Originally Posted By: redhavenHaving worked in the optics industry in a past life, most people would be surprised to find out there are only a few manufacturers in the world that make glass lenses...all in Asia. They make glass products from soda bottles to lenses for NASA telescopes. It's not the origin of the glass that makes it more clear, better contrast, etc; its the finishing, polishing and coatings. That's where Europe and Japan excel. I was astounded when I first found this out.
Many years ago - Leupold published a article about how they get their glass for their scopes. The article stated that they shop around for different company's in different country's looking for the type of glass/quality that they wanted.
Like redhaven is saying, just a few make the glass anymore. I think Burris was the only one making glass in the USA, but that was years ago and for their scopes only.
Japan and Germany are probably the top of the line now days. If memory serves me correct, Leica lens are on board the Hubble space telescope.
I bought my 1st pair of Bino's back in 1982, 10x40's Zeiss, great optics! Now I own 2 pair of Leica Bino's and they are super also!
One day a friend of mine came over and showed me his new Zeiss 3x9 Conquest (I think that was the model) and I compared it to my Luopld 4.5x14 AO 50mm. Wow, what a difference in brightness, that Zeiss was quite a bit brighter than my Leupold!!!