The End of Printed Owner’s Manuals?

Nikon Europe has announced that they will no longer be including printed (complete) owner’s manual with their digital cameras. Instead, freely downloadable .PDFs will take their place.

Printed owner's manuals will still be be available for purchase from the regional Nikon websites. However, they do not appear to be inexpensive. Below is a screenshot from the Nikon UK D750 product page:

Nikon spins this decision as an attempt to achieve a "...reduction in paper resources consumption and of CO2 emissions from transport," but I'm sure there's a decent cost savings associated with not providing a printed manual with the DSLR cameras it sells.

Nikon's decision does make us wonder, on a larger scale, if the days of the printed manual are quickly coming to an end in our ever-evolving digital world. It'll be interesting to see how soon other camera manufacturers jump on this green/cost-savings bandwagon. [Sean]