Nikkor 50mm f/1.4 – Out of Stock? 85mm f/1.4 too?
[Update: on Photo.net
PS. The only thing in short supply, at least in a couple of stores is the 85 f/1.4 There is big store in Tokyo and it has been out of it for at least 3 months now. I'm just hopping its because an AF-S is coming soon!
]
Dale reminds me that:
Just noticed that the Nikkor 50mm f/1.4D is now out of stock at Amazon, B&H and Adorama (in both U.S. and Gray Market versions).
This one is always a tough call with lenses- Nikon is so damned frequently out of lenses and various parts that it’s difficult to assess a trend, but let’s hope that we are going to see an AF-S 50mm (f/1.2, please please please) and I’d like the same in 85mm (f/1.2, please, please, please).
I’m not getting my hopes up though.
May 20th, 2008 at 00:10
BH is currently out of stock on 14 of the 47 lenses in Nikon’s current lineup. About two weeks ago, they had just about everything except the 70-200mm and the new 500mm and 600mm. But there’s no way to know whether this means that Nikon’s production lines are busy with new lenses or whether some of these are discontinued or whether Nikon USA is bad at inventory management or whether the retailers either can’t predict demand or have cash flow issues.
The 70-200, for example, was out of stock for many months, leading many to believe that a replacement was in the works. All of a sudden, it was back in stock at BH for a few days, but it’s been out of stock again for a long time.
The other thing we don’t know is when a retailer gets a lens back in stock, what is the inventory level? Is it 1 lens? 6? more?
A lot of the gray-market imports are also out of stock, but it’s hard to tell whether this means it’s out-of-stock everywhere or whether it’s more a reflection of the weak US Dollar making it unfeasible to purchase gray market.
May 20th, 2008 at 00:13
Maybe we’ll finally see a 50mm prime lens with AF-S?