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D700 and D300S Officially Discontinued


ShunCheung

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<p>The D700 and D300S are now officially discontinued: <a href="http://www.nikon-image.com/products/discontinue/camera/#h301">http://www.nikon-image.com/products/discontinue/camera/#h301</a></p>

<p>Of course that is widly expected as Nikon can no longer sell EN-EL3e-battery-based products in Japan due to new safety regulations. (However, the battery itself is not discontinued.) See this thread: <a href="../nikon-camera-forum/00Zeyx">http://www.photo.net/nikon-camera-forum/00Zeyx</a></p>

<p>As I have mentioned a couple of times, when production resumes at Nikon Thailand's factory (at the same or other locations), I wouldn't expect them to produce any more D300S. However, no replacement for either the D700 or the D300S has been announced at this point, although both are expected in the coming months.</p>

<p>Interestingly, the D3S is not yet listed as discontinued although the D4 is clearly its replacement.</p>

<p> </p>

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<p>We really don't know what will be announced, if anything, on Feb. 7. Two weeks ago they were saying Feb. 6. As for prices of used D700, so far no DSLR has resisted the force of gravity once a new model replaces it. It is of course inevitable that D300s and D700 will be replaced. I would bet at least the D300s would have been replaced last fall if it weren't for the disruptions.</p>

<p>Kent in SD</p>

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<p>Again this is a discontinuation in the Japanese market; it seems Nikon was caught somewhat off guard about the battery situation since they don't appear to have the replacements ready. Otherwise, a normal sequence would be simply to announce the new products and discontinue the old ones when stock is depleted. </p>
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<p>I've yet to see any Nikon DSLR "heavily" discounted when the replacement was announced. At least not the NIB ones. Wait, I take that back - Best Buy - a few years ago was selling new D200's for $600.00 after the D300 was announced, but only because they had something like 15,000 or so to get rid of. </p>

<p>Used markets are totally different - I've seen D700's going for $2,100 and D3's going for $2,200... Go figure that one out. </p>

<p>Dave</p>

 

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<p>Looking into my crystal ball I see long and productive lives for both the D300(s) and the D700 currently in use. We are still seeing excellent photos posted on Photo.Net taken by D100/D200 cameras. Along with many other discontinued models.</p>

<p>I'm having a hard time understanding this fixation on the latest Nikon camera release. Do the old cameras all of a sudden stop working properly? Granted the newer cameras function better at the extremes, but how often do we need that capability?</p>

<p>I have a couple 24" x 36" prints mounted on my office wall taken with my D300 with good glass (17-55 f/2.8 and 70 -200 f/2.9 VR). For the 95% plus of us that don't need the extreme capabilities of the latest and greatest it's more a case of wanting the 'best' whether we need it or not.</p>

<p>I was one of the founders of a local Porsche club years ago. You could not come even close to realizing the capabilities of these machines in the US. It was all about prestige, having the latest and the best. One of the other founders quietly acknowledged that his day-to-day go-to car was his Honda Accord.</p>

<p>My D300 is going to take the same excellent pictures tomorrow that it took yesterday (given the photographer's limitations).</p>

<p>I purchased my first Nikon in 1978, the newly introduced FE. It was my first SLR purchase, period. Back in the film days, was the announcement of a new camera body as eagerly anticipated as it is today? Did the new body drive down the price of the older bodies?</p>

<p>Just curious,<br>

Mark</p>

 

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<blockquote>

<p>Wow! You guys can read Japanese?</p>

</blockquote>

<p>The page title specifies that these are "Old Products." You can use Google tranlate to get a translation. But you also get an idea about what these pages are all about if you pay attention to the URL. There are three pages in total:</p>

<ol>

<li><a href="http://www.nikon-image.com/products/discontinue/camera/">http://www.nikon-image.com/products/discontinue/camera/</a></li>

<li><a href="http://www.nikon-image.com/products/discontinue/lens/">http://www.nikon-image.com/products/discontinue/lens/</a></li>

<li><a href="http://www.nikon-image.com/products/discontinue/others/">http://www.nikon-image.com/products/discontinue/others/</a></li>

</ol>

<p>The "others" page includes discontinued scanners, flashes, etc.</p>

<p>Whether the D700 will have a huge drop in value depends on how the replacement will be like and how much that costs. For example, for still photography, the D4 is not that big an improvement over the D3S. For those who don't care about video capture, the D3S is still fine and therefore will likely hold its value pretty well. However, if there is a massive upgrade from the D700 to its successor, there will be a lot of D700 on the used market and prices will go down quickly. It is simple supply and demand. Without knowing how the D700's successor is like and more importantly, how much it costs, it is hard to guess.</p>

