Price Wars and Closeouts

I tried reading tea leaves to divine the significance of this, alas, to no avail. B&H has dropped the price of the Canon 5D Mark II to a mere $1999.95, its lowest price ever. (Plus, note the freebies thrown in.) Does that mean B&H and some other purveyor are contending to see who can offer the lowest price? Does it mean the Canon 5D Mark III is closer than its rumored introduction at Photokina 2012 in September, and the Mark II is entering a closeout phase? Canonistas might have opinions; the tea leaves are silent.

But speaking of closeouts, the Canon S95, extremely popular during its brief lifetime, is on closeout, for $299.95. That's because it's been replaced by the $430 S100 that's out of stock virtually everywhere (unless you want to pay jacked-up prices). But there's nothing wrong with the S95. That's what the tea leaves said.

The elves at B&H tell me they also just received (today) their very first shipment of the brand spankin' new Nikon SB-910 Speedlight.

Mike

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Original contents copyright 2011 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved.

Comments

[John Krumm]

The S95 might even be better than the S100, at least according to some early results with a few bodies at DPR that all seemed to suffer from slightly miss-aligned lenses (although he stressed that it would be hard to tell in everyday shots).

[John Camp]

Thom Hogan on his blog says that sometime "early" in 2012 we're going to have FF body updates from both Canon and Nikon.

[Rob Atkins]

The 5D MkII has been just under $2000 for a while now here in Canada. Ouch. For what I spent on a Nikon D3S I could have got two Canons, an iPad and a fancy little teapot.

I suspect the MkIII is just around the corner.

[Tom Swoboda]

The Canon Direct Store online has reduced the price of the refurbished 5D MkII to $1699 but are currently out of stock. Stock of the refurbished 5D MkII has always been spotty. You just have to keep checking in every day to land one.

[Zach]

The S100 zoom scratches that 24mm-equivalent itch.

(Still no relief in sight for u4/3..)

[Roger Botting]

Oh, to be first in line

[Bill Bresler]

$550 for a shoe mount flash... Yow. Last week I shot a small freelance gig, your typical holiday gathering of 150 guys in dark suits. I brought an sb-800 and an sb-600. Because I am executive director of the Department of Redundancy Department, I also threw an old Vivitar 283 with that nifty sensor extension cord into the bag. About halfway through the evening I connected the Vivitar to the D-300 and shot a few frames (or files, or whatever) I was really surprised at how good those shots turned out. Not only was the shot-to-shot exposure more consistant, the light just had a more pleasing quality to it. Not bad at all for late 70s technology.

[Robert Harshman]

Thanks Mike!

Just ordered one, through your site of course!

Very good price, odd bundle, have no idea what the Red Giant video B&H bundle will be, but I guess I'll see in a few days.

And thanks to Tom for pointing out the Canon direct site refurbished sales. So much more reasonable than the Nikon site (yes I use both vendors) where Nikon has refurbished D300 for almost $1,800 and D300s for about$1,500 - both way overpriced for what you can get them for on eBay or Craigslists, but WTF, almost $300 dollars more for an older model?

Cheers,

Robert

[Cass Roads]

Not sure the significance of the 5d mk ii pricing either but my local (Canadian) brick & mortar stores have had the 5d ii at $1999 for months now. D700 is staying steady at $2299 though.

[Tom K.]

I just bought this camera through this link. Great deal.