Those are just some of the email I received in the past few days on the Nikon D700 availability around the world. I also got some conflicting info that a fresh D700 shipment is expected in Germany in 2 weeks. Here is the rest:
“I work at *** and the D700 is listed in our inventory program as “Soon to be discontinued, short supply”. Thought I could let you know since it seems the same thing is happening in Germany. I will check on Tuesday if I can order it at all, I’m guessing I can but this message usually means we are down to our chains inventory warehouse and when we use that up its done.”
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“I travel a lot with work so often wander into the Dixon Store to see what gadgets are there to play with. I asked if they had a D700 I could have a look at, unfortunately they didn’t and a check on the stock levels of the Terminal 3 store, all national Curry Stores (the high street sister brand to Dixon’s) and the Dixons Warehouses should that they had zero stock. I asked if I could order one or if they would be back in stock? She replied that they had been marked down as clearance and that no new stock would be ordered. She added that this normally happens when a model is due to be replaced and this was also clear by the pricing, at £1699.97. Apparently products that are priced XXXX.97 are clearance where as XXXX.99 are not.”
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“I asked them what hints they may have regarding any D700 replacement and they said that they can still get the D700. However, they tried to place an order for a few hundred D700’s not long ago and were told by the Nikon rep that they could not supply that many. Nikon’s reps etc. have all recently switched from Windows to Mac which they saw as a move towards video since video software is much more easily to come by / work with in the Mac environment than with Windows. They also said that video is the hot topic with the (store) buyers etc. so that they anticipated that any D700 replacement would surely have video included. From their past experience, they said that they expected an announcement in the next month or two.”