Nikon=$$$$

[T. Adams]

I feel for you guys who shoot Nikon, the prices are ridiculous. They just announced the price of the new 300mm f/2.8 VR at around $4800.

That's about $1,100 more than the Canon equvilalent, and Canon's came out in July of '99. Nothing like being almost 6 yrs. behind the party. It must be the diehard Nikon guys who keep them in business, and all the Coolpix cameras they sell. I really don't see how they do it.

[AAFO_WSagar]

Re: Nikon=$$$$

Tim,

Is that street price or Nikon's advertised price? B&H curently has the Canon version for $ 3,899.95 and you're right, that's about $1100 more than the Nikon counterpart. Do you know what Canon's published price is though? It's likely closer to Nikon's... that, plus, if they had this lens out for this amount of time, prices do drop with time..

Anyway, Canon, Nikon, Ford, Chevy... Canon may well currently have better stuff out there at any price. Canon can move a bit quicker than Nikon, having a bigger R&D budget... but Nikon will soldier along, lose a few, gain a few users.

I'm reasonably happy being a Nikon shooter. I like the ergo of the N over the C cameras, I'm happy with both the camera and MP size of the D2H. It's hard enough to keep up with images in the 6mb range, three times that and I'd be buying more cards, more hard drives and some new kind of onsite storage device to keep up..

I can get as large a print as I need with the 2H... so I'm OK with it..

Now.. about that drastic price drop Nikon just recently had on the D2H! Less than a year ago, I paid $3400. for mine, I can now go have a brand new one for just under $2000. Which, for my money, is the BEST buy in a VERY LONG TIME for a DSLR camera..

If one is a Nikon shooter, getting this camera for that amount of money is simply an amazing opportunity, nothing else is even close to it at that price.

Sure, it killed the resale value of both my D2H and my D1, driving both together to less than what I just paid for the 2H.. but.. what to heck, I'd probably not have sold it anyway, It's on plastic, so I only feel the expense once a month at card payment time

Can't undo the deed... can't afford the new Nikon lens, at ANY price so, what to heckamIgonnado...

[T. Adams]

Re: Nikon=$$$$

The MSRP of the Nikon is $5,999.00, don't know what the MSRP of the Canon was. The $4,800 was arrived at on another forum doing a conversion from another currency. So it is a ball park figure. As for B&H, I would buy the grey market version for $3749 if I had the money. Canon does not really have much of an issue servicing grey market stuff, where from what I have heard Nikon does have serious issues with grey market stuff. I agree the D2H is a hell of a deal if you already have a nice investment in Nikon glass, because if you swich systems, either way your going to lose money.

Comparing both lenses though is basically an apples to apples comparison, there is just no excuse for the price difference.

I just hope that this year Canon announces a 200-400 f/4L IS, this would be an absolute killer lense. Canon has nothing that can touch Nikon's 200-400 f/4 VR. At least if Canon does make this lense I can count on it being a whole lot cheaper than the Nikon version.

[Pylon1_Mark]

Re: Nikon=$$$$

I shoot Nikon - always have, always will. It's never been a price thing - it's more of a quality issue. When I was looking at buying a rig for the first time - it was the old plastic Cannon stuff or the rugged steel & glass Nikon. Wasn't a hard choice. Nowadays with Cannon using Magnesium alloys - it's a whole different thing (however they still rely on less glass then the Nikor lenses). Still, I don't have any regrets. I have my 28-300 zoom for the pits and the 80-400 VR lense for the distant stuff. f45.5 to 5.6 is more then adaquate for fair weather days - the really fast glass isn't needed at Reno... flat light and gray skies makes for unimpressive photos.

Reguardless - it's not the equipment that makes or breaks the shot... it's composition and color saturation, neither of which can be bought at any price. It's all in location & the shooter my friend

But I digress... yes, that is a heafty price. I'm sure the market and supply & demand will rear it's head and in time, the price will come down to a more reasonable level. Having the latest & greatest offrering from whatever manufacture has always been a very expensive proposition.