Creating a third party accessory!

[butleibb88]

Hi everyone, I’m looking to develop a third party accessory for Canon & Nikon. I’ve tried emailing them with my propositions but so far have had no responses from neither contacts in New Zealand (I’ve tried emailing the international support team but they just told me to contact the local support team). I need to ask them the following questions because this accessory will require the use of the Canon/Nikon DSLR software drivers:

- What are the legal / licensing terms of 3rd parties interfacing with the camera via the USB interface?
- Since the product will be commercialised, what are the legal obligations / process of creating third party products?
- If this is possible i was wondering what kind of documentation / support is possible?

Would anyone know where to being or have had experience in this area?

Many thanks.

 

[Mt Spokane Photography]

Generally, you are on your own. Canon is probably not going to license anything to you, but they will sue you if you infringe on any of their 50,000 or so patents. As far as their SDK, you can view the agreement when you download it, there are several businesses that sell software that makes use of it.

There is a reason why Camera makers avoid getting involved, they want to be able to change their design whenever they have a better one, and not be getting sued for making someone's device or software unusable. Thats why Adobe does their own software, and the third party lens makers are totally independent, they get no help or information.

If you design and sell something, and a week later, a Canon change renders your item non functional, its totally your problem to deal with.