E.L.. Shapiro wrote:
Not including a comprehensive PRINTED manual with expensive, high-end equipment is a disservice to the customer.
Besides photographic equipment, I set audio-visual conference rooms for some of my corporate/commercial clients. Just last week, I installed $50,000 worth of audiophile-grade sound gear and a giant screen in a conference room/training classroom. The user manuals were pathetic- or even a detailed layout of the back panel of a $5,000 amplifier. Some of the latest manuals packed with the new cameras are equally inadequate.
Sure, I can access this material online and perhaps print out a 300 page PDF- but why should I need to do that. So-there was in a crawl space in the back of this conference room with 30 odd wires and cables, a connection panel with numerous RCS, HDMI, USB, optical and some stage stuff that I never saw before, so what am I supposed to do, set up a computer with a monitor or a laptop in the closet-like space. The silk-screened labels on the un itself have tiny letters, on the computer screen, they are even smaller. A real schematic would have been a godsend- so I had to make one! A comprehensive manual with maintenance information. After the monster is finally wired there are numerous setup procedures that are electronically controlled through the remote.
The attached image is just half of that back panel- imaging that with a cable in every socket and no manual- not fun!
Cameras? Cameras used to have a shutter speed dial, an aperture setting, a means of focusing and a film advance mechanism, Nowadays the menu in a DSLR or Mirrorless cameras looks like the control center at the Brookhaven National Laboratories. A manual for beyond the quick setup would be nice.
I am old but I am pretty darn tech-savvy so their "welcome to the 21st-century" business is nonsense. Why- we are not allowed to READ anymore, or have some reference material for future use. troubleshooting, problem-solving? De wh have to keep a laptop in our camera bags or the glove box in our cars just to solve an issue, review a procedure, teach somehow the use their camera, lens or another accessory.
You spend 20- grand+ on a camera a d a few lenses and the manufacturer can afford some paperwork- give me a break!
Hey- I got a great recipe book with my $300. electric mixer!
If I want to buy a third-party user manual by a prominent user of my kinda gear, but again, why shud I have to after spending all that hard-earned money on top-of-the-line equipment.
Oftentimes, right here on this forum, someone posts a question about an issue with their gear and someone usually answers "look at page 56 in your user manual" or just, " Read your manual! Waht manual?
Not including a comprehensive PRINTED manual with ... (
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So you think they make a bundle of money on each camera that to include a multi-hundred page manual should be included, would be chump change? If they decided to include a manual and bump the price every buyer would be bitching for the PDF version online with the easy search included. Camera makers are struggling to stay afloat and you want them to struggle more? Cameras expensive, yes, but in a way you get what you pay for. If the camera is too expensive for the quality, the word will go out and they will shoot themselves in the groin.
In answer to your last question "what Manual" - the one online! Do you get one with your car or your washing machine.....? For those with a paper fixation, there will be third party books coming out. I had a great one when I got my Canon 5DIII some many years back.