Fake Hoya Filters, beware.

rolleiman · Jun 7, 2012

A camera magazine has recently published an alert, over fake Hoya filters being manufactured in China, and apparently being marketed on certain websites at a price somewhat cheaper than the real thing. The magazine does not name the websites, presumably for legal reasons. These filters are allegedly of very poor quality, both optically and construction wise.

This follows in the wake of fake chargers for mobile phones (and possibly cameras) etc. also eminating from China.

It seems to be the case that any camera accesories originating from China and being sold at suspiciously cheap prices, should be regarded with extreme caution before considering purchase.

Moral......If it looks too good to be true, it almost certainly is.

benjiboy · Jun 7, 2012

The Chinese are only doing what Japanese were previously doing before they got a foot in the door and captured the international markets, the Japanese were notorious for these practices, but in many cased people began to realize the Japanese Fakes were better quality than the originals.

Japanese fakes

rolleiman · Jun 7, 2012

The Japanese were building a camera industry when they introduced Canon and Nikon lenses to rival those of Leitz.

The Chinese fakes are backed by criminal gangs who are out to make a quick killing. Some of their fake chargers have caused injury and in one case, electrocution, to anyone unfortunate enough to have bought them in the belief they were genuine.

I don't think you can compare the two.

Japanese fakes[/QUOTE]

dnjl · Jun 7, 2012

I recently bought two Kenko UV filters from a seller in China; I suspect they are fake. Construction is really flimsy and the 'Kenko' brand name on the rim looks nothing like the real deal. I use them on my RB67 and haven't noticed any detrimental effects to IQ, but then again my scanner isn't very good. They don't seem to filter UV very well though.

Don't buy filters from China at prices that are too good to be true.

Jeff Kubach · Jun 7, 2012

Thanks for the warning.

Jeff

RalphLambrecht · Jun 7, 2012

maybe if original filters would not be so expensive this would not happen.

2bits · Jun 7, 2012

Thanks for the heads up! I use metal detectors alot as a hobby. In the last couple of years Chinese fakes of good American detectors have been showing up in the market. Seems there's no end to what they won't do.
2bits

George Nova Scotia · Jun 7, 2012

Even whole towns. On topic - I had a look at the Hoya filters I bought on E*ay, I "think" they are okay, but they are the low end versions.

Newt_on_Swings · Jun 7, 2012

Filter prices have gone up a lot, even the ubiquitous UV filter commands high prices due to fancy multi-coatings and such. I personally dont mind buying and using used filters, they are usually fine and are good deals, especially when getting contrast filters for B&W. They older types have less of a chance of fakery such as when you buy the older Nikon, B+W, and Hoya filters.

rolleiman · Jun 8, 2012

I would certainly recommend s/h older filters of well known makes. You can usually find s/h filters a-plenty in reputable photo stores, I recently purchased 6 Nikon 52mm b&w ones for £30 here in a London photoshop, all in excellent condition. Remember, you saved long and hard to buy that top class lens, why risk spoiling the performance with a cheap and possibly fake filter?

RenA · Jun 8, 2012

I think the site might be Ebay. I have bough couple of infrared filters (different wavelenghs) that came from china but marked hoya. Naively I thought that everything comes from china anyway (they just slap the UK price on that is higher than anywhere else in the world) and how much can I go wrong with a piece of opaque glass? Well very wrong indeed. As they say buy cheap, buy twice. At the end I had to buy an expensive one from UK seller, and make sure I look after it

CGW · Jun 8, 2012

Pay less get less. Not sympathetic when the "dollar store" mentality nets counterfeits and/or junk merch. If there wasn't a yawning demand for such schlock, the Chinese wouldn't make it.

rolleiman · Jun 8, 2012

RenA said:
I think the site might be Ebay. I have bough couple of infrared filters (different wavelenghs) that came from china but marked hoya. Naively I thought that everything comes from china anyway (they just slap the UK price on that is higher than anywhere else in the world) and how much can I go wrong with a piece of opaque glass? Well very wrong indeed. As they say buy cheap, buy twice. At the end I had to buy an expensive one from UK seller, and make sure I look after it

If it is E-bay, then perhaps those of you who are registered with that site should make the organisers aware of what is going on?

Vanishing Point Ent. · Jun 10, 2012

Back in the day, Japan labeled products " Made in USA ". Read On To Find Out How !

rolleiman said:
A camera magazine has recently published an alert, over fake Hoya filters being manufactured in China, and apparently being marketed on certain websites at a price somewhat cheaper than the real thing. The magazine does not name the websites, presumably for legal reasons. These filters are allegedly of very poor quality, both optically and construction wise.

This follows in the wake of fake chargers for mobile phones (and possibly cameras) etc. also eminating from China.

It seems to be the case that any camera accesories originating from China and being sold at suspiciously cheap prices, should be regarded with extreme caution before considering purchase.

Moral......If it looks too good to be true, it almost certainly is.

