Hi Dolphin, Thanks for the links on these binoculars. I didn't see a Japan sticker on the Minox but the Olympus does have one. I think you will find Farmboy 1 is on our side. My brother has a Nikon 8x42 Monarch that has a Japan sticker on it and a friend from work bought a Nikon 10x42 Monarch that had made in china sticker on it. It is really hard to tell where any of these are made "even" if they have the sticker.
My brother dropped his Monarch from his treestand 30 ft. up and is still using it. It had to hit something soft of course, messed up the one eyecup a little but still worked.
Thanks, I realize he is, I guess I am just a little sensitive about the issue. I am fairly knowledgeable regarding optics and am one of those guys who will search until he finds what is just right and at a deal before he buys. Avoiding Chicom optics, most of which is crap, some like the Zen Rays are the exception, but are produced and reproduced in the same factory and sold under other company names such as the Hawke Frontier ED, are flooding the market and hard to avoid in the low to medium end of the market. The Minox 10x44 porro prism model that I own says made in Japan on it, and inexpensive BV I own says made in Germany and a spotter the 62ED says made in Germany while the 40x eyepiece says made in Japan. The
www.allbinos.com website I mentioned is pretty good at saying where a particular binocular was made despite where the company is based. You can always e-mail the company and ask them as I have done on many occasions to find out where specific products are manufactured. The made in "sticker" should at least with reasonably good certainty indicate where the particular optic was assembled which is important as quality control in addition to all of the other reasons for not buying products made in China is poor in general.
