I know Nikon has faced a lot of external and internal stress from their largest costumer base - liberal leaning camera/photography enthusiasts. They’ve sponsored ad campaigns in the past with the “shoot photos, not bullets” storyline in some countries. They’ve kept their “sport optics” segregated to various degrees over the last 20+ years, with separate websites and service phone numbers, despite the same corporate address. So it’s not really a surprise to see them backing out of that market.

Personally, I was VERY surprised to see them launch the “Black” line - no part of me can understand why they’d launch that line name in an environment so popularly hostile against “black rifles,” and equally, on the heels of the Hornady Black ammunition line (‘Cuz Hornady cares about Liberal opinion about as much as the Honey Badger). Interesting to see them drop the rifle scope line so shortly after launching the Black line, but it was also interesting to see them abandon such a large portion of their DSLR market this year too, with a marked loss in stock value the last year.

It’s no secret, I’m not a fan of Nikon riflescopes. But I am disappointed they’d cut their riflescope line to appease political pressures, even in light of what I expect was a very costly product line renovation, which seemed to relatively fizzle. One last blast, and they struck out.

Both of my DSLR bodies right now, and my Mirrorless are Canon, but I had been considering a change back to Nikon for my next DSLR. This certainly made that decision much easier for me.