kanuck said:
I was quite impressed when Nikon released the statement that they would not consider importing inferior glass from China to use in their future lens production.

+1. If they had long delays in production before their current problems, doesn't bode well for our chances now. Absolutely the right decision to not allow their standards to lower, but let's not forget the bigger picture here people, an awful lot of families out there would love to only have the problem of worrying where their next lens is coming from! "Count your many blessings, name them one by one"!

kanuck said:
I was quite impressed when Nikon released the statement that they would not consider importing inferior glass from China to use in their future lens production.

Agreed! But the question remains how much production will be moved to other sites and what could that cause as they re-set up production? Short term issues but...

I was quite impressed when Nikon released the statement that they would not consider importing inferior glass from China to use in their future lens production.

bjrichus said:
Oh crap!!! Meant the AF-S DX VR 55-200mm f/4-5.6G lens. I was looking at something else with a friend today and that stuck in my mind as what I saw!

Too much booze (and ever advancing years) must be getting to me!!! LOL!

Haha, that's alright. Sounds like a nice pro DX lens actually. :D

casperwb said:
Imagine lying on your back, on the floor, in the bar ... send us some shots.

Doubles? Was that a Jack Daniels or something a little smoother?

:)

bjrichus said:
Oh crap!!! Meant the AF-S DX VR 55-200mm f/4-5.6G lens. I was looking at something else with a friend today and that stuck in my mind as what I saw!

Too much booze (and ever advancing years) must be getting to me!!! LOL!

you have that wrong BJ, booze clears the mind, steadies the hands and gives better perspective for using your Nikon.

Imagine lying on your back, on the floor, in the bar and taking pictures of everyone who walks by, it would be very different view point and a good reason to buy new camera equipment.

send us some shots.

NSXType-R said:
What is this mythical 70-200 f/3.5 you speak of? :D

Oh crap!!! Meant the AF-S DX VR 55-200mm f/4-5.6G lens. I was looking at something else with a friend today and that stuck in my mind as what I saw!

Too much booze (and ever advancing years) must be getting to me!!! LOL!

Maybe bjrichus is thinking of the 55-300mm F4.5-5.6G VR?

bjrichus said:
They had a 70-300 DX VR1 (not the VR2) zoom used at $489.

Huh??? 70-300 DX? There has only been one 70-300mm - FX - VRI. There has not been a second release. 55-200mm is DX and has also only one VR release.

Everything that is made outside of Japan normally, will probably ship normally and is in stock. I don't think that surprises anyone. Those of us who are perusing FX gear will be left wanting for probably 12 months before things start to get back to normal.

NSXType-R said:
What is this mythical 70-200 f/3.5 you speak of? :D

I would guess that it is the 55-200 as BJ said it was DX.

i'm more concerned about FX sensor availability more than anything. . .

What is this mythical 70-200 f/3.5 you speak of? :D

I went to my local (full price) Nikon dealer (NOT Ritz/Wolf/Worst-buy) and took a look at what they had in stock.

They had:

*LOTS* (perhaps a dozen?) D7000/lens kits @ MSRP.
*MOST* of the Coolpix cameras @ MSRP or small discounts.
*SOME* extra DX lenses of the most popular types (i.e. 70-200 f3.5).
*SOME* of the usual other usual bodies (2 x D3100 and 1 x D5000 body).
*NONE* *ZERO* *NADA* Nikon FX gear in (except rental) stock.

None of this gear was at anything less than MSRP.

The did NOT have any other new lenses.

The estimate for D5100 bodies being in stock was 6 weeks (where did that estimate come from? The manager because the weekend help didn't know - and I suspect the 'manager' doesn't really know either with that reply).

They had a 70-300 DX VR1 (not the VR2) zoom used at $489. A few other odds and ends but VERY LITTLE used gear at all for any brand. The case the normally put used gear in was 80% empty and it's usually mostly full...

My guess here is that if you want something and can't get it online, forget it for a few months.

As the cops say: "Move on. Nothing to see here" - literally.

I'm not sure about anyone else, but I don't "rush out and buy" $1,500+ items of anything. Some may be doing planned purchases earlier.

Most shops I have dealt with have A (one)lens on hand or maybe two and you can try it and then you order one so it is a "new" not demo one. I do believe most keep very little stock on hand, and once sold, they order a replacements. For the higher $ items companies just don't mass produce 1,000 of lenses after the initial release anymore. It works well until there is a major disaster.

A lot of stuff was out of stock prior to the quake. I bought the 14-24 and 70-200 along with a D7000 on March 4th. I was going to order through B&H as I have ordered a lot through them and have always been very happy with them. They were out of all three items the full week leading up to the order. I ended up calling Adorama and ordering from them (I was very happy with their service as well). They happened to have them in stock at that time.

I quite watching after the earthquake, but B&H never had those items back in stock to that point. So things were already thin in the supply chain to begin with for the top lenses. I'm sure when the quake occurred, the vendors realized that they had their stock hand and what was already in transit and that might be it for months.

So most raised prices to MSRP. That makes sense to me and actually benefits the pros as it would keep hobbyists like me from ordering, leaving the limited supplies to those who earn their living with the stuff. Not a bad outcome.

