look the same, but not the same. there are only a handful of factories in China that produce optics...they all use the same bodies and frames, but the quality of the optics and the moving parts will vary. good examples are of the Kunming Series 8 binoculars. several major binocular retailers have different makes/model's that look identical and in some cases they are identical and in other cases some are better made then others. compare bino's from Garret Optical against Oberwerk against the new lines of Orion Telescope and you will see this. heck, I bet you could probably squeeze in some Celestron bino's too...Meade's not known for binoculars really, but they may as well. in any case, it all depends on how much the company or persons ordering are willing to spend. China is capable of producing optics as good as Japan and Germany if the buyer wants them. in fact, in some cases major German optics are ordered from China now...tho I don't recall names, just that I read about it on a thread under the binocular forum at CloudyNights.com a year or so ago.
