When you look into Nikon’s political leanings and contributions, it’s not surprising. They do make far more in their camera business than they don”sporting optics,” and have worked to keep these separated over the years to appease their left-leaning customer base which favors viewing nature only, rather than conserving nature.
I had hoped their launch of the Black series and the rebuild of the Prostaff line in the last few years were a sign of a tide shift to FINALLY support shooting sports, but apparently not.
This is an interesting twist after they effectively gutted their DSLR line this summer. I’ve converted to Canon for my last two bodies, but I’m interested to see what happens for their business in coming years. They appear to be cutting losses and laying long bets, so we’ll see if it pays off for them in the long run.
It’s no secret, I harbor disdain for their riflescopes, largely due to their poor internal adjustment ranges, lacking features, poor color truth, and terrible lensing at high magnification. Their political leanings have always also left a bad taste in my mouth. So for me, I’ll spend no sorrow for this business unit closure.