Want your next camera made in Japan?

<p>The choice could be there for Canon users. While Nikon, Olympus and Pentax gear has headed off to production in China or Vietnam, your next Canon might come from Japan. Imagine that. The only DSLR (except for top models) I know of that is built in Japan still is the Panasonic G1/GH1.<br>

http://www.amateurphotographer.co.uk/news/Canon_revives_DSLR_factory_as_demand_surges_news_284006.html</p>

 

<p>? My current Canons were built in Japan. Imagine What?</p>

<p>Both my XT and 40D were made in Japan. The XT was bought 10 months after it had been released. I really don't mind where my camera is made, as long as it has the same standard and quality.</p>

Is there a reason to care?

<p>A similarly xenophobic, borderline racist thread popped up on Fredmiranda recently...</p>

<p>I prefert the camera to be made somewhere in Africa. It will reduce cost and help a developping country.</p>

<p>If you buy a nice Argus C-3 you will be able to satisfy all your desires and have a camera built in the good old USA.</p>

<p>WTF is this all about?</p>

<p>My 40D is made in Japan and as Sinh said - as long as it has the same standard and quality, I dont care.</p>

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<p>All Canon SLRs and lenses I've owned since 1990 have been made in Japan, including my newest camera, EOS 50D (bought 9/08). My 2006 430EX Speedlite is made in China as are some of the body and lens caps.</p>

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<p >Is there a reason to care?</p>

 

 

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<p>I don't care where it's made as long as it's top quality and the country has a good human rights record and practices fair trade. China is iffy in those areas but has improved a little. Only time will tell. Their treatment of Tibetans, Christians, Buddhists and opposing political parties hasn't been stellar.</p>

<p>I must say I've been impressed with the electronic and optical workmanship in products from Thailand.</p>

<p>Maybe this helps explain the shortage of lenses...</p>

<p>Would it matter to you Mr. Richard Anderson if the Panasonic G1/GH1 was made on the <strong>moon</strong> by <strong>hard working</strong> Chinese or Vietnamese workers? Three decades ago, people in general used to bash items made in Japan. So, respectfully, let's stop bashing China and Vietnam. Can't we all just get along?</p>

<p>Next wish would be Made In Japan iPods.<br>

BTW Here is a related research paper talking about whom to blame about the quality:<br>

<a href="http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1158771">http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1158771</a> </p>

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<p>Three decades ago, people in general used to bash items made in Japan.</p>

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<p>Maybe that was true 4 or 5 decades ago in the USA, but not in 1979! Sheesh by then Sony had conquered consumer electronics, Japan cameras had pretty much whipped Germany, Japanese pianos and motorcycles were seriously popular and Datsun, Honda, Toyota and Mazda were giving Detroit formidable competition. I got my first SLR in the late 1960s and heard Japanese cameras like the Nikon F, Miranda F, Mamiya, Pentax, etc., were among the best. I wanted a Nikon or a Pentax but had to settle for a Miranda F. In 1969 nobody I knew even considered buying anything but a Nikon or Canon.</p>

<p>Concerns about where a product is made can operate in unexpected ways. For example, there are folks who won't buy a BMW X5 because they are not made in Germany ...*</p>

<p>AFAIK Canon's XXD, 5D/5DII, and 1D-series bodies are made in the Oita factory, although some production will presumably be moved to Nagasaki when it comes on stream. Don't know about XXXD/XXXXD DSLRs and P&S cameras. I think all L-series lenses are still made in the Utsunomiya factory, but in addition to non-critical bits and pieces like lens caps, some lenses are made in Taiwan, including the EF-S 60/2.8, which is a very high-quality product.</p>

<p>* ... but in the USA. </p>

<p>Currently I prefer my camera to be made in Japan for two reasons - they have a better human rights and working conditions and they quality on fine tolerence devices is generally very good. On the second issue I suspect that China will catch up but a number of ski manufacturers have moved thier low and mid range ski production to China and the quality has suffered as the skis are generally not well matched (skis are still matched into pairs as the wood cores can have different flex). The second issue is more significant I spent a period of time working in China in the mid 1990s and workers were treated very badly. My worst experience was visiting a watch factory were young women were working 6.5 days per week hand assembling watches. When their eyesight failed they were fired. I would not want to purchase equipment that promoted these types of conditions and would rather pay more.</p>

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<p>Sheesh by then Sony had conquered consumer electronics, Japan cameras had pretty much whipped Germany, Japanese pianos and motorcycles were seriously popular and Datsun, Honda, Toyota and Mazda were giving Detroit formidable competition.</p>

 

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<p>Which proves beyond any debate that there is no inherent, intrinsic reason that workers in Country A would be less capable of throwing together the components that constitute a camera than those in Country B...</p>

<p>Do you wear Nike "sneakers" or the like, Philip?</p>

<p>Most of the "brand" clothes we wear will likely have been made in sweatshops somewhere in the Far East, India/neighbouring countries or central Europe...</p>

<p>Besides (and while I agree with the principle of your sentiments) the components that go into Japanese-manufactured equipment will <em>almost certainly</em> have been sourced from elsewhere, made in facilities using cheap labour and - possibly - environmentally dubious manufacturing techniques.<br>

<br /> That's what capitalism is all about, after all.</p>

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<p>It's funny that while people (not here, it's gratifying to see) are whining about the supposed inferior quality of products built elsewhere than in Japan, many Nikon bodies (you know - the "much better-built than Canon" Nikons) are made in Thailand - my D200s (which were built like tanks) certainly were, and so is the D300...</p>

<p>One day the doubters will realise that we live in the 2000's. Global manufacturing by a single company is a successful reality. Quality standards are equal at different manufacturing sites. I know, and I talk from 1st hand experience, not some made up opinion!</p>

<p>Why does eveyone go on and on and on about a stupid, poorly written, so-called question? Strange behavior here.</p>

<p>Because everybody loves a troll. Gives free rein to vent!</p>

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<p>Why does eveyone go on and on and on about a stupid, poorly written, so-called question? Strange behavior here.</p>

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<p>Because to ignore crap like this - and what underpins it - is tacitly to sanction it.</p>

<p><em>Pretty obvious really...</em></p>

<p>Besides, speaking for myself, I'm fairly sure that the choice of what threads I'll respond to is for <em>me</em> to make, not you. The fact that you were the first to respond doesn't automatically make subsequent comments less worth making...</p>

<p>Actually I want my next camera to be made in Switzerland, thats why im buying a Sinar. My DSLR was made in Japan.</p>

<p>I have no problem with sending my film to a developing country.</p>

<p>I prefer my cameras to be made with child labor, so I'm rather hoping not Japan. It adds to my photographic experience to think that some little just weaned tike getting no sleep and barely enough food, tiny hands now worn to nubs, slaved to create the magnificent camera which I hold. Even better to think that the water which they drink is probably laced with the slowly poisoning detritus of the very factory which they work. Now there is irony!</p>

<p>Ah, the thought is so satisfying...</p>

<p>I jest of course. This thread is silly, though it is sadly true that these things are "off shored" to avoid paying fair wages, reasonable labor laws, and environmental regulation. "off shored" being further and further away these days, until some day undoubtedly it comes round as our jobs, benefits, and regulations are slowly stripped away to "compete", and we shall return to the 3rd world and will be suffering the same miserable indignities. Now there really is irony (and perhaps karmic comeuppance)!</p>

<p>I also imagine this will be another reason to insist that Canons are better than Nikons. Have at it for all I care. You will have to strip my Nikons (and Fujis) from my cold dead hands I say!</p>

<p>;-)</p>