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1/7/2011 2:28:05 AM
 
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Section 20: Outdoor Photography Subject: Digital Cameras Msg# 762280
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Your experience is a good lesson for all. I've long been aware of gray market and fortunately never been burned. I didn't know that the manufacturers sell direct to American resellers, but if you say so I won't argue. I always assume that big NY and west coast outfits bought from overseas distributors and imported them themselves. That always made more sense to me as to how non-U.S. market cameras got into the USA. Today it seems that the cameras intended for Euro market are named differently, at least in the consumer and prosumer markets, perhaps not with pro cameras? I have been using Pentax, which has never been a true competitor for Nikon or even Canon, but as good or better than anyone else (I'd rank Olympus and Minolta up there) for at least thirty years, and own some bodies older than that, and have never had a failure either. The worst problem I've had is some ancient foam padding inside motor drives get gummy on me. Bottom line--I can use any lens Pentax has ever made on the very latest Pentax DSLR. If I get an adpator I could use SCREW MOUNT lenses. I don't have any, but good grief. I do have some pretty old bayonet mount lenses and have in fact used them. HOW IS THAT FOR SUPPORT? |
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For reference, the above message is a reply to a message where: Nikon and Pentax honored their long-time SLR users. Canon essentially threw theirs to the dogs as far as old lens compatibility goes. That happened to me when Nikon went to auto-indexing lenses as they improved the auto exposure systems on their film cameras a few decades back. The lenses used to have a fork on the aperture ring that fit onto a pin on the outside of the camera. This was replaced by a sliding lever gizmo on the inside of the lens that moved the mechanics inside the camera. I was faced with either replacing my lenses or sending them all back to Nikon for the AI upgrade. My gripe with Nikon is that they sell "gray market" cameras to American resellers and then refuse to stand behind them if they need service. If a sleazebag salesman swears that a camera is a "U.S." version, you or I probably can't tell whether it is or not (I know I can't) but Nikon can. And if it breaks right before an assignment and you Fedex it to a U.S. Nikon factory repair center because you need it fixed right and fixed quick, expecting to pay for the repair because it is long out of warranty, they won't work on it. In my case, after keeping it for a week or two, they sent it back, still broken, via slowest ground transportation with no comment. I then had to call the service center to find out why they didn't fix it, and some helpful employee said it apparently was a gray market camera and Nikon won't touch those. So, I then had to send it to an independently-owned repair center that works on Nikon cameras to get it fixed. Unfortunately, I had thousands of dollars tied up in Nikon lenses so I couldn't just throw the camera in the trash and go buy Canon equipment, I had to grit my teeth and buy another camera body quick to have something for the photo shoot. I never had a Nikon film camera fail in all the years I used them and I wasted the money I always spent on a backup. So, not immediately noticing all the plastic parts on the new digital cameras, I stupidly expected that tradition to continue and put off buying a spare camera back. Lesson learned... |
I think I told Joe I still have four old film bodies--I lied--I have five. Two are 100% manual!