Blog Post #10

Do You Know Exactly What You Are Buying?

During my working life I spent 45 years in the aviation industry. Many of those years were spent as a Quality Control professional working on both engines with Rolls Royce and airframes with Boeing. During that time I underwent endless training on ensuring the products we made were safe and reliable. One course of training in particular that was very important was the identification of counterfeit components and products. The aviation industry can be a lucrative source of revenue at many levels in the supply chain and as such can be the victim of fraud and deception if the proper controls are not in place. A counterfeit part is an unauthorised copy, imitation, substitute or modified component that has been knowingly misrepresented as a legitimate component from an authorized manufacturer. An estimated 15 percent of all spare and replacement electronic parts purchased by The Pentagon are counterfeit. (Source: Trenton Electronics). In order to combat this counterfeit activity, endless auditing and traceability activities are undertaken on every aspect of products and assemblies to ensure that the components come from reputable sources and have been tested and passed the stringent industry standards.

On one particular course we were shown a covert video taken in back street Chinese stripping houses. These places receive e-waste from all over the world in the form of used circuit boards and devices. Sometimes this activity takes place in factory settings as shown opposite but can also be in a shack or even someone’s house and as you can imagine health and safety is non-existent. The activity often goes under the guise of recovering precious metals such as Gold, Silver, Platinum etc., but also often includes the harvesting of valuable commodities such as micro processors and other electronic components.

These items are then refurbished or rebranded and sold back into the supply chain with falsified certificates of authenticity. As they already have a used life element to them there is no way of telling how far away they are from failing. As you can imagine this could be catastrophic in the aviation and other industries, but there are also implications for the general consumer of household electronic goods.

So what has this got to do with photography I hear you ask? Well quite a lot actually.

Most of today’s photographic equipment is electronics based, from cameras to flash guns, battery grips and sometimes even lenses. Photography is generally seen as requiring high end quality equipment and this requirement as we know doesn’t come cheap. This then opens itself up to the mercy of unscrupulous manufacturers and traders looking to cash in on the photography market.

The first example scenario I will discuss is lets say a counterfeit camera. You go into a shop somewhere abroad as the exchange rate offers great deals on photography equipment. You ask to see lets say a Canon camera that’s on the display shelf, it could be any make. You feel the camera, test it out, fire off a few frames and go for the sale, after all its a bargain! The seller says he will get you a boxed one from the store. He opens the box, shows you its the same camera and next day you fly back home with your “bargain”. Once home you take it out the box and right away something feels different, the quality or weight or just a gut feel. You fire off a few frames and although it works it feels wrong. The box, packaging and instructions all look legitimate but actually what you have in your hand is a copy of the original that you assessed in the shop.

The copy looks just like the real thing but a quick email to the manufacturer to check the serial number or to register the warranty on-line and your suspicions are confirmed. Its a good copy but not what you thought you had purchased. This can happen on-line too on selling sites so beware. What you see is not always what you get.

The second scenario is one where you are browsing reputable selling sites on-line and see a great bargain. The “Membonca” speedlite is on offer at £35 and claims to be as good as, if not better than, its Canon/Nikon etc equivalent. Why pay a fortune when I can have one of these for a fraction of the cost? You buy it and happily start shooting with it and its fine. Over a short period of time the swivel head gets a bit slack and the body of the flash unit heats up quite a lot when in use. It then starts failing electronically, intermittent to start with then all together. You have been sold an inferior product that is most likely been constructed with electronics of dubious provenance as mentioned at the start of this post. Those electronic issues could be causing shorting out on your expensive equipment’s contacts and could cause serious damage to your camera and its internal circuitry that may not be covered by warranty. Is it worth it?

Professional photographer Lee Morris has a great video explaining his experience with fakes on the PetaPixel website. Take a look at it, its only 4 minutes long but is very insightful; https://petapixel.com/2011/09/30/beware-fake-camera-gear-even-when-buying-on-amazon-com/

So has it ever happened to me in the past? Of course it has, we all love a bargain but I am more informed now and would recommend avoiding “bargains” and sticking with reputable suppliers and makes. Another point to consider is that the fake goods industry is often the front and funding source for organised crime. I’m not saying every third party item is junk, or that the equipment from prime suppliers is infallible.

My point is that you have to be careful with the choices you make and the implications they may have. So just be careful out there.

Thank you for reading this blog post, sorry but I don’t include a comments or “Like/Dislike” button. If you want to contact me you can do so by using the “Contact Me” facility in the website header.

Peter Degnan