Nikon to stop selling scopes?

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Varminterror said:
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.
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Where do you see that Nikon has gutted their DSLR line?
I have seen no such thing on their pro line of equipment.
 
jmohme said:
Where do you see that Nikon has gutted their DSLR line?
I have seen no such thing on their pro line of equipment.
Click to expand...

They’re still available on the site right now, on sale, but the story is the 3400/3500’s, 500’s, and 5500/5600’s won’t be carried forward, supposedly refocusing those efforts towards new mirrorless models. The D5, 750, 850, and 7500’s will carry forward, but the other near-half of the line is supposed to end when their current inventory is gone.

That might have changed, but between Nov/Dec last year and this summer, that’s all the hubbub I was hearing this year as I was considering a transition back to Nikon after ~8yrs on Canon.
 
Varminterror said:
They’re still available on the site right now, on sale, but the story is the 3400/3500’s, 500’s, and 5500/5600’s won’t be carried forward, supposedly refocusing those efforts towards new mirrorless models. The D5, 750, 850, and 7500’s will carry forward, but the other near-half of the line is supposed to end when their current inventory is gone.

That might have changed, but between Nov/Dec last year and this summer, that’s all the hubbub I was hearing this year as I was considering a transition back to Nikon after ~8yrs on Canon.
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That could be. I don't pay that much attention to the consumer lineup.
I doubt that the D500 would be dropped, but with all of Nikons efforts in rolling out the Z series, they very well could be trimming down their offerings.

I bought a D850 and a Z6 this year. I think the Z is a great camera, but it needs to mature a little more before it replaces anything in the Nikon lineup. Especially for those that shoot sports.
The D850 is probably one of the best pieces of photographic equipment I have ever used.
 
I've been looking at their 4-12x40 for the 6.5 grendal build, I've been a Nikon fan since the 35mm film days and have always felt they offered a good product for the price. How much do you think the discounts will be when they clearance out?
Vortex also offers something in about the same price range and they will still be in business.
 
Newtosavage said:
Well all the new ones say Made in China on them, so I'm not sure how that would work. The Made in Japan razors are years old now.
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A couple of years ago it was in the news that Vortex was building a facility at their headquarters in Wisconsin to assemble the Razor AMG. I haven’t paid any attention to it since so I just did a quick search and came up with this:
https://www.thefirearmblog.com/blog/2016/02/01/american-manufactured-vortex-razor-hd-amg/


http://www.opticstalk.com/new-vortex-amg-entirely-made-in-usa_topic43343.html
 
Newtosavage said:
Razors are no longer made in Japan. They are now made in China. Vipers are also MIC now.
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Weird - every Razor that I've bought in the last year (including some in the last 4-6 weeks) are all marked 'Made in Japan' and all of the Vipers that I've bought in the last year are marked 'Made in the Philippines". I can accept that some of them may not be the newest stock, but I'd not have given good odds that all of them would pre-date a move of production to China.

At the risk of sounding contrary - what leads you to conclude that the Vipers and Razors have moved production?
 
rbernie said:
Weird - every Razor that I've bought in the last year (including some in the last 4-6 weeks) are all marked 'Made in Japan' and all of the Vipers that I've bought in the last year are marked 'Made in the Philippines". I can accept that some of them may not be the newest stock, but I'd not have given good odds that all of them would pre-date a move of production to China.

At the risk of sounding contrary - what leads you to conclude that the Vipers and Razors have moved production?
Click to expand...

I am afraid I was talking about binoculars when the discussion was about rifle scopes. My mistake.
 
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