Nikon Lens - Made in Japan?

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connersz

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Why do I keep coming across people asking whether the lens was made in Japan, what does it mean?
 
Some of the Nikon lenses are made in Japan (generally the better ones) whilst others are made in Thailand (generally the cheaper ones)
 
connersz said:
Why do I keep coming across people asking whether the lens was made in Japan, what does it mean?
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The standards of manifacturing are considered to be higher in Japan than places like China or Thailand although I'd guess the reality is somewhat more complex.

As Jules said it tends to be the higher end lenses that are made in Japan anyway so reguardelss of whether standards are actually higher or not its often a mark of quality.
 
It doesn't matter where something is made. How it is made is much more important.

It's also not fair to write off a whole country based on some of it's products. e.g. China or Thailand. There are some fairly awful products made in the UK, the US, Japan, etc.


Steve.
 
JulesP said:
Some of the Nikon lenses are made in Japan (generally the better ones) whilst others are made in Thailand (generally the cheaper ones)
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But that's misleading. The 50mm f1.8G is made in China. Your point?... in fact, so is the 1.4G.
 
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Pookeyhead said:
But that's misleading. The 50mm f1.8G is made in China. Your point?... in fact, so is the 1.4G.
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Yes and they are both cheap plastic lenses. They perform well but the build on both is pretty poor compared to the pro glass that comes out of Japan.

Your point is??????
 
My point is that where it's made is irrelevant. It's still made by Nikon, to a Nikon design in a Nikon factory. Do you really think it's geographical location somehow effects the quality of the product?
 
Pookeyhead said:
My point is that where it's made is irrelevant. It's still made by Nikon, to a Nikon design in a Nikon factory. Do you really think it's geographical location somehow effects the quality of the product?
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Yes actually I do.

If that was not the case Nikon would move production of all of it's equipment to Thailand where costs are considerably lower but they don't all of their pro equipment is made in Japan.
 
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We get a skewed perspective of quality here and generally think that everything that comes from China, Thailand, India, etc. is of low quality.

The reason for this is that generally as consumers, we don't care about quality any more and we are more interested in price. Because of that, we see a lot of cheap products imported from those countries but do not see the more expensive, higher quality stuff - basically because it is more expensive and we wouldn't want to buy it.

I work for a British company, owned by an American company which in turn is owned by a huge Chinese manufacturing company. Their products are very high quality and nothing to do with the usual stuff people see which is used to judge the whole of the country's manufacturing output by.


Steve.
 
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Soda Farl said:
Yes actually I do.

If that was not the case Nikon would move production of all of it's equipment to Thailand where costs are considerably lower but they don't all of their pro equipment is made in Japan.
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The reason they keep production of their pro gear in Japan is because they can charge more for it, and they are aware that there are people like you in the world who will boycott a product because of the location it was assembled.


Anyway.... if it makes you feel better, I'm happy for you. Personally I couldn't give a monkeys where it's built. A judge a product on it's merits.
 
Pookeyhead said:
The reason they keep production of their pro gear in Japan is because they can charge more for it, and they are aware that there are people like you in the world who will boycott a product because of the location it was assembled.


Anyway.... if it makes you feel better, I'm happy for you. Personally I couldn't give a monkeys where it's built. A judge a product on it's merits.
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Sorry but thats a load of nonsence. Do you seriously believe that Nikon only keeps pro production in Japan and forgo the millions possibly more in costs because of a few peoples impressions of poor build quality coming out of Thailand?

They keep pro production in Japan for several reasons the level of expertise available and the guaranteed difference in build quality are however 2 of them. They also no doubt as a Japanese company want to keep there best products in house so to speak. Culturally the Japanese believe themselves to better than everyone else and to be fair in the main the results speak for themselves.
 
I used to live in Shiki, Saitama. I never noticed any Japanese superiority. They seem to covet anything European or American actually.

I judge products on their quality, and the two 50mm Nikkor s I have, seem superb, and I can't imagine why being made in Japan would improve them.
 
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It depends on quantity too. For mass production of consumer equipment, getting it made in China, Thailand, etc, is advantageous in terms of cost. For smaller production runs of more niche products, that advantage diminishes.

Also, the quality of a product is not dependent on its country of manufacture. It is the responsibility of the company to provide the correct equipment, training, testing and QA procedures for its employees to make the products to the company's specifications.

Wherever a product is made anywhere in the world, this sort of mass production assembly work is usually done by the lowest paid workers in the country, not skilled, highly qualified mechanical engineers. When people are trained to assemble things properly and reach an acceptable competence, there is no difference in the quality of their work wherever they come from.


Steve.
 
I bought a brand new 50mm F1.4 which had a grey hair inside it! :eek: (it didn't affect the lens in any way) but it was sent to Nikon & returned back to me in 10 days minus the hair. :cool:
 
OldCarlos said:
I bought a brand new 50mm F1.4 which had a grey hair inside it! :eek: (it didn't affect the lens in any way) but it was sent to Nikon & returned back to me in 10 days minus the hair. :cool:
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That's what you get for buying from grey market suppliers :bonk:
 
Pookeyhead said:
I used to live in Shiki, Saitama. I never noticed any Japanese superiority. They seem to covet anything European or American actually.

I judge products on their quality, and the two 50mm Nikkor s I have, seem superb, and I can't imagine why being made in Japan would improve them.
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I have never lived in Japan or visited. However one of my Uncles visits there often for work, he spends around 4 months of the year in Tokyo and has done for the last 15 years or so. I bow to his superior knowledge of Japanese culture.

