Why do Nikon bother producing 'non-printable' manuals??

wrote:

They own the copyright to their material. If you've just recently become
aware of the steps they choose for whatever reason to restrict use of
their material, so be it. It's been that way for quite a while. Just
recently they have posted a formal route for getting printed copies of the
manuals for another region on the KB, but first you have to return the one
that came with the camera.


I would not be surprised if their competitors break open their lenses to
find out how they work. If I was Sigma, Tamron or whoever who wanted to
make 3rd party lenses, I would be opening up Nikon lenses and sticking
logic analysers, oscilloscopes and whatever else on them.

I don't believe anyone who wanted to breach Nikon's copyright would have
too much trouble getting hold of a manual they could print. It will be a
bit of an inconvenience to those who just want to print it (or, as in my
case, some pages from it), and present no problem to someone who wanted
to rip it off.

This is not to say I agree with it, just what it is. The only way I see to
discourage it is to buy someone elves product and tell them why in the
process. Though I doubt that would really make any difference.

There is probably something to be gained from letting them know how you
feel about these things. I must admit it is not high on my priority list.

I don't know if its possible to get one from Nikon UK without
registering a D3 - I never tried, as I found one on the US site first.

tony cooper wrote:

It's more likely to be because Nikon USA discourages the purchase of
"gray market" Nikons that don't come with manuals or don't come with
manuals in English.




A far more effective way to stop these 'gray imports' would be to sell
the products for the same price in each country.

The only reason I did not get my D3 from outside the UK was that is was
more money than I was willing to risk. But for a £500-£1000 lens I would
not think twice about it if the savings were sufficiently large.

On Sat, 16 Aug 2008 15:54:50 +0100, Dave wrote:

tony cooper wrote:

It's more likely to be because Nikon USA discourages the purchase of
"gray market" Nikons that don't come with manuals or don't come with
manuals in English.




A far more effective way to stop these 'gray imports' would be to sell
the products for the same price in each country.

I don't see how either Nikon or Nikon USA can control the retail
pricing of their products. In the US, sales are through distributors
(camera stores, retail outlets, etc). "Gray market" Nikons are also
available through distributors - and sometimes the same distributors
that sell the Nikon USA products - but don't have the same warranty
features.

The only reason I did not get my D3 from outside the UK was that is was
more money than I was willing to risk. But for a £500-£1000 lens I would
not think twice about it if the savings were sufficiently large.

I don't know how the market works in the UK, but I have noticed that
many UK residents say they pay more for the same basic model than do
the US buyers. I would think, though, that this is the retail
structure and not the Nikon pricing structure. I don't know for sure,
though.


--
Tony Cooper - Orlando, Florida

Chris H wrote:
In message , Dave writes
I wanted to get an electronic version of the D3's manual.

I get to a page:

http://support.nikontech.com/cgi-bin...ser/std_adp.ph
p?p_faqid=14438

where it says:

"To protect against Copyright Infringement, Nikon offers two versions
of our current product manuals. A fully printable manual for existing
owners (which requires a valid, North American, Nikon camera serial
number and registration to download) and a non-printable version for
others (no serial number required).If you need an account, click here"

We then have two links:

* Printable, Requires Serial Number - File Size ~ 17.3MB
* Non-printable, No Serial Number required - File Size ~ 17.3 MB

It's probably because Nikon USA are a bunch of prats.

THAT IS SO STUPID. CANON DOES SOMETHING EQUALLY STUPID BY PLACING A
DIAGONAL VERBIAGE ACROSS THE PAGE MAKING IT DIFFICULT TO READ IF PRINTED.

The only people who really have an advantage in printing out an extra
copy of these manuals are those who are either buyers of the camera or
who are interested in getting one and want to know as much as possible.

There really is not purpose for anyone to duplicate their manual for
profit do the entire thing is every so dumb by the ever so paranoid lawyers.

With many of these greedy mfg it is like a cat and mouse game. Who is
going to **** who first. A better way is for the mfg to be fair and
they will find many more reasonable customers that have not advantage
and no intention of trying to **** a fair minded mfg.

Dave wrote:
tony cooper wrote:

It's more likely to be because Nikon USA discourages the purchase of
"gray market" Nikons that don't come with manuals or don't come with
manuals in English.



A far more effective way to stop these 'gray imports' would be to sell
the products for the same price in each country.

The only reason I did not get my D3 from outside the UK was that is
was more money than I was willing to risk. But for a £500-£1000 lens I
would not think twice about it if the savings were sufficiently large.

In message ,
writes
On Sat, 16 Aug 2008 01:02:51 +0100, in rec.photo.digital Dave
wrote:

wrote:
On Fri, 15 Aug 2008 20:32:57 +0100, in rec.photo.digital Dave
wrote:


My D3 is registered in the UK, not USA,

So just go to the Nikon UK support site. Is this too difficult a step to
comprehend? Jeez you buy a D3, don't get off your butt and do a bit of
research on the simplest of subjects and then wine. Wou;ld you like some
cheese to go with that?


Sure I could have gone to the UK site, but why bother when I was at the
US one? The US one prints just fine.

I just question the logic of bothering with trying to restrict the
printing of manuals. It seems a pointless step which should be discouraged.

They own the copyright to their material.

Nikon or Nikon US?

