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Dorian Gray
Veteran Member
 
Join Date: May 2005
Location: Paris, France
 
2012-01-30, 17:53

Good but well-used D700s are going for about 1400 euros in Paris, rising to about 1550 for a mollycoddled example. The prices have fallen by at least 100 euros since the D800 rumours became strident a month ago — and that despite new D700 stock drying up — but I feel people are still unsure what to do because they don't know how the D800 will be priced.

If the D800 is priced at $3000, the bottom will fall out of the D700 market in short order. If it's $4000, there will be a lot less pressure. It also depends on whether Nikon updates the D7000 or D300S soon (or is the Dxxx series finished?), because new DX cameras would also put pressure on used D700 values.

It's an interesting market dynamic. The D700 and 5D Mark II are the cheapest full-frame cameras, so they attract a very broad user base, and everyone has their own reasons for using the cameras. There's everyone from poseurs who really couldn't care less about the specs, to serious landscape hobbyists with $10k lens kits, to hairy video guys with no lenses to speak of, to wedding jobbers, to globe-trotting journalists. Many more.

I like my D700 a lot, and consider the 5D Mark II a bit of a botch job. But the market clearly rewarded Canon more. Quite why that was is hard to say. Maybe Canon was just better placed than Nikon in 2008 to capitalise, with hoards of happy xxD owners ready to upgrade, recent switchers with the original 5D, people who'd given up on Nikon, etc. For the 5D Mark II camera itself, I'd guess the pixels were more important than the video, so Canon might be taking a risky step if they let the D800 walk away with the pixel crown, no matter how fancy their video might be. On the other hand, if they make the 5D Mark III a really slick, thought-out, all-round camera, it might please the crowd who say the 5D Mark II is a souped up Rebel.

Who can say?
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