Backward compatibility

I'm one of those awkward so-and-so's that has hung on to my old Nikon FM2, as well as having a couple of more modern DSLRs.

Some of the older Nikon primes, particularly the wider angle ones, were limited to a maximum aperture setting of f/2.8. although these new lenses offer the prospect of much shallower DoF (and my 24mm f/2.8 has plenty of available DoF even at f/4), the lack of an aperture ring means I'm not going to be able to use the full capability of the lens on my FM2.

It's beginning to look as if I'm going to have to have two sets of lenses, depending on the body I use to shoot with. I still find my FM2 wonderful for just wandering around with one or two rolls, as it's lighter and smaller than current DSLR offerings, and the optical quality is still competitive.

saving the planet?

"↓10↑: Lead-free RoHS solder used so that tin "whiskers" will grow after about ten years, ensuring that its circuitry is unrepairable, thus a 10-year expected life before being thrown away as unrepairable"

So, as this tiny paragraph inserted in a recent 24-85mm VR Nikon lens review states, all of the equipment Nikon are making and selling now with this arrowed 10 logo on it is deliberately designed and produced to fail to function at all after about 10 years.(like the Nexus 6 Replicants in Scott's Blade Runner).

That includes your D800 and D800E bodies and the 14-24mm f2.8, the 24-70mm f2.8G, and the 70-200mm f2.8 VRII.

You will have to buy replacements again and again and again, even though if you have good copies of these lenses, and if your D800 works OK, you should not now ever need to replace them at all, and they should be repairable.

They are not. Nikon using the lead-free environmental lobby to its advantage, has just made sure of this, if you use their equipment.

Surely as nobody knew until Ken Rockwell rightly blew the whistle, we are all entitled to a refund of the money wasted on gear we wrongly believed would not need replacing at all?

If you would care to imagine the environmental damage Nikon's move will cause worldwide if adopted by, Apple and Blackberry and Canon and Dell, perhaps we really do need to be thinking about the world these lenses are recording.

How will our quality of life be affected by this, and will manufacturers buy back and recycle to ensure their product does not damage Earth far more than a little bit of lead in some solder?