference .

[Litonotus]

Lots of Nikon products are made outside Japan.

production is much cheaper but the price (at least the list price) remains the same...

thank you for your responses

[ChrisLilley]

I heard about it that some nikon products are chinese or mounted in china, but it still looks strange when you see 'made in china' and 'nikon' side by side

Why would that be strange? Nikon has products made in China, Malaysia, Taiwan, Phillipines and recently they started some factories in Brazil, I believe.

[Litonotus]

Why would that be strange?

everybody knows that chinese products quality is questionable... there are of course some exceptions but 'made in china' is not a synonym of quality and never will be. but in this case if there was a quality difference there should be two prices on the list price...

this 2x objective is 'original' HERE
the seller tries to sell it for twice as much as nikon asks for this objective (list price is $375)

[admin edit: recode the link to preserve page format]

[ChrisLilley]

Why would that be strange?

everybody knows that chinese products quality is questionable...

I'm sure we will all be interested if you purchase a made in Japan version and post images showing whether it is better.

[quote="Litonotus" there are of course some exceptions but 'made in china' is not a synonym of quality and never will be.

Nor was 'made in Japan', some decades ago. I think it depends really on the reputation and track history of the manufacturer, how tight their quality control is at the factory, and what price point the product sells for as new. That seems to me a better guide than sweeping generalisations about an entire country.

but in this case if there was a quality difference there should be two prices on the list price...

Perhaps yopu could cite some examples where Nikon (or any other technical manufacturer) sells the same product at multiple prices depending on country of manufacture?

[Litonotus]

I'm sure we will all be interested if you purchase a made in Japan version and post images showing whether it is better.

I'm also curious and maybe I will do such comparison, but I have a lot of other items to collect now so let's leave that for future.

I did not generalise - I said there are some exceptions and I hope my plan 2x is one of them.

Perhaps yopu could cite some examples where Nikon (or any other technical manufacturer) sells the same product at multiple prices depending on country of manufacture?

but wouldn't that be admitting that one of two products bearing the same name is of worse quality...? 'cheaper' hardly ever means 'better'...

[rjlittlefield]

I did not generalise - I said there are some exceptions and I hope my plan 2x is one of them.

With respect, you did say that "everybody knows that chinese products quality is questionable...", and in any case to say that "there are some exceptions" implies that the general rule is otherwise.

For myself, I don't consider that "made in XXX" means anything more than country of manufacture. I too have one of the Nikon CFI60 10X NA 0.25 objectives made in China; it happens to be excellent. I also have an excellent digital caliper. Its patent number relates to the fundamental sensing technology, issued to a mainland Chinese individual and company. And the computer I am typing this message on says "Made in China". It is three years old and has performed flawlessly for all that time. Of course I have also seen far less than stellar stuff come from China, and from a lot of other places too, including my own country.

The world of today is not the world of the '50s and '60's that I grew up in. I am very pleased by that fact.

--Rik

[Craig Gerard]

I had two Nikon CFI60 10X objectives. One was marked 'Nikon Japan' (notice it does not say Made in Japan) and the other was marked 'Nikon' with a 'Made in China' sticker on the barrel.

There were no physical or optical differences between the two objectives; both ex demos, both ex Nikon factory and both supplied with identical ND3 filters.

I would expect the same attention by Nikon to quality control and product consistency, wherever the 'factory' or factories are located.



Craig

[SONYNUT]

with computer running the machines it's pretty hard to screw up to bad.

[AndrewC]

with computer running the machines it's pretty hard to screw up to bad.

Wish that was the case but sadly it isn't The computer might want to do the right thing but if you are trying to maximise profit margins by say running cutting tools past their "normal" end of life your tolerances start to slip. You might still be "in spec" but are starting to drift to the edge, and if you have several components all at edge of spec then you can get a stacked tolerance error you didn't predict. Also of course, garbage in garbage out applies - parts might be perfectly machined but the stock material might vary in quality.

This isn't aimed at China - applies to anywhere where manufacturing is being squeezed because the seller wants to get rich and the buyer wants to pay as little as possible.

[Litonotus]

I did not generalise - I said there are some exceptions and I hope my plan 2x is one of them.

With respect, you did say that "everybody knows that chinese products quality is questionable...", and in any case to say that "there are some exceptions" implies that the general rule is otherwise.

I did not say that ALL chinese products are of bad quality. but let's not start a philosophical discussion here for my english is too weak for that... I admit I should have said that more precisely I think we all know what I was afraid of after seeing that label.

thank you for your answers (: