Since Optical glass is a commodity...leupold and others that don' t produce their own lenses buy them worldwide..... I am sure that like everything else German any glass coming from there is overpriced...to say that Asian glass is inferior is a stretch though.. One example would be Nikon Venture Binos which equal/surpass anything coming out of Germany... Zeiss Conquest glass comes from Hungary and is probably a good bit cheaper than the stuff that comes from the fatherland.