Nikon self-service repair program website lists but 3 products while spares hide elsewhere

The right-to-repair movement has gained a lot of traction in recent years, thanks to advocates like Louis Rossmann and organisations like iFixit bringing to light how tech companies push against DIY and third-party repair. Nikon, however, is going against the grain, recently launching a self-service repair program and website for its camera and optical gear — at least, it wants to be.

While Nikon launched the self-service repair program late last month, it only just officially launched the self-service repair program's website, where it will host repair manuals, spare parts, and tools needed to perform repairs to your Nikon photography and outdoor optical gear.

All of that would be a massive win in the eyes of anyone following the right-to-repair movement, however, at the time of writing, Nikon bafflingly only lists three products on its self-service repair website. To make matters worse, there are no actual replacement parts or tools where the site directs you to find them. For both the Nikkor Z 28–400 mm f/4–8 VR lens and the two Coolshot laser rangefinders, Nikon only has repair manuals available for download.

To be fair, Nikon has not actually made any announcements about the self-service repair program, so it might still be a work in progress. There are also affordable replacement parts listed in the “Parts” menu on the parts.nikonusa.com site, although they are uncategorised, so you need to know the exact part number before you can find it. That page also only lists a total of 54 replacement parts, which is far from a complete repair catalogue.

The repair manuals that are available are also rather thorough and comprehensive, which is a good start, but it doesn't help all that much when it's difficult or impossible to find the necessary parts.

It seems as though the idea is to grow the self-service repair catalogue over time, but it remains to be seen how Nikon's self-service repair program plays out, and whether or not it turns out to be a very expensive publicity stunt, like Samsung's now-terminated iFixit partnership seems to have been.

You can grab a retro-inspired Nikon Zf on Amazon for $1,996.95. Alternatively, the OM System OM-5 is just $999 from Amazon.

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