Fake Nikon gear

[Matt Laur]

<blockquote>

<p>unless the weather sealing is very important to you?</p>

</blockquote>

<p>Ding!</p>

[indraneel]

<p>Wow! The only thing that's real seems to be the unbranded third party grips. Guess I'll stick with those. I'm also happy to learn that the Nikon grip does not tighten solidly against the body, just like my third party (Jenis or something) one; it always bothered me if I should have splurged for the real thing...</p>

[Kent Shafer]

<p>My MB-D10 attaches solidly to a D700 and a D300. Nary a wobble.</p>

[ShunCheung]

<p>I too only have the MB-D10 which works great on both of my D300 and D700. The MB-D11 for the D7000 seems to be similarly built and definitely similarly priced, but at least to me, part of the D7000's advantage is its small size so that I am not interested in adding a grip to it. When I want to use a larger camera, I have the D700 and D300 around.<br /> <br />There shouldn't be any concerns about counterfeit lenses or camera bodies. It is a lot more involved to produce a counterfeit Nikon lens that is good enough to fool at least some people. It requires so much investment and effort that just does not make sense; especially one can lose it all if they are caught by law enforcement. Counterfeit memory cards, for example, are far easier to produce; one can get cheap no name SD cards and put a 32G Lexar or Sandisk lable on them. At least you can fool people for a little while.</p>

[john_reynolds10]

<p>I've occasionally thought that these Chinese designer knockoffs that you can get for cheap like Armani, Coco Chanel, Rolex etc. might be made in the same factories as the 'real' ones except they're not distributed through the normal channels, but instead the factory owner overproduces for his own benefit and then distributes them into the black market. Could be the same with Nikon items. And it gives an indication of the real value of these products. You have to wonder how shoes that the Chinese factory sells to it's client for $20-30 wind up costing $100-200 once they reach North American stores.</p>

[wade_thompson]

<p>The Chinese are masters at copying.<br />My company sold a polypropylene extruder to China and went over to install it.<br />They found a whole factory floor full of counterfeit machines of a slightly different brand of extruder.. but one we also owned back in the USA. They copy even to the point of actually tearing a machie down and copying it part for part....even to the point when the company logo nameplate on the machines was copied. That's how bad it is. It almost looked identical to the genuine but our people spotted them quickly.<br />This finding was reported by our company to the US authorities... don't know if they did anything about it.</p>

<p> </p>

[zack_zoll]

<p>John, keep in mind that being made in the same factory doesn't always mean it is the same product. Wade makes a good point, but many companies will approach a factory and say, "Can you make me the same product, but build it more cheaply?" This is very common with third-party camera brands.</p>

[rodeo_joe1]

<p>I wouldn't be too sure that lenses are safe from counterfeiting. What's the current price of Nikon's 85mm f/1.4 G lens compared to Samyang's? I have the Samyang and can tell you that its optical quality is almost faultless, and if I'd bought it as a Nikon branded lens I'd be more than happy with it. In fact many reviewers rate it as high as, or higher than any of the top-brand products.</p>

<p>Thankfully, Samyang are honestly selling their products under their own name, but it wouldn't take much to wrap the same optics in a prestige brand barrel and parcel it up in a fancy box. And I suspect that only a fraction of buyers would notice any difference after parting with 3 or 4 times the price. Of course Samyang are trying to put South Korea on the map as a producer of high-value optical equipment, and as such they're currently underselling themselves, but I'm sure they're not operating at a loss either.</p>

<p>I think what's far more damaging than fakery to consumer confidence in big brands is the way that quality control has been let slip. For example, I had a Canon L series lens that was badly decentred and had to be exchanged. There have also been numerous (suppressed) reports of a lack of or faulty lubrication in the zoom mechanism of Nikon's 24-70 f/2.8 flagship lens. The list goes on. And when you come down to 3rd party lens providers it's even more of a lottery whether you get a lens that's up to spec or not.</p>

