Beware of Chinese-Sold products.

[Dao]

Buying stuff that made in China is totally different from buying product directly from a fishy vendor who happens to be in China via a US site such as ebay.

Why stuff you buy at the local store made in China? Did people from China bring the stuff over here and sell? I do not think so. It is corporate America who found that they can lower the cost by outsourcing. I read a news article few years ago regarding toxic paint in toys that made in China. When toys with lead paint found in US, we blame China since they were manufacturer there. But what that news article found out that, at least one of the manufacturer had no choice but to lower the cost or otherwise close their company and send all the factory workers home.

Why they need to lower the manufacturing cost? It was the US giant retailer force them. If was pretty much like "If you don't sell us this toys at this price, I will go somewhere else". If the toy company lost this big client, they do not need to operate anymore. So they tried to cut corner including using cheaper paint.

I think that was related to US economy as well. Everybody need to made some decision at that time and that was what happened.


For buying a product from a fishy vendor, that's a different story. If a real Canon product sell $$$$ and you saw one for $$ from a unknown seller regardless their country of origin, I will stay away from it. And if indeed it is a fake item and you bought it from a US company site such as eBay, you may need to talk to ebay instead.

 

[thisisbleep]

To the uneducated few....

Everything is made in China, either directly or indirectly. I am sure if the lens/camera is not "made" in China the parts are and it is "assembled" elsewhere (e.g. Japan). If that is not the case, then the machine which makes the parts is probably made in China, if that is not the case then the machine that made the machine... you could go on forever. Welcome to a global economy, where people choose the cheapest because that is what capitalism is.

To the person who said that they would rather not give China their dollars, China is buying billions of dollars worth of government bonds, using money which it gets from trading with the world. Money goes both ways, there is not a big plug hole where it all disappears.

Whilst I am not saying that the conditions in the Chinese factories are good, they are much better than working in agriculture, people flock to the cities to get a job at the big companies like Foxconn and from what I have read recently the suicide rate is much lower at places like Foxconn. This does not stop the media from reporting about how western companies are causing the deaths, even though it is lower than the Chinese national average. If you studied history you would know how many people had similar conditions during the industrial revolution in the west, this is the same thing but happening later. Whilst it is not right it is pot calling kettle black, we cannot honestly say "you must follow our developed principles, rules, safety standards and copyrights etc., whilst having a much lower GDP than us", it just does not work because change is gradual.

I live in Hong Kong and even here I have seen some blatant rip-offs (e.g. JCB machinery which is identical to the real thing, minus the branding), it shows that the system is broken. Today I saw how Apple has secured a patent on a wedge shape for their iPad, since when should geometric shapes be up for patenting? (Source: Apple's New MacBook Air Wedge Design Patent Could Destroy Ultrabooks. Sigh.) The sooner people share things for the common good the better, it would be in the consumers and public's interest for all patents regarding essential things to be cost shared between the major companies, this does not stop them innovating but the core of the product is cheaper and those savings are passed to us. If not, the length of a patent needs to be drastically reduced, so that the patent holder can make the profit for say 5 years and then it is shared on a cheap license to everyone else for a further 5 years before becoming free.

 

[IByte]

OK y'all... You can make any comments about Chinese (or any other country's exports) but let's keep politics and religion out of this thread and Forum. Much appreciated.

Geez! Ya scared me Mr Kitty cat. It's not really the commercial products that disturb me. It's the raw materials the we need for our military. Buying steel or raw materials for our nation's defense to me, is like employeeing a known spy.

 

[RichardsTPF]

People buy junks made in China because they look for unreasonably cheap stuff online at very beginning. We call this low end marketing.
Walmart import 90% products from China. They are cheap and not bad quality. The other 10% are made in Mexico. This is global economy. Trading companies import either from China or Mexico to get max profit and best marketing. If you want products proudly made in USA, no problem, spend twice or more cash on it.
Do China make decent product? Of course. The question is do you wanna spend that much money on it.

 

[Robin Usagani]

My iPhone 4Gs is made in China.. I love it.

 

[tirediron]

... I've bought tons from China. Does it really matter if my M42 extension rings are cheap? I'm putting them on cheap M42 lenses!

It sure can! My brother bought a set of $20 "off-brand" extension tubes for his D80 a few years back. The first time he used it, it jammed on to the body so firmly that he had to take it to a repair shop, where it was cut off and removed in many small pieces. Why? Because the manufacturing tolerances were so great that the mount was way out of spec. Those $20 tubes wound up costing him something in the order of $150 IIRC, by the time he got his camera back.

Remember the old adage, 'You get what you pay for'. It always has been [mostly] true, and will continue to be so. Just because something is made in China does not mean it's junk, BUT by the same token just because something is made in North America does not mean that it is a quality product.

 

[RichardsTPF]

Remember the old adage, 'You get what you pay for'. It always has been [mostly] true, and will continue to be so.

I have a Fenix flashlight, which is a great alternative to name brand Surefire. It's a little bit pricy, cheaper than Surefire. Decent flashlight made in China.

 

[unpopular]

Did you miss the part about it being an M42 tubes not Alpha tubes? They don't connect directly to the camera, and I'm pretty sure that the Chinese can cut a relatively course thread on the end of a tube! 42x1mm isn't exactly an engineering marvel.

