NPS Archives

Vlogging your next vacation to a National Park for YouTube could land you in jail with criminal charges

Aug 26, 2022 by John Aldred 1 Comment

Well, this is a strange one, but given how things have been going the last few years, maybe not so much. The D.C. Circuit Court has ruled that First Amendment rights no longer apply to filmmaking, sort of. At least, not in National Parks and not if you intend to make even a single penny out of the resulting footage – even if just posting to your own social media.

In 2018, independent filmmaker Gordon Price filmed some scenes in Colonial National Historical Park, Virginia, for his film, Crawford Road. After premiering the film at nearby restaurants, the National Park Service issued him with citations for “commercial filming” in a national park without permits. Several trips to various courts later and the D.C. Circuit Court has ruled 2-1 that any intent to make any money at all from content made on NPS land – even from a single YouTube ad – means you need to pay commercial fees before filming.

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The Nikon gear vault at the Tokyo Olympics shows not a single Z mount mirrorless camera

Jul 27, 2021 by John Aldred 136 Comments

The long-awaited ~~2020~~ 2021 Olympic Games in Tokyo have begun. And as usual, the camera companies are there, too. Back in 2016, we got to take a look inside both the Nikon and Canon gear storage to see what they had available for NPS and CPS shooters at the Rio Olympics. Now, we have a chance to see what Nikon’s brought to Tokyo, courtesy of Vincent Kalut.

Sure, it’s cool to just look at pictures of a room full of gear, but I think a look inside the Nikon camp at this year’s Olympics is quite revealing. From what I can see, there’s not a single Z mount camera or lens in sight. It’s all still F mount, largely appearing to be Nikon D6 bodies. What conclusions can we draw from this?

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Nikon repairs may be invalidating your insurance and future warranty

Aug 31, 2018 by John Aldred 4 Comments

So, this is an interesting one and not something I’ve come across before. But a British photographer we spoke to reports having had serial numbers in his Nikon lenses changed after sending them in to be repaired by Nikon Professional Services in the UK.

He says that Nikon told him they sometimes have to replace the part which contains the serial number. However, this may invalidate your insurance or future warranty when numbers no longer match up. Especially if Nikon isn’t providing any documentation for the new number or even telling you that it has a new one.

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Here’s Nikon’s NPS cache at the Rio2016 games

Aug 10, 2016 by John Aldred 7 Comments

After Getty and Canon, it was only a matter of time before we’d see the inside of Nikon’s NPS facilities at the Rio2016 Olympic Games. As with the others, it’s a pretty immense stockpile of gear.

Of course, with the number of competitors, events and photographers there, it’s not really a surprise. Also, with the amount of gear that will likely be damaged or stolen, they’ll want to keep their pro users happen.

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