D2H and 12-24/4 lens availability

Are there any reliable sources out there that know for sure when

the D2H and the 12-24/4 zoom lens will be available? I can't get

a straight answer from anyone.

We're using a D2H that we recieved last week. Don't know about the 12-24/4 though.

I bought two 12-24/4 lenses in the last year at different times. Plunk your money down and wait in line. The demand rate is greater than the production quantities so units go to dealers based on pre-paid orders.

My store has at least one 12-24mm lens in stock and one crispy D2h in stock. We've had 12-24mms on the shelf to sell for several months (I bought mine two months ago). I think the D2h we have for sale is the third one we've received.

I'm sorry, I was distracted. To finish my thought, find a smaller Nikon Professional Dealer in your area. The deal is that all Nikon Pro Dealers get a reasonable distribution of all products. So, you may find smaller dealers who don't have hords of customers waiting to drop $3K on a 4MP camera, with D2hs for sale.

Barry's in Lafayette, IN has at least one--most likely because L-town isn't the kickin' place to be if you're a professional photog in need of wide-angle digital images. I agree with Eric--check the small places, although often the prices are a little higher.

Well, I think my store's price on the D2h is currently $3,099. B&H currently lists the camera at $3,199, and naturally doesn't have product.

 

Understand how this works. We have to order a ton of D2hs from Nikon to get even a few trickling in. We don't set our prices too high, because with Nikon, its mostly feast or famine. We have to be competitive and move D2hs, because next week, Nikon could clear its backorders and ship us a dozen or more D2hs.

 

As to whether prices are higher in smaller stores. We match any competitor's price in Chicago- Helix, Central, Calumet, etc.- ASSUMING the competitor is actually selling product at a lower price.

 

What gripes me is when we have a price that is $50 higher than a big competitor on a new, expensive Nikon lens. A customer points this out and I ask why the customer didn't buy the lens from the competitor.

 

The response is that the competitor didn't have the lens in stock. At which point, my reply is that our price is $50 below the competitor's imaginary price when we don't have the lens in stock.

12-24mm sitting on the shelf in Ritz Camera in Ontario, CA at the Ontario Mills mall. Go get it.

 

D2H is in stock and ready to ship at Silvio's in Torrance, CA.

I was shooting i nthe state capiol buikding the other day and there awas a

pressconfereence going on. Six months ago at least half of the photographers would

have had Canon gear. Now only one had Canon gear and the rest (about eight) all had

D2H bodies except for one guy with a D1X.

 

Mark Seliger has a spread in GQ ithis month from the October fashion show in PAris.

Among the pix that are not set ups is a shot of the fashion photographers at at one

end of the cat walk. About a dozen Nikon D2H and D1X bodies and only 4 Canon

shooters (judged by counting Nikon logos and looking forthe long white barrels of

the EOS lenses.)

Thanks everyone for your input. I had been trying to buy from

B&H, Adorama or the local Wolf (read: Ritz) Camera stores with

absolutely no luck. Eric, I will try to contact you direct and see if

you can sell me one. Thanks!

Ebay Item number 2979664552 seems to be what you are looking for?

I just did a simple ebay search and came up with this Buy It Now zoom from a reputable dealer who offers a full 5yr warantee. How Cool Is That? Charge it & Have it next week... Lindy

Ellis, your observation is correct. I think most pros who work every day with 35mm SLRs and 35mm-like DSLRs have an affinity for Nikon, as Nikon has Nikon Pro Services and is better at responding to pros' needs than Canon. Also, Nikon has dug itself out of two holes by: a. offering what is now arguably the best DSLR for press shooting- the D2h- and b. by finally having a range of available lenses with internal motors- an issue that, for years, annoyed press photogs I know who shoot sports and other fast-moving-subject genres- particularly with longer lenses.

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The thing is that Nikon fills big orders first- e.g. if the Chicago Tribune, N.Y.T. or L.A.T. orders two or four dozen bodies, these orders are going to get filled before retailers have product to sell to the general public. And Nikon does a huge amount of this institutional business.

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Because Nikon is pro-centric, when a pro-level Nikon product is introduced, it takes longer for it to hit the shelves. That Nikon lacks Canon's enormous production capacity doesn't help the situation.

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So, while there may be D2hs a-plenty gracing the fashion shows in Paris and Milan and major press conferences in the U.S., the working pro who doesn't get a paycheck from a major paper or magazine may have to make some calls to find a D2h for sale off the beaten path. For me, this has rarely been a problem, as I don't make a living with cameras, like you, and can pretty much wait for a given Nikon product to become available.

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<I>NYT and LAT are apparently the New York Times and Los Angeles Times newspapers. -- Shun</I>

Ellis, purely out of curiousity as an amateur, and no practical reason, that kind of sudden shift in gear over 6 months or so represents a very considerable retooling expense on the part of the organizations represented or the independent pros present.

 

I guess the conclusion would be that as the relevant parties switched from film to digital, Nikon offered the overwhelmingly preferred cameras/technology relative to Canon, in which, presumably, the previous majority had invested heavily in terms of lenses?

 

Reading a bit more between the lines then, the outfits and photogs were basically looking at buying EOS1Vs or choosing from Nikon D1x,D1H or D2H?

 

Just curious, that's all...