Feb 2, 2012, 21:46
The pattern that I've seen:
Discontinued & excessive inventory -> price goes down.
Discontinued & limited inventory -> price remains stable.
The only cameras that I've seen be discontinued without a successor (before now) was the Sony A700, A850, and A900. Those had all faded away from the market before they were officially discontinued, though.
There's essentially zero inventory of new D300s and D700 cameras in the stores where I am. The D300s has been so obviously at the end of its service life, and had such low demand, that it was essentially out of the stores six months ago. Its pricing has been moot for some time.
The D700 (and D3 family) have had spotty availability since last spring, and if you walked into a camera store with cash in hand you'd still have a hard time buying one. The D700 price will undoubtedly remain stable, but probably not increase.
When the replacements do eventually come they'll reset the prices. The D700 was a $2800 camera when it first came out, and the next baby FX camera is likely to be the same. That makes $2300 for a D700 look like a pretty good deal. The same thing has already been played out with the D4/D3s - $4700 seems cheap next to $6300. And by the time the new model has ended its Early Adopter Special pricing, all of the stock for the old model will be long gone.
Discontinued & excessive inventory -> price goes down.
Discontinued & limited inventory -> price remains stable.
The only cameras that I've seen be discontinued without a successor (before now) was the Sony A700, A850, and A900. Those had all faded away from the market before they were officially discontinued, though.
There's essentially zero inventory of new D300s and D700 cameras in the stores where I am. The D300s has been so obviously at the end of its service life, and had such low demand, that it was essentially out of the stores six months ago. Its pricing has been moot for some time.
The D700 (and D3 family) have had spotty availability since last spring, and if you walked into a camera store with cash in hand you'd still have a hard time buying one. The D700 price will undoubtedly remain stable, but probably not increase.
When the replacements do eventually come they'll reset the prices. The D700 was a $2800 camera when it first came out, and the next baby FX camera is likely to be the same. That makes $2300 for a D700 look like a pretty good deal. The same thing has already been played out with the D4/D3s - $4700 seems cheap next to $6300. And by the time the new model has ended its Early Adopter Special pricing, all of the stock for the old model will be long gone.
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