A reader sent me this message regarding several discontinued Nikkor DX lenses (thanks ZoetMB):
I was checking to see if any of the Nikon lenses that were out-of-stock at B&H a few weeks ago had come back into stock (none had) and I noticed that the following two lenses are marked “Currently Unavailable”, not “Backordered” or “More on the way”:
- Nikon AF-S DX NIKKOR 16-85mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR (currently unavailable)
- Nikon AF-S DX NIKKOR 18-300mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR (currently unavailable)
So then I checked the Nikon Japan site and they weren’t there. So while sometimes lenses hang around for years after Nikon stops selling them in Japan, this could still be a sign that they’re discontinued or going to soon be. So then I decided to cross-check every lens, and I found all of the following (in addition to the ones above) are no longer on the Japan website:
- 70-300 AF 4.0-5.6 G (but this has been off the Japan site since at least three years ago and Nikon didn’t include it in the 10/2017 lens catalog. Yet it’s still in stock at B&H and others. It was also discontinued in the UK, although I haven’t re-checked to see if it reappeared there).
- 24-70 AF-S G (guess they only want to sell the more expensive E version).
- 18-55 DX 3.5-5.6 G VR II Collapsable (this was the D3300 kit lens)
- 18-55 DX 3.5-5.6 G (VR version is just $50 more.)
- 55-200 DX 4-5.6G
- 70-300 DX 4.5-6.3 AF-P G ED (VR version is just $50 more)
I think it’s interesting that 6 of these 8 potentially discontinued lenses are DX. Several of the above lenses are also listed as discontinued at the official Nikon Japan website.
