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You Can't Always Believe What You Read
Yes, last week's post was an April Fools' joke. I admit it. But the internet is always swirling with new camera rumors and I thought it was about time I took advantage of that fact to make a point: you can't always believe what you read.
I got quite a bit few enquiries about the article. Wednesday came and went and Nikon never announced the new camera. Had something gone wrong? Was there a delay or something? Some people got it of course. Quite a few did in fact, but not all. I tried to write the article such that by the time you got to the end it would be obvious that it was a hoax. It wasn't easy working in that many references to "April," "fools" or some combination thereof. The surname of April Bangusetsu, the Nikon spokesperson, is in fact the Japanese word for April Fools' Day. Even the super secret Gansaku Shashinki Institute where she works was a clue as it roughly translates as "Fake Camera Institute." Some of the technology referenced in the article was real of course, but has little to do with digital camera sensors I'm afraid.
Even without intentionally being a joke though, the internet is full of wild rumors about new cameras from Nikon and just about every other company imaginable. I hear Microsoft and Walt Disney are working on a new camera in fact. Well, not really, but they seem to appear together in quite a few internet hoaxes. Just do a bit of Googling to see for yourself how popular both are in the world of hoaxes. Of course most purported leaks about new cameras and such aren't quite so far from the truth as Microsoft giving away money is or Walt Disney being cryogenically frozen. Many camera rumors are based more on educated (or even uneducated) guesses and wishful thinking than anything else.
All of last week's criticism of the new wonder camera parodied internet controversies involving prior Nikon products. Each was blown way out of proportion in their day yet did serve to drive a lot of traffic to some people's web sites. Sometimes people simply like attention and taking a stab in the dark in order to be the first to post about the next great thing is right up their alley.
At any rate, while there is a lot of excellent information posted on the internet, there's also a lot of questionable information, whatever you attribute the cause to. Don't fall into the trap of believing everything you read online. Go to sources you trust, or at least seek out more than one source to verify any new controversial rumors. Most false information out there isn't meant to do any harm or anything, but it may waste your time and send you on a wild goose chase. There are exceptions though so be careful out there. Don't believe everything you read online or in an email.
But I've got to go now. Seems I'm the winner in a Nigerian lottery and I have to send them my bank account information...
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