trapper1 wrote:
I have been buying Hoya lens as they were made in Japan and were of excellent quality and reasonably priced. I had not bought one for some time but now need a Hoya 77mm UV filter for a lens I just bought. When I tried to find a Hoya 77mm UV filter I found all the 77mm Hoya UV filters I looked at are now made in the Philippines, which doesn't exactly reassure me as a source of manufacturing excellence as did Japan. Has Hoya switched all of their camera filter lens manufacturing to the Philippines or just certain selected lines?
Trapper1
I have been buying Hoya lens as they were made in ... (
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Hoya makes a bunch of different grades of filters, to offer them at various price points.
Looking at B&H Photo, I see six different Hoya UV in 77mm size, from least expensive to most:
- Hoya UV $25.99 (Philippines)
- Hoya Alpha UV MC $34.90 (Philippines)
- Hoya NXT UV HMC $49.95 (Philippines)
- Hoya NXT Plus UV $52.90 (Philippines)
- Hoya EVO Antistatic UV $68.90 (unable to tell)
- Hoya HD3 $139.90 (Made in Japan)
At the Hoya website they appear to have renamed their filters (again). Prices are not shown. Apparently from most entry level (cheapest?) to most advanced (most expensive?), they are:
- Hoya UX UV (Philippines)
- Hoya Fusion One Next UV (unable to tell)
- Hoya Fusion Antistatic Next UV (unable to tell)
- Hoya Fusion Antistatic UV (unable to tell)
- Hoya HD Mk II UV (Japan)
- Hoya HD Nano Mk II UV (Japan)
You may be able to find out the place of manufacture of some of the ones I couldn't. I just looked at two sites (B&H and Hoya). Also, depending upon where you look, you may find other Hoya filter series names. They change them often! It's pretty confusing.
Today I don't think it matters a lot where something is made, ultimately. For example, I've been experimenting with a couple K&F Concepts Circular Polarizing filters. The series of those I bought were made in China, but use high quality German Schott glass, seem well made to me and appear to have effective "nano" multi-coatings. So far images made with them have been fine.