If you’ve read this blog for any time at all, you know by now that I often write these posts either late at night, or really early in the morning. You also know that it’s not unusal for my posts to have typos, mistakes, and other mishaps that occur when you write blog posts when you’re really sleepy (by the way, my mistakes aren’t just limited to those two times; I make mistakes all day long).
Anyway, last week on my blog, in a December 23rd post about location shooting with the Lastolite EZYBox, I mistakenly called my Nikon 14-24mm lens a “VR” lens (which it is not). Now, generally when I make a mistake like that, one of my readers will usually post something like, “Hey Scott, there’s a typo in your post. That lens isn’t a VR” and then I’ll usually post back saying, “Hey, thanks for catching that” and I go and change it. It’s happened dozens of times.
Well, this time the guy who pointed out my error, added “Is this something they custom made for you?” (knowing it was not). He was kind of being a smart $#% with this “Is this something they custom made for you” comment, so I thought I’d be a little one back, and added this comment, “Actually, it is a special custom-made version of the 14-24mm Nikon made for me with the VR added (this model isn’t available to the general public, but may be in the future). Happy Holidays! -Scott. I never dreamed that anyone would take me seriously (especially since this wasn’t a blog post—it was just a comment about a post).
Well, my comment turned out to be an even bigger mistake than accidentally saying it was a VR in the first place, because a Nikon rumors site picked up on it, and ran a post called “Is Scott Kelby kidding” which started a long debate about the lens existence (Maybe they actually made it for me, and I slipped up, etc.) and whether wide angles lenses would even need VR, and so on. Then it was picked up over in the forums over at DPReview.com, and the next thing I know I get a call from Nikon because they are getting calls from people who want this new VR lens, which obviously doesn’t exist.
Now, right when all this happened (last week), I went to both site’s forums and immediately posted a comment saying it was my mistake, and my reply was totally a joke, and that there is no 14-24mm VR lens from Nikon; they didn’t custom make one for me (as if), and so on.
So, I’m sorry to Nikon for the trouble, and to anyone who spent more than 30-seconds debating on forums about this. I’m even sorry to the guy I was a smart #%$ to. Totally my fault, and don’t worry—I won’t do anything like that again.
Note: Photo above courtesy of NIkon USA
