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1. Flake, I can't imagine why you'd be sitting around reading a camera manual. Why torment yourself? Go out, watch a sunset, have a beer. Be gentle with yourself, as a philosopher once advised.
2. Litigation is the cause of this nonsense. Akio Morita, cofounder of Sony Corp. devoted a whole chapter to this travesty in his 1986 book, "Made In Japan." Here's the first paragraph of that chapter:
"I once complained to an American friend that it was becoming difficult to find anything actually made in the United States these days, and he said, 'Why don't you take some of our lawyers, a genuine Made in America product!' We both laughed over the joke, but it isn't really funny."
And 26 years later, none of us are laughing. With Canon, as with every major corporation, not a single official word leaks out that is not vetted by lawyers. When I went to work for a national trade association in Washington, DC in 1984 we had a "staff attorney." When I left 10 years later we used an entire floor of our eight-story building to house the legal department. Perhaps, as Shakespeare suggested, we should kill all the lawyers!
3. Many Americans (people in the U.S. that is) are fat. I think stats now say a third are officially "obese." And all you have to do is look at the failing educational systems, the dysfunctional political system and the crumbling infrastructure to realize as a whole, the people really are dumber than dirt. However, it's dangerous to say such things. This country of the fat, dumb and fearful is armed to the damned teeth and has global reach -- over 1000 military installations worldwide, satellites, drones and a president who sits in his office looking at lists of people he decides will or won't be killed in any part of the world. Just a word to the wise -- my lawyers made me say that!
Anyway, I'll get the 5D3 this month. First thing I'm going to do is burn the manual (after getting the necessary environmental permits, of course).
