Do you have specific Swift model in mind? It is difficult to compare one model with full line of microscopes which could be a mix bag of high to low end microscopes.

It interested for you to bring up Nikon and Swift. The Nikon E200 is manufactured in China by a company company called Novel Optics at Jiangna Optics factory. http://www.jnoec.com/newEbiz1/EbizPortalFG/portal/html/ProductInfoExhibit.html?ProductInfoExhibit_Product ID=c373e9120e8d585a8ffe9f0ff1a31a55# This manufacturer used to be the OEM for Swift's educational microscope through Carton, an Japanese microscope dealer. These microscopes are continued to manufactured and marketed by Ample Scientific as Nexcope in the US. I don't think Swift's optics is better than Nikon. I heard that they were acquired by a company called Motic. It is another Chinese microscope manufacturer.

Kuan