Originally posted by elho_cid I wouldn't expect any difference. Moving the production line may initally cause some problem, but I don't see any reason why would workers in Vietnam work worse than those in Japan.
Yes, the workmanship is likely to be the same, within the normal range.
However, there still may be minor differences in the materials or the methods. For example, when Pentax moved the assembly line for the FA31 to Vietnam, they might well have changed sources for some materials, perhaps making them in-house, or purchasing them locally, instead of shipping the parts from Japan.
Or perhaps Pentax took this opportunity to make improvements (or take new shortcuts) in quality control testing. Could be.
These types of changes might not be obvious, even with very careful inspection and testing of a few lenses.
Incidentally, I'm NOT saying that Pentax DID make any changes whatsoever in workmanship or materials or QA testing. I'm just saying that there's no way to know for sure from just looking at a couple lenses.