--
\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\
\/\/\/\/\ Chris Hills Staffs England /\/\/\/\/
\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/

In message , tony cooper
writes
On Sat, 16 Aug 2008 07:10:37 +0100, Chris H
wrote:

In message , Dave writes
I wanted to get an electronic version of the D3's manual.

I get to a page:

http://support.nikontech.com/cgi-bin...ser/std_adp.ph
p?p_faqid=14438

where it says:

"To protect against Copyright Infringement, Nikon offers two versions
of our current product manuals. A fully printable manual for existing
owners (which requires a valid, North American, Nikon camera serial
number and registration to download) and a non-printable version for
others (no serial number required).If you need an account, click here"

We then have two links:

* Printable, Requires Serial Number - File Size ~ 17.3MB
* Non-printable, No Serial Number required - File Size ~ 17.3 MB

It's probably because Nikon USA are a bunch of prats.

It's more likely to be because Nikon USA discourages the purchase of
"gray market" Nikons that don't come with manuals or don't come with
manuals in English.

That is a reasonable point. If you have a UK D3 you get the manual from
the UK site.

Does the US have a problem with gray imports?

--
\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\
\/\/\/\/\ Chris Hills Staffs England /\/\/\/\/
\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/

tony cooper wrote:

I don't see how either Nikon or Nikon USA can control the retail
pricing of their products. In the US, sales are through distributors
(camera stores, retail outlets, etc). "Gray market" Nikons are also
available through distributors - and sometimes the same distributors
that sell the Nikon USA products - but don't have the same warranty
features.
The only reason I did not get my D3 from outside the UK was that is was
more money than I was willing to risk. But for a £500-£1000 lens I would
not think twice about it if the savings were sufficiently large.

I don't know how the market works in the UK, but I have noticed that
many UK residents say they pay more for the same basic model than do
the US buyers. I would think, though, that this is the retail
structure and not the Nikon pricing structure. I don't know for sure,
though.


The list prices in the US are lower than the UK. That D3 buffer memory
upgrade is a good example - $500 (around £250) in the USA, and £352 in
the UK. That is about 45% more in the UK than the USA.

I don't know if it would void a UK warranty, or whether Nikon USA would
do it, but one could probably ship the D3 to the USA, pay Nikon USA to
perform the upgrade, then pay to have it shipped back to the UK. The
£102 saved on the upgrade would easily cover the shipping costs.

I looked at a lens on Amazon UK and USA and the difference in price was
quite large between the two Amazon sites. I quite often buy books from
Amazon USA rather than the UK site, when the saving is substantial -
I've bought quite a few books over $100 and then the savings can be
substantial.

Dave wrote:
tony cooper wrote:

It's more likely to be because Nikon USA discourages the purchase of
"gray market" Nikons that don't come with manuals or don't come with
manuals in English.



A far more effective way to stop these 'gray imports' would be to sell
the products for the same price in each country.

The only reason I did not get my D3 from outside the UK was that is was
more money than I was willing to risk. But for a £500-£1000 lens I would
not think twice about it if the savings were sufficiently large.

When you consider warranty, service, local tax laws, local cost of doing
business, etc., there is no real way to make prices the same everywhere.

For example, where the British Pound is "worth" 2X as much as the
Canadian (or US) dollar, it does not fly very far in Britain. Petrol,
housing, food, etc., are all much more expensive in the UK. (Breakfast
he $7.50; Breakfast there (L7.50 sterling). (In the s/w US this
summer I met a lot of Europeans delighted with the weak US$ v. the Euro
and Pound; they were in the main renting SUV's that they would not think
of renting or buying in Europe as gas is relatively cheap in the US).

Indeed, in the US where sales taxes can vary from county to county or
even town to town, merchants are often forced to forgo some profit to
maintain a competitive price.

Even local "sale" laws in countries like Germany have a strong effect on
European pricing by not inducing a relatively close (geographically)
price competition.

What I despise about Nikon is their Canadian pricing v. the US.
Heavily distorted.


--
-- r.p.e.35mm user resource: http://www.aliasimages.com/rpe35mmur.htm
-- r.p.d.slr-systems: http://www.aliasimages.com/rpdslrsysur.htm
-- [SI] gallery & rulz: http://www.pbase.com/shootin
-- e-meil: Remove FreeLunch.
-- usenet posts from gmail.com and googlemail.com are filtered out.

David Nebenzahl wrote:
On 8/15/2008 12:32 PM Dave spake thus:

I wanted to get an electronic version of the D3's manual.

I get to a page:

http://support.nikontech.com/cgi-bin...?p_faqid=14438


where it says:

"To protect against Copyright Infringement, Nikon offers two versions
of our current product manuals. A fully printable manual for existing
owners (which requires a valid, North American, Nikon camera serial
number and registration to download) and a non-printable version for
others (no serial number required).If you need an account, click here"

[sni]

This post is off-topic for this newsgroup, rec.photo.equipment.35mm,
which is concerned with film cameras that use 35mm film, not digital
cameras that look like 35mm SLRs.

Please use an appropriate newsgroup for postings on digital cameras. One
of the following groups would be a good place for such postings:

rec.photo.equipment.digital
rec.photo.equipment.digital.point+shoot
rec.photo.equipment.digital.rangefinder
rec.photo.equipment.digital.slr
rec.photo.equipment.digital.slr-system


I feel so much better about this group now I know it's being closely
monitored and no junk or inappropriate posting will go unchecked.
But now about those Solaris posts, I thought there were groups for
those, but what do I know?
Dave Cohen