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<p>It seems like the evolution of digital cameras has been at a quicker pace with more innovation and features than previous models. The megapixel race seems to be slowing a bit. The film era camera models were introduced at a slower pace with fewer big impact features. There is a certain element of people that must have the very latest and greatest, whether it may be Nikon bodies or Porsches or houses or boats, and will soon sell these items when the next greatest thing comes along. Good for the rest of us who like to buy the items that are sold used for less than new, most of the time.</p>
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<p>Mark L. Cooper<br>

"I'm having a hard time understanding this fixation on the latest Nikon camera release. Do the old cameras all of a sudden stop working properly? Granted the newer cameras function better at the extremes, but how often do we need that capability?"<br>

the answer my friend, is blowing in the wind...as in provided by yourself, as in:<br>

"I was one of the founders of a local Porsche club years ago. You could not come even close to realizing the capabilities of these machines in the US. It was all about prestige, having the latest and the best. One of the other founders quietly acknowledged that his day-to-day go-to car was his Honda Accord."<br>

which of course reminds me of a porsche ad, oh 30 years or so ago. it went something like (paraphrasing) "if people could really live on real needs alone, we would still be living on bread and water". in a word (make that two), "desire" and "consumerism". <br>

not that hard to figure out, is it? :)</p>

<p> </p>

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<blockquote>

<p><em>"Must scrape all my nickels and dimes to buy the heavily discounted D700..."</em></p>

</blockquote>

<p>I wouldn't count on any deep discounts on <strong>new</strong> D700 bodies. There isn't much inventory in the system to clear out, and the D800 or whatever introductory price will certainly be higher, perhaps quite a bit higher, than the current D700 price.</p>

<p>Same with the D300s ... not a lot of inventory in the system. No incentive to slash prices to clear the remaining stock.</p>

<p>Used prices are sure to drop as the market is temporarily flooded by sellers looking to acquire the latest and greatest.</p>

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<p>Mark L. Cooper:</p>

<p>"I'm having a hard time understanding this fixation on the latest Nikon camera release. Do the old cameras all of a sudden stop working properly? Granted the newer cameras function better at the extremes, but how often do we need that capability?<br>

My D300 is going to take the same excellent pictures tomorrow that it took yesterday (given the photographer's limitations)."<br>

maybe it's just me, but i suspect that the camera you had prior to your D300 still works properly as it used to, unless it got crushed or dunked in salt water...yet...or is it just me :)</p>

<p> </p>

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<p>It's true that the older cameras will still work as well as they do now.</p>

<p>However I would not compare the current DSLR situation with what happened in the past with film cameras.</p>

<p>In the film era a body din't make old ones obsolete as one could produce the exact same quality images from both old and new bodies. New bodies meant more speed, more functions (auto exposure, AF...) but the image quality was never enhanced. Image quality was only dependent of lens and film, and obviously the person pushing the shutter release.</p>

<p>In the current DSLR age camera bodies could be compared to computers with each new generation making the value of the older take a major dip. The reason is that image quality is now tightly dependent of the sensor inside the camera. Yes, the older bodies still produce as good images as they did when new but the new bodies are usually able to outshine this image quality sometimes by a huge margin. In the early days of digital photography it usually meant higher resolution as the jump from 2 Mpix to 5 Mpix, and then to now over 15 Mpix resulted in major improvements. Nowadays the improvements are in higher dynamic range and reduced noise at high ISO and long exposures.</p>

<p>There will be a time when increments will become less obvious as in computers today but I don't think the world of digital photography has reached it yet.</p>

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<p>georges pelpel:<br>

"In the current DSLR age camera bodies could be compared to computers with each new generation making the value of the older take a major dip"<br>

quite so! the software trumps the hardware and vice versa. both empty my pockets of the nickels and of course, the dimes :)</p>

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<p>In this regard, the lack of inventory, due to the disasters in Japan and Thailand , is going to keep the prices up. I wouldn't be surprised if they were on a 10% discount , when the new ones hit the shelves, but that's about all I see them dropping. Will the rumored 36Mpx of the D800 make pictures so much better than the 12Mpx of the D700 that people will be willing to dump them at big loses ? Maybe. That means the USED market could have some good deals. Personally, I would be surprised if the camera was at 36Mpx. I would expect the D3x sensor, at 24Mpx to end up in the D800.</p>
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<p>Yes it would seem right to see the 24 Mpix D3x sensor in the D800 and 36 Mpix seems huge and, may be, a burden for those using older computers.</p>

<p>However I also think the industry is suffering the same ills as the computer industry did ten years ago. They have advertised so much the advantages of high pixels sensors in the last few years that the consumer still regards a higher pixel count as the most important factor to compare a camera to another, same as they did for computers in the past; the higher processor speed was the defining criteria to choose a computer regardless of the processor type.</p>

<p>The Pro market understands that two sensors with the same pixel count may not be equal but I am not sure the consumer market does. My thinking is that Nikon may have realized they lost some sales to Canon and Sony because of that and they are now trying to get ahead in the pixel war.</p>

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