Nikon issues warning about fake d800e

[GaryLH]

http://petapixel.com/2014/12/16/nikon-warns-fake-d800e-dslrs-wild/

Never thought I would ever have to worry about this. I would suppose the same goes for d600 vs d610.

Gary

 

[Huss]

I'm now thinking that limited edition Nikon D800F I bought is fake.:bang:

😛

 

[f16sunshine]

How easy is it to get a D800e outer shell?
Nikon could put a stop to this easily if they wanted to.

 

[Huss]

Actually I'm not buying this at all, all kidding aside.
Nikon only provides spare parts to its authorized repair facilities. They do not provide them to anyone else, which is why it is a really bad idea to buy a grey market model.
The difference in cost between the 800 and 800E is $200.
That is no where a good enough return to make a fake, especially since they have to source the donor body. Then what would they do with that?

Sounds to me like Nikon has/had a problem on their production line and inadvertently put the wrong bodies on the cameras. And now when these are coming in for service they are trying to pass the blame onto the consumers.

 

[GaryLH]

Not expensive if it was that perverbial box that fell off the back of the truck 😛

 

[Huss]

Not expensive if it was that perverbial box that fell off the back of the truck 😛

Say that happened. You still need a regular D800 to swap the body with. Which means that you are then left with a D800E with either no body, or the D800 body.

So how does any of this make any sense? Especially since the price difference is $200?

I'm sticking to my foil helmet theory that Nikon messed up on the production line and have concocted this story to lay blame elsewhere.

 

[btgc]

Finally they admit digital is all fake? 🙂

consumer electronics are cheap and still there are people faking 4GB sticks to pretend they are 32GB, so why cameras shouldn't be faked.

 

[Lss]

I can't find Nikon D800/D800E sold locally anymore. I wonder what the original price difference was between the models, as this sounds like a lot of work and resources to create a "fake" based on a real D800 and additional parts. It seems Nikon is saying that all parts are legit, only the cover replacement is an aftermarket job -- and thus marketing as D800E is fraudulent.

This almost sounds like an attempt to not accept some warranty repairs.


Edit. Based on this thread it seems the price difference is merely $200 and according to dpreview it was $270. It's a very small difference.

 

[VertovSvilova]

fwiw, this 'warning' is nowhere on the Nikon USA website, only found on the UK/Ireland Nikon website.

 

[YYV_146]

Say that happened. You still need a regular D800 to swap the body with. Which means that you are then left with a D800E with either no body, or the D800 body.

So how does any of this make any sense? Especially since the price difference is $200?

I'm sticking to my foil helmet theory that Nikon messed up on the production line and have concocted this story to lay blame elsewhere.

FYI the price difference is bigger in other regions. Plus man power is cheap in those regions. Plus there may be local service station in on the business.

I've heard rumors about this going on in Beijing since this Spring...maybe it makes sense depending on where you are, just saying.

 

[jonmanjiro]

Actually I'm not buying this at all, all kidding aside.
Nikon only provides spare parts to its authorized repair facilities. They do not provide them to anyone else, which is why it is a really bad idea to buy a grey market model.
The difference in cost between the 800 and 800E is $200.
That is no where a good enough return to make a fake, especially since they have to source the donor body. Then what would they do with that?

Sounds to me like Nikon has/had a problem on their production line and inadvertently put the wrong bodies on the cameras. And now when these are coming in for service they are trying to pass the blame onto the consumers.

Its possible that Nikon just plain screwed up. But $200 is a LOT of money in some parts of the world. I think its far more likely that something illegal went on. Such as someone in the factory that makes the D800E body covers knocked out an extra batch on the side and either sold them to the people who made the fakes or was part of the team. As another poster suggested, a Nikon service station (or one of their repair guys) may have even been in on it. And its pretty straightforward to knock out good copies of the box, user guide, and other paperwork.

fwiw, this 'warning' is nowhere on the Nikon USA website, only found on the UK/Ireland Nikon website.

Here it is on the mother ship's (i.e. Nikon Japan) website:

http://www.nikon-image.com/support/whatsnew/2014/1216_03.html

Edit: and on the Nikon USA website.

https://support.nikonusa.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/19327

 

[Dante_Stella]

I'll put the money on the body covers being made in China, where like with a lot of things, there is "leakage" of parts off the line and "extras" being made after hours. This is a pretty apparent problem with the casings for aftermarket batteries, where you can see that exactly the same injection molds were used for knockoffs (that's not to say that the cells or circuitry are the same - because a lot of the time, they aren't).

Dante

 

[Ronald M]

All they do is change out the part of the cover with the ID printed on it. No extra camera required.

 

[VertovSvilova]

Edit: and on the Nikon USA website.

https://support.nikonusa.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/19327

Thanks for finding that. I initially looked all over and in the correct sections and it wasn't there. And even if I backtrack from your link, it didn't show up (https://support.nikonusa.com/app/answers/list) It's obviously buried there somewhere but not easy to find. I did finally find it but only by searching under 'D800" in the knowledge base Q and A page. It's not anywhere prominent and not under their "service advisories" section, either. Doesn't seem too important to them...

 

[Red Robin]

As nice as the Nikon may be, why not buy a Canon w/o the "warranty" issues?