I thought that this sounded a bit odd, so I did some digging, and it appears that it might actually be the case, and that Nikon are dropping it because they are unable to compete with the Canon 5D MkII.
Translation by a native Chinese speaker (thanks Pat):
“Facing the strong competitive pressure of Canon 5D Mark II, Nikon finally ceased production of their entry level full frame camera D700. At present D700 (body only) goes for 15300 in Chinese yuan, and further price hikes would be inevitable.”
This rumor is coming from
www.sina.com.cn. The Google translation as aways doesn’t make much sense, but the article is about the price of the Nikon D700 going up in China as a result of the “announced cut-off”. It is not clear (at least to me) what this “announced cut-off” is. It could be that the D700 production is suspended or maybe even the D700 is about to be discontinued:
“Beijing Quotes face of strong competition Canon 5D Mark II’s strong pressure from the entry-level full-frame Nikon SLR Nikon D700 has finally announced cut-off, the price has also risen. D700 body is currently priced at 15.3 thousand yuan, and further increases have become necessary.”
Time will tell of course, but I didn't think that the D700 had been an unsuccessful model, personally speaking I do think the 5D MkII gives much better images, (I wouldn't say it, if I didn't believe it). The D700 now costs more than the 5D MkII and if there's another price hike on the way I can imagine a lot of dissaffected users, maybe Nikon were concerned following the boycotting of the D3x over the price.
05-12-09, 09:41 PM