<p>I've personally been a victim of being sold an obviously inferior returned or graded lens as brand new prime stock by an internet dealer. I won't name them, I'll SIMPLY say that their ELECTRONICS are likely to be faulty. These scammers are getting their substandard stock from somewhere, and the finger has to point back to the OEMs whose reject products they're selling. The whole consumer sales system is rotten and getting more rotten by the month IMHO!</p>

[robert_k1]

<blockquote>

<p>That's how bad it is.</p>

</blockquote>

<p>You mean "That's how GOOD it is."?</p>

[bruce_brown]

<p>Considering the response on another pnet thread, I think the counterfiters are working WAY TOO HARD with battery packs, boxes, and such ... they should convert all operations immediately to third party camera straps ... that's where the real money is.</p>

[bruce_brown]

<p>Another item on this subject ... CNET news reporting tonight on FAKE iphone 4s hitting the market ... these are way more complex and 'difficult to counterfeit' than a battery pack ... yet there they are. Can lenses and cameras ... and everything else ... be far off? Buyer beware ... buyer beware. </p>

[ShunCheung]

<p>Bruce, could you provide a link to CNET concerning this fake iPhone 4S?</p>

<p>All I can locate is a warning article. It even mentions that there are faked iPhone 5 on the Chinese market, while there is no iPhone 5 yet. One has to be quite uninfomred to fall for these things: <a href="http://news.cnet.com/8301-30686_3-20117021-266/experts-warn-shoppers-of-fake-iphone-4ss-online/">http://news.cnet.com/8301-30686_3-20117021-266/experts-warn-shoppers-of-fake-iphone-4ss-online/</a></p>

[bruce_brown]

<p>Shun: I think your link goes to the article ... I read an earlier version and it looks to be updated a little ... yes, the counterfeiters were in such a hurry to get to market they overshot the product name ... THEY thought it was iphone5, and went with it ... Apple went with 4S. I have a friend who is SURE that counterfeiting is the world's SECOND oldest profession (possibly derived from the first), and that the level of sophistication is improving dramatically, sometimes with a wink and nod from certain givernments around the Pacific rim ...<br>

What is particularly difficult about these issues is NOT EVERYONE KNOWS ... buy a piece of gear ... bogus .... doesn't work out, and you have a angry buyer telling all his friends about how ALL (insert brand name here), is crap and would never buy anything from that maker again.<br>

So we try to stay informed, and smile fondly on our trusted sellers.<br>

FWIW, if it were my brand, I would not rest until I SAW smoke rising from the ruins of the perps ... well, a good wide angle shot, in full color, showing all the smoke and debris would be OK too.</p>

<p> </p>

[ShunCheung]

<p>Bruce, my point is that something like an iPhone is so complex that involves so many parts that it is very difficult to counterfeit one that actually works, likewise for Nikon DSLRs and lenses.</p>

<p>For something like an iPhone, what they can do is to get older models such as an iPhone 2 or some other similarly looking smart phone and change the model number. That can probably fool someone who cannot recognize how an iPhone 4S should exactly look like.</p>

<p>Therefore, I have little concern about fake Nikon lenses, unless you buy one unseen via eBay or some mail order (especially from another country) and are stuck with something that you cannot return. If I have it in my hands, it should not be difficult to tell whether it is real or not.</p>

<p>Items that you need to be careful about are batteries, memory cards, etc. Anybody can get some dirt cheap memory card, print a fake SanDisk or Lexar 32G label and glue it on. The card can be of much lower quality and/or even less capabity. Unfortunately, a 4G SD card looks exactly like a 32G one until you plug it into a computer or camera.</p>

<p>I just bought a third-party back LCD cover for the D7000. I haven't tried it on yet but it looks good. I paid $6 for this piece of clear plastic instead of $16 for the Nikon version, and I am sure it won't affect my image quality. :-)</p>