karno Loc: Chico ,California

Do you find a quality difference from products made in Japan aposed to made in China?
Would you rather buy photography products made in Japan rather then in China to save a few dollars?
For instance xt2 Fuji was made in Japan, xt3 is now assembled in China.

bpulv Loc: Buena Park, CA

It depends on the product. Generally, I prefer a product made in Japan to one made in China. Japan has been a leader in quality control since the 1950's and Edward Deming's work in that country. China is still on the learning curve. Although their learning curve is at an accelerating pace, they are a long way from catching Japan and the United States.

dennis2146 Loc: Eastern Idaho

I think it depends on the product. Some products made in China are pure trash, useable maybe one time. Others seem to be of decent quality. But those cheaper products are inexpensive. I wonder how many people buy a crappy product like that, use it once and it breaks; then they say, Oh well, it was Chinese junk anyway, and throw it away.

Before I go on any farther, forgive me for not coming up with any specific products. The only ones I can think of are kitchen cooking utensils. But I am sure others can come up with hundreds.

As for Japan, I think on the whole, their products are better built and will last longer. I would also rather my money went do Japan than China.

Dennis

karno Loc: Chico ,California

I agree with you, and am referring to cameras original models made in Japan then when the next model comes out it is made in China like the xt3 Fuji

MrBob Loc: lookout Mtn. NE Alabama

Yes, their ultra modern bullet trains are trying to catch our outdated Amtrak wonders... Remember back in the day bashing Japanese products ? ALL Chinese products are not junk; my carbon Fotopro is beautifully made !

karno Loc: Chico ,California

Would you rather have your camera made in China or Japan?

MrBob Loc: lookout Mtn. NE Alabama

Depends....rest was just a commentary Re: China bashing.

bpulv Loc: Buena Park, CA

Japan! However, Nikon makes cameras in several Asian countries, but under very strict company controls.

MrBob Loc: lookout Mtn. NE Alabama

Don't care.... rest of post was just a sidebar commentary.

blackest Loc: Ireland

It depends on the product, and the price. It might be worth asking for "best quality please" when ordering, sometimes the Chinese sellers mix in 'seconds' like allan bolts with off centre heads or badly cut threads that are unusable. I wouldn't expect that from a Japanese factory.

GregS Loc: Central Illinois, USA

I have purchased many items from China and found about a third turn out to be what I paid for. I have a GoPro Hero 4 Black I wear on my motorcycle helmet facing forward. I wanted another to capture behind me. I found a knockoff from China that is actually better than my GoPro. It has an LCD screen; so I can see what I capture, and my GoPro doesn't. 4k 24f, 120 60f, and 720 120f. WiFi too. It came with ALL the accessories and cost me a grand total of $16USD. Free shipping. I had to wait for that slow boat from China, but well worth it!
I don't like to buy from China, but how can one pass on something like that?

User ID

Only the brand name concerns me, not the country of
final assembly. Labor is not the only corner that can be
cut save a few yen. If the maker hasta pay Japanese
wages, then some other aspect gets compromised. It
"all comes out in the wash". FWIW I have at least four
FF bodies of two different brands, all made in Thailand
and two of yet another brand made in Japan.

The brand name, and the "status" of the model within
a brand's line up, govern the level of quality assurance
applied to a product. If the QA level is met, I couldn't
care less if the factory were staffed with Neanderthals.

The Sino-American trade war has already gone too far.
If it ended next year it will still take several years after
that to get back to "normal" ... if ever. Therefor you're
gonna see less gear from China, yet obviously it won't
move back to Japan, either. Thailand, Singapore, Viet
Nam, perhaps India ... expect more from there, India
is the high tech center of Asia ... will take up the load.


`

karno Loc: Chico ,California

It is funny for me to think back and realize the most problems I have had with lenses occurred when I bought Zeiss, they we’re also the most expensive.

rgrenaderphoto Loc: Hollywood, CA

It is 2018, there is no difference in build quality in China, Thailand, Japan or Korea. The OEM pays for a level of manufacturing that will meet exacting quality standards or the products will be rejected. Many OEMs build lens glass in Japan and ship to assembly point for finishing.

Desert Gecko Loc: desert southwest, USA

As others have so aptly answered, it depends. China is perfectly capable of producing high-quality goods -- and it does -- but a lot of junk comes out of China as well.

It depends on the name behind the product. Some manufacturers take advantage of cheap labor/costs and a generally favorable exchange rate while holding their manufacturer to a high standard of quality.

Until about 15 years ago, I managed a re-manufacturing plant here in the U.S. Many of the items we rebuilt were of Japanese origin with components made in China. When no U.S. components were available, I sourced them from a contact in Taiwan and direct-imported OEM components from China through this contact. In some cases, though, a poorly-designed OEM component was the cause of unit failure, and we would never replace a faulty component with an identical one destined for early failure, so we had them manufactured.

As an example, a best-selling, early '90s Japanese car used an ignition distributor with a sealed bearing that had been designed with balls too large and a race too thin. The bearing wore out prematurely, usually after 20-30k miles, causing the distributor to fail and the car to die until a replacement distributor could be had. As an emissions component, federal law mandated 50,000 miles warranty, so the auto manufacturer issued a recall and began replacing them by the tens of thousands. We had already been buying the cores of this distributor for a pittance to salvage components to use in rebuilding similar distributors, so we were sitting on tons of them, distributors that needed only a thorough cleaning and a new bearing to appear and to function as new.

The bearing was an odd size with unique ID/OD/W specs that nothing came close to matching, so we sent our specs to our Taiwanese contact to have them manufactured. Before long, we got our redesigned, high-quality bearings and started selling thousands of these distributors. Many dealers -- who would never buy a rebuilt product from a third party for its own brand -- bought these from us, and others bought them indirectly through a couple national auto parts chains we co-supplied because the distributors were on nationwide back order everywhere else, including from the dealer. For what it's worth, we did not adjust our price (no price gouging). As it was, I delighted in the already unusually large profit these units garnered at our regular price.

I left the company eight years or so later and don't recall even one of those distributors coming back with a bad bearing. So yes, there is good quality merchandise coming out of China. The problem isn't China per se, but it is those that source the merchandise.