Anyone who thinks that I'm crying about a $2 piece of plastic has missed the point entirely. My point is not that I now need to buy one and I'm simply bitching about it. My point is about understanding what the decision to remove a protective accessory from their two most expensive pro-sumer level camera kits (D810 and D750), after including it for decades as a part of every kit they've sold, means in the big picture. Follow me into the weeds for a minute, because I'm coming back out the other end...
There's a reason it was there in the first place, even if it was simply to be discarded into a drawer or even the garbage, and some photographers use it and value it (like I said, I was pissed when I lost mine in the weeds in a rare need to use a flash). To selectively omit it with no explanation, while continuing to offer it as an optional accessory, speaks of nickel and dime-ing your customers - at least it does in my book. It also tells me that the company who makes equipment that I have invested somewhere well north of $10,000 in over the last 5 years (I truly don't want to add up the real numbers) no longer gives a rats ass about me and my needs as a photographer, and are expressing their contempt in a rather arbitrary way.
I don't care if Canon never offered them - Nikon did.
I don't care that I can buy 10 for $2 on eBay, or even grab an unused one for free from a guy at a local photo club - I didn't used to have to think about it.
I don't care that 99% of people who don't use them never have an issue with damage to their hot shoe - 100% who do use it can likely boast the same thing.
It's not about the plastic, it's about the message!!
When I unpacked my D750 the only things I removed from the box were the body (with body cap, that got thrown in a drawer) and the battery. The disk with an incredibly antiquated version of their editing software, user manuals in 2 languages, USB cable, strap, battery charger and that ridiculous eye-piece cover are still in box and will be there for all eternity most likely. I suspect this is the case with at least 1/2 of the folks buying the thing (though some may actually open the paper copy of the book in their language). If I actually want the software I'm more than likely going to have to download the latest version of it anyway (dollars to donuts the version on the CD/DVD doesn't support the D750), so why spend the money to produce and package a disc (that I actually cannot even insert into my Macintosh)?! If it's a money thing then there's so many less used things they could have omitted and didn't. I just find it extremely perplexing and wonder if it had more to do with the cost of the pair of hands necessary to insert it during assembly than the cost of the part - and if it was, put it in the damn bag with the eye piece cover. It's a single, seemingly arbitrary omission of one accessory in an otherwise unchanged DSLR package - but one that sells for over two-thousand dollars!!
If I didn't love their cameras so much I'd start thinking seriously about whether or not to invest another penny in their equipment because after fighting with them at the front of the D600, while simultaneously defending them for what others claimed was known negligence, losing access to a new camera for 2 of the first 5 months of ownership, I'm starting to believe that perhaps their detractors are right. When you start cutting corners it becomes hard to stop, and this $2 cut-corner speaks volumes to me. And that is what I'm pissed about. It's an extended middle finger from a company I support with my wallet, and have likely received and ignored in the past. But not any more. And because I love their cameras walking away quietly is not an option - hell, it's not an option in any avenue of my life. Too many people get pissed, hurt or offended by something and simply walk away without ever calling someone on it - as if saying something would be the greater offense. I've never done that, and won't start here. So I hope Nikon is listening. The dominoes are falling and we're all starting to notice. Some companies get away with polishing a turd and selling it as gold. I don't buy from them. But neither do I want to buy from a company that hides a diamond in a pile of dung. So stop f-cking up, Nikon. It doesn't suit you.