Perhaps if I had a Nikon then the adapter might be a problem. I've only heard of tubes getting stuck on Nikons, and may be a specific incident rather than a widespread problem indicative of Chinese engineering. Specific engineering problems can occur to any nationality.



Those Washingtonian engineers can't make bridges for crap!

---

The economics of Chinese stuff makes a huge difference. You never want to buy the cheapest things available from China, but what seems like a very small amount to us is a HUGE amount by the time it gets across the pacific. This probobly contributes to the feeling that it's totally random what you get. A $6 adapter ring might be made of tin foil, a $12 one made fo aircraft alumininum, and a $20 one made of steel or hard brass alloy. When you're not paying for the machinist's $250,000 mortgagae, $23,000 car payment and $8,000 credit card bill, a little bit can go a long way.

 

[DiskoJoe]

Beware when buying "Genuine" Nikon, Canon, etc products on eBay.

Remember, the Chinese counterfeit just about everything. If something is normally $14.99, and you see it for $4.99 from China, then odds are it's fake.

Always buy from reliable sources. I do not recommend buying anything from China.

This is a stupid statement to begin with. If you are not smart enough to be able to differentiate good sellers from the bad then you have no business shopping anywhere at all.

 

[DiskoJoe]

My iPhone 4Gs is made in China.. I love it.

Its a knock off and you dont even know it!

 

[StandingBear1983]

<Edited by moderator> ...so lets keep stuff on topic about China photography gear lol

 

[tirediron]

Did you miss the part about it being an M42 tubes not Alpha tubes? They don't connect directly to the camera, and I'm pretty sure that the Chinese can cut a relatively course thread on the end of a tube! 42x1mm isn't exactly an engineering marvel.

Ohfercryingoutloud! No, I did NOT miss the bit about them being M42 tubes; I was simply providing a a reason why the cheapest thing isn't always the best, and one with which I have immediate, first-hand knowlege involved extension tubes.

The finer point that I was trying to make was that the problem, IMO, is really one of QC. A company producing a high-end product (let's the $100 widget) will specify a particular material, say 6010 T4, have production specs that require the machinist to veryify his setup with certain measurements, ensure that his tool-bits have a specific profile, and that they are changed/sharpened every 'X' cuts. Once complete, he will have a set of production gauges to veryify the pitch, depth, and sharpness of the threads. This all goes to ensure that the consumer receives a product that works well, and will continue to work for a long time.

Their competition across the street produces a widget which looks almost identical but sells for $10. They use any aluminum alloy that they can buy, the cheaper the better. The machinst sharpens his tools by guess and by golly, and only when they are dull to the point of refusing to cut anything at all. If you're lucky, he's got a 12" ruler and a thread gauge to verify product specs with.
So... you can spend $100 on a widget, or $10. I know which one I'll buy...

BTW... have you ever actually cut threads on a lathe?

 

[unpopular]

Did you miss the part about it being an M42 tubes not Alpha tubes? They don't connect directly to the camera, and I'm pretty sure that the Chinese can cut a relatively course thread on the end of a tube! 42x1mm isn't exactly an engineering marvel.

Ohfercryingoutloud! No, I did NOT miss the bit about them being M42 tubes; I was simply providing a a reason why the cheapest thing isn't always the best, and one with which I have immediate, first-hand knowlege involved extension tubes.

The finer point that I was trying to make was that the problem, IMO, is really one of QC. A company producing a high-end product (let's the $100 widget) will specify a particular material, say 6010 T4, have production specs that require the machinist to veryify his setup with certain measurements, ensure that his tool-bits have a specific profile, and that they are changed/sharpened every 'X' cuts. Once complete, he will have a set of production gauges to veryify the pitch, depth, and sharpness of the threads. This all goes to ensure that the consumer receives a product that works well, and will continue to work for a long time.

Their competition across the street produces a widget which looks almost identical but sells for $10. They use any aluminum alloy that they can buy, the cheaper the better. The machinst sharpens his tools by guess and by golly, and only when they are dull to the point of refusing to cut anything at all. If you're lucky, he's got a 12" ruler and a thread gauge to verify product specs with.
So... you can spend $100 on a widget, or $10. I know which one I'll buy...

BTW... have you ever actually cut threads on a lathe?

I get it, I really do. But the reason why Chinese stuff is cheaper isn't something intriniscally bad about Chinese engineering and machining, it's that everything is cheeper from China. The junk is cheaper, the relatively good stuff is cheaper, and this has more to do with labor cost than quality.

I don't mean to accuse anyone here of outright racism - but what is it about the Chinese machinists that make them unable to operate a lathe to properly cut a 42x1mm thread? Is it their small stature, or slanted eyes?

Plus, i'm pretty sure all the factory worker is actually doing ins placing the stock into a machine. Perhaps some of the lathes in Chinese factories aren't terribly sophisticated by comparison, but I am sure that they are computerized and automated.

 

[fjrabon]

This stopped being a thread on anything but politics, protectionism and xenophobia a long time ago. countdown to this thread being locked...

 

[unpopular]

i think the subject of international economics is going to be inherently political, especially when you throw in generalizations about any given country's ability to produce quality goods.