Validity of Nikon’s quality (Page 8): My friend, the camera repair guy, says if you want a lens that will last for decades buy a manual focus prime lens. The typical lens repairs he...

Robert Bailey Loc: Canada

My friend, the camera repair guy, says if you want a lens that will last for decades
buy a manual focus prime lens.
The typical lens repairs he sees involve zooming mechanisms and auto-focus mechanisms.
As I mentioned earlier, at some point the parts to repair such problems are no longer available.

PAR4DCR Loc: A Sunny Place

Sounds like he was trying to drum up a sale with you being the target. My old Nikon 35mm film cameras, mid 70's vintage, still work fine.

Don

DaveO Loc: Northeast CT

Rich1939 wrote:

'Programmed obsolescence' started in the early sixties, about the same time as the secret 80 mpg carburetor stories. Where would conversation be if it wasn't for conspiracy theories

Actually it was recognized in the automotive industry as planned obsolescence in the 1920's. Vance Packard wrote about it in the 60's with Waste Makers and others.

Bugfan Loc: Toronto, Canada

Robert Bailey wrote:

My friend, the camera repair guy, says if you want a lens that will last for decades
buy a manual focus prime lens.
The typical lens repairs he sees involve zooming mechanisms and auto-focus mechanisms.
As I mentioned earlier, at some point the parts to repair such problems are no longer available.

If you want reliability the solution is a cardboard box with a pin hole in it. Once you get more complicated like adding lenses, an aperture, an image stabilizer, an auto focus mechanism things get increasingly more complex and problems will happen. That was actually something I still like about my film lenses, there is only an aperture and a focus ring and both seem to be very reliable. But alas we like the new gadgets and they are easier to use than that cardboard box.

BebuLamar

To me if the camera breaks then it's not obsolete. Something is obsolete when people either don't want to use it any more or it can't be used because of reason other than broken i.e. a camera without the right battery or memory card available.

sanhuberto Loc: Miami

Quite happy that I've joined in this blog, everyone's has a valid opinion. My thought on old vs. new is can't stop progress. A 66 GTO is a classic, but it got less than 10 MPG and was fast on a straight line. Today cars are faster, safer, run cleaner and are full of the little conveniences of the 21th century.
Same with mechanical cameras, they will last forever, but when we are talking about 100,000 of clicks, in a relative short time, it's because we are not shooting film, only professionals could afford to go through so much film.
I like what the new cameras have to offer, and still remember how cumbersome it was to put a new roll of Tri-X on a Nikon F.
Talking about obsolete, I just found my Weston Ranger 9, anybody knows where I can get a battery for it. I thought I've lost it when I moved 17 years ago, be nice to see it working again.

Notorious T.O.D. Loc: Harrisburg, North Carolina

And today's cars cost 10 to 30 times as much, but also last 4 to 5 times longer at least too...

Best,
Todd Ferguson

joenardella

Vance Packard wrote a book back in the 50,s about "planned obsolescence (sp?) .It was a criticism about about the American Automobile industry....
A great read.........................

paulrph1 Loc: Washington, Utah

Jamil wrote:

I was at a camera repair with my D810 the other day and the repair person was exclaiming about how my camera was made to last a year or two. I’ve had this unit for almost 2 years and have had nary a problem. His point was that manufacturers plan it that way to stimulate sales. I’ve used Nikon for the past 40 years and have never entertained that planned obsolescence was Nikon ‘s criterion for it’s products.
I was wondering whether any of you had heard “such “

I personally do not see it. If that were the case they would not design the camera to accept all of the old lenses and with those lenses you would be forced to buy new ones. And it would be the death of their product.

Architect1776 Loc: In my mind

paulrph1 wrote:

I personally do not see it. If that were the case they would not design the camera to accept all of the old lenses and with those lenses you would be forced to buy new ones. And it would be the death of their product.

You forget that that that is exactly what Canon did and mopped the floor with Nikon. I boosted them to an overwhelming majority with working pros who needed a modern system to keep up with the times, Ever watch any sporting events?
The old lenses could not AF and even the primitive mechanical AF lenses were slower than molasses in winter compared to Canon's 21st century lenses. Then the incredible accuracy of the Canon electrically controlled aperture compared to the guess and by golly mechanical lever slapping aperture control that varied each exposure.
So the change spelled success for Canon, boosted it to #1 by a huge margin over all other competitors.

cybercord Loc: Ga, USA

All great post here and yes there is a lifetime for all products. It is called MTBF. A time that most products will fail at that time. But that is most, not all. So don't worry about how long the camera will last, but the comments from the store. They are bias and want to sell you another camera. If yours continues to work and meets your requirement, why buy new. New technology will replace the camera, but not a failing part. Enjoy.

JimUSNY Loc: Hudson Valley New York

Jamil wrote:

I was at a camera repair with my D810 the other day and the repair person was exclaiming about how my camera was made to last a year or two. I’ve had this unit for almost 2 years and have had nary a problem. His point was that manufacturers plan it that way to stimulate sales. I’ve used Nikon for the past 40 years and have never entertained that planned obsolescence was Nikon ‘s criterion for it’s products.
I was wondering whether any of you had heard “such “

Maybe meaning they plan on upgrading each model every 2 years.. but it takes them longer than that for some bodies.. they generally refer to life of camera by average number of shutter actuation's.. so if you dont take a gazillion images every day your body could last for years and years if taken care of anyway.. then some wont last a week right from factory if you get a lemon :)

I do think to entice you into buying a new body they introduce little upgrades to each model, even if they could do it in current model with just a firmware upgrade:)