The cheapy 50mm lenses you have I dare say are ridiculously easy to make so Nikon are no doubt happy to have them made wherever the cheapest option is. However on something more complicated to make like a 70-200vr2 for example they don't trust it to be made anywhere else other than Japan.
 
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What about al those cheap plasticky apple products coming out of China. Yep, the QC really sucks in China. :lol: :lol:
 
Actually now I have seen that this is only the reason, I expect that this theory is probably old fashioned and probably not that accurate.

In my opinion, if the lens is made by Nikon, it will be made by their standards wherever its been manufactured.

I would say the likelihood of the most expensive gear being made in Japan is down to something more complex like logistics or simply that they wanted the expensive equipment made closer to home.

I couldn't care less where my lenses were made to be honest.
 
Anyone who understands anything about modern global manufacturing knows that in terms of quality it doesn't make any difference where things are made any more. The only factor is price, and that is changing even now...

In the past it was important, but not any more.
 
Phil V,
You really should not use Apple products to illustrate quality build. They are great designs but the screens break too easy, they cost a fortune to repair, and the batteries last a nanosecond and they have keep bringing new models to market cos the existing ones dont last long enough.
 
davecurley said:
Phil V,
You really should not use Apple products to illustrate quality build. They are great designs but the screens break too easy, they cost a fortune to repair, and the batteries last a nanosecond and they have keep bringing new models to market cos the existing ones dont last long enough.
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Have to disagree. The apple products I have owned have felt much better quality than their alternative rivals. In my experience that's ipods, iphones, a Mac book pro and an Imac as my examples compared to my old pc's, laptop and my current Samsung S3 (can't comment on an ipod because my 6 year old ipod nano is still running strong so haven't replaced it.)
 
Lets not forget China's poor performance in terms of inventions and discoveries. This is all they have given the world:


Battens in sails and cloth
Blast furnace
Cast iron
Chinese cuisine: Tofu, Ramen sushi
Chinese clothing: Qipao, Hanfu
Chopsticks
Crank,drugs
Repeating crossbow
Escapement mechanism for clocks
Exploding cannonball
Fire Arrow
Gunpowder
Firearm
Horse collar
Hull compartments/bulkheads
Indian ink
Kite
Land mines
Lottery
Menus for Song-era restaurants
Naval mines
Noodles
Paper
Pendulum (Zhang Heng)
Printing (woodblock printing and movable type)
Rockets: Fire Arrow, Multistage rocket
Rudder
Sailing carriage
Seismometer (of Zhang Heng)
Silk
South Pointing Chariot (differential gear, of Ma Jun)
Sluice gates
Toilet paper
Traditional Chinese medicine
Trebuchet (traction)
Trip hammer
Winnowing machine
Abacus (first appearance: Mesopotamia, 2400 BC. First certain appearance in China: 12th century AD)
Armillary sphere (invented by the Greek Eratosthenes), with the world's first water-powered armillary sphere by Zhang Heng.
Various automata (refer to article on King Mu of Zhou, Mozi, Lu Ban, etc.)
Bellows
Belt drive
Bituminous coke for the iron and steel industry
Compass
Camera obscura
Cardan Suspension
The cannon
Chain drive
Chain pumps
Chinese calendar
Crossbow
Drydock
The Flamethrower
Flash lock
Early explosive grenades
Odometer (also by Archimedes and Heron of Alexandria)
Paddle wheel, for boats
Paper money
Parachutes
Pontoon bridge
Porcelain
Postal system
Pound lock
Saw
Scissors
Steel
Suspension bridge
Star catalogue
Tea
Umbrella
Vaccination
Water clock
Waterwheel (also of the Greco-Roman tradition)
Wheelbarrow
Windmill


Steve.
 
Products made in Thailand / china etc are generally produced in much larger quantities. Costs of production are significantly lower. Japanese economy is different in that they are highly focused on the quality of the item and delivering high standards of manufacturing (nikon using one massive factory to make only 2 cameras, D4/D800)

Thailand/China is more based around mass manufacture at the lowest possible cost. I am also aware the quality will also very good but I would doubt it has the QA seal of made in Japan.
 
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TonyNI said:
Pookeyhead you sound like you're always talking down to people on this forum. It is quite irritating.
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Click on my name at the left of my posts, and in the drop down menu, select "Add Pookeyhead to your ignore list" and I'll go away.

Seriously.. the hypocrisy of some. You make comments like that to me in here, then PM me a private message, acting all chummy and slagging off other forum users?


Pathetic.
 
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Indeed.
 
Some lens are made in Japan to prevent technology used been transfered to some body else. there were a case not long ago where a Guy tried to hire lots of ex LG, Samsung LCD engineers to setup a LCD production in China.
 
Here's what "made In China" means, according to Ken Rockwell in his review of the Nikon 28mm f/1.8 G:

MADE IN CHINA: Offshored to be made as cheaply as possible. Your purchase helps encourage other companies to move their production to China, whose government may eventually choose to nationalize (take over) all of it in the future, leaving the rest of the world enslaved to China. Communist governments are evil, but not stupid, subsidizing labor costs today to help gain control of the world's means of production tomorrow. You've been warned.
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it's funny how made in japan is now seen as being good, when I used to use contax lenses in the 1980's you had to pay a big premium for the ones that were made in west germany - the japanese versions of the same lens were far cheaper !
 
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