You know just as Japan had a town named USA, so the products that came from there
could legally be labeled " Made in USA ",

At some point China will form a City of Commerce, ( get it ? ), named Japan,
In this way Chinese products could legally be labeled " Made in Japan ".

benjiboy · Jun 11, 2012

Vanishing Point Ent. said:
You know just as Japan had a town named USA, so the products that came from there
could legally be labeled " Made in USA ",

At some point China will form a City of Commerce, ( get it ? ), named Japan,
In this way Chinese products could legally be labeled " Made in Japan ".

The Japanese town of Usa has been called that since the eighth century more than a thousand years since before the U.S.A. existed http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usa,_Japan#Product_labeling

Newt_on_Swings · Jun 12, 2012

Those Japanese sure do plan for the long run eh?

Brac · Jun 12, 2012

The Amateur Photographer magazine in the UK named the site where these fake filters are being sold as ebay. That's not to say every Hoya filter on there is a fake. It is almost certain that Hoya will have made representations to ebay. The replica filters don't work properly apparently, so are a waste of money.

If the filter box has a printed barcode on it, it is a fake (often the wrong barcode). Genuine boxes apparently have the barcode on a sticky label. See:-

http://www.amateurphotographer.co.u...raphers-warned-as-bogus-filter-scam-escalates

wildbill · Jun 12, 2012

I only own one hoya, a polarizer I got from b&h.. It's got a black spec in the glass and was quite expensive at the time (90's). Maybe it's a fake. Heliopan or b+w multicoated are better filters (rings) anyway.

Diapositivo · Jun 12, 2012

Vanishing Point Ent. said:
You know just as Japan had a town named USA, so the products that came from there
could legally be labeled " Made in USA ",

At some point China will form a City of Commerce, ( get it ? ), named Japan,
In this way Chinese products could legally be labeled " Made in Japan ".

Something made in Usa, Japan could not nowadays be sold internationally with the "made in USA" label.
By the same token something made in Japan, China, cannot be sold as "made in Japan".
(National laws and international trade agreements don't care about town names).

DREW WILEY · Jun 12, 2012

Big companies of American origin frequently sell things made in China falsely labeled. They just pay
a token fine or cut some kind of deal when caught. As the definition is slowly getting more stringent
the fine-print (literally) seems to get smaller and smaller, and it's often hard to tell where something
is made. Legally, to be made in the US, 90% of the parts have to come from here. Assembled in the
USA means something else entirely. Global components ... well. I have found real Hoya filters to be
excellent, esp the multi-coated variety, though sometimes not quite spot on for exacting CC values
where color film is involved. But counterfeit Japanese filters have also been made in Japan too in
the past, with an inferior product being labeled with someone else's name. If something is priced too good to be true, it probably is.

Leigh B · Jun 12, 2012

benjiboy said:
The Chinese are only doing what Japanese were previously doing...

Not true at all. When I was growing up in the 1950's we routinely talked about "Chinese copies", but never about "Japanese copies".

- Leigh

Diapositivo · Jun 13, 2012

A "copy" (bad word) is an entirely different animal from a fake. The basic design inspiration of many cameras of the past (Japanese or Russian) was from Leica and Contax designs but they were not branded Leica or Contax and were not made to appear identical.

A Minolta autocord is not a counterfeited Rolleiflex.

benjiboy · Jun 13, 2012

Leigh B said:
Not true at all. When I was growing up in the 1950's we routinely talked about "Chinese copies", but never about "Japanese copies".

- Leigh

It is true, the Japanese before and after WW11 were notorious for making copies of western manufactured goods, for example you only need to compare the Zeiss Contax and the Nikon S.P to see it,s almost a direct copy and in the fifty s I wasn't "growing up" I was an adult and I worked in engineering, I saw many examples of Dormer high speed drill bits and S.K.F ball bearings, and many other World renowned manufactured brands of machine tools that had been copied by Japanese manufacturers right down to the the colour of the printing and typeface of the company logo on the packaging, and here's another example http://www.leitzmuseum.org/CameraMakes/LeicaCopies/Copies.html

tron_ · Jun 13, 2012

Has anyone used them? If they work well I'd buy one.

rolleiman · Jun 13, 2012

benjiboy said:
It is true, the Japanese before and after WW11 were notorious for making copies of western manufactured goods, for example you only need to compare the Zeiss Contax and the Nikon S.P to see it,s almost a direct copy and in the fifty s I wasn't "growing up" I was an adult and I worked in engineering, I saw many examples of Dormer high speed drill bits and S.K.F ball bearings, and many other World renowned manufactured brands of machine tools that had been copied by Japanese manufacturers right down to the the colour of the printing and typeface of the company logo on the packaging, and here's another example http://www.leitzmuseum.org/CameraMakes/LeicaCopies/Copies.html

Yes, but the Japanese labelled it a "Nikon", they didn't pretend it was a Contax.....that's the difference between a copy and a fake.

Fake Hoya Filters, beware.

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