So is the stock and price issue like a circle of cause and effect with no real connection to the disaster at this point? Are people rushing to buy stuff before prices rise and stock runs out, therefore driving prices up and depleting stock long before the disaster actually has any economic effect? ...or am I way off? I don't understand economics.

smarterchild said:
Ultra- I would suggest jumping on that now while supplies last. No one will know what will happen the next few months in the market of nikon products.

Well, I was going to take your advice (or rather use it as a weak excuse to do what I wanted to do anyway, haha) and buy the 24-70. Long story short it turns out my debit card has a spending limit. Oh well. I should have that fixed tomorrow and be good to go - as long as B&H doesn't run out of 24-70 stock in the next 28 hours.

@bjrichus

"you can't (legally) now sneak stuff past TSA!! LOL!!"

This was long before there was a TSA (and had nothing to do with air travel). ;-)

I would love to be working now with all the advanced gear. It would be so much easier than toting what I carried.

My guess is that working folks are still carrying a lot, just because. The bigger the organization, the faster and bulkier the lenses.

My best,

Mike

Mike Gunter said:
@bjrichus

For my news work I carried ...

Mike - you can't (legally) now sneak stuff past TSA!! LOL!!

"LEGALLY" ....

Not that I'm going to try.... HONEST!!

@bjrichus

For my news work I carried an Olympus P&S in my pocket for years. I can't remember the model but it had a flash that screwed into the body and the whole thing fit into a coat pocket easily.

In pre-terrorist worries security, I could check my cameras at some locations and walk in with my Olympus camera in my coat and get the picture. ;-)

My best,

Mike

SkintBrit said:
I've just got an opportunity to get a good vantage point outside the cathedral in London on royal wedding day. Can I find any rental firm with stock of 400/500/600mm lenses for the 29th.......Nope, and I don't feel like splashing £6000 even if I had the money and could find someone with one in stock. Looks like I'll have to give this one a miss :-(

Ouch!

I hope that is one you weren't counting on.

Were you looking to add some photos to stock? It sounds like a possible rainmaker for a lot of folks.

My best,

Mike

SkintBrit said:
Hehe bjrichus, yes you have a point. I could buy quite a few super zooms for the price of a 400 2.8, I could even nearly buy one for the rental cost! :-). The other option I have, because as you say it should be light (even if it is pouring down with rain) is to use my 70-300 4.5-5.6 VR and shoot in DX crop on my FF bodies. This would give me a 450mm, all be it at 5MP. I'm not sure that will be long enough though, and I don't think I can use TC's with it. I'll have to do a rece'e and see exactly how far away I would be. Thanks for your input my friend.

My Pleasure.

The 70-300 in DX mode might work, I have certainly done that kind of thing before.

If you are worried about the distance, the P500 zoom range is: "4.0-144.0mm (angle of view equivalent to that of 22.5-810mm lens in 35mm [135] format)" according to the Nikon web site.

Even at f5.7 at 160ISO (it's fastest aperture and slowest speed for finest detail) and longest zoom (810mm) at 10 or 12MP when on a mono or tripod should let you get in close enough to capture most of the wrinkles for a 10x8 print from a second floor balcony down to London street level.

Hehe bjrichus, yes you have a point. I could buy quite a few super zooms for the price of a 400 2.8, I could even nearly buy one for the rental cost! :-). The other option I have, because as you say it should be light (even if it is pouring down with rain) is to use my 70-300 4.5-5.6 VR and shoot in DX crop on my FF bodies. This would give me a 450mm, all be it at 5MP. I'm not sure that will be long enough though, and I don't think I can use TC's with it. I'll have to do a rece'e and see exactly how far away I would be. Thanks for your input my friend.

SkintBrit said:
I've just got an opportunity to get a good vantage point outside the cathedral in London on royal wedding day. Can I find any rental firm with stock of 400/500/600mm lenses for the 29th.......Nope, and I don't feel like splashing £6000 even if I had the money and could find someone with one in stock. Looks like I'll have to give this one a miss :-(

It'll be daylight, so do I sense a teleconverter on a 200mm in your future?

I know it's not as good, nowhere near as good in fact, but at a pinch...

As I was typing that, the thought occurred to me is that yesterday I had to resort to using my P&S to get a shot as I was away from my SLR gear. I happened to see the ideal portrait for someone... I had to use a couple of filters in CS5 to sharpen and de-noise it, but it works!

Now, I know its really scraping the barrel, but Nikon do make some very affordable super-zoom bridge cameras and 400mm is certainly reasonable if the light is good... So it doesn't *LOOK* like you using a pro camera (of course you are NOT), but to get acceptable (but not outstanding) results and for just a few hundred quid you are all set...

Ok... I know... I'll go and hide in the corner for the rest of the day now :)

Mike Gunter said:
I hope everyone has what they need to do their job(s) they have coming up

I've just got an opportunity to get a good vantage point outside the cathedral in London on royal wedding day. Can I find any rental firm with stock of 400/500/600mm lenses for the 29th.......Nope, and I don't feel like splashing £6000 even if I had the money and could find someone with one in stock. Looks like I'll have to give this one a miss :-(

Hey smarterchild I'm with you there I have been saving for the D800 since Christmas 2010 and I'm ready to go. I really think it was going to come out this August but with the disaster in Japan who knows now...