Pre-Ordering a Camera Body?

[WDWFigment]

My thoughts exactly- for me the tax would have been $105- doubt I could have got even close to $400 for the lens.

I think he mentioned having a 12% off coupon to Best Buy, which would drop the price substantially. For me, it still would've only been a 5% discount after tax, which wasn't enough given the market price on the 18-105 that I was seeing (if I recall correctly, ~$250).

I pre-ordered my body from J&R, so I'll get 5% cashback, plus I bought an Epson R1900 printer, which has a $450 rebate if you purchase with a $500+ DSLR. The printer will cost less than $100 after all is said and done, and sells for ~$350. So for me, buying at Best Buy just to have it now would've been an unjustifiable loss. Besides some minor projects, I don't have any substantial photography that I 'need' to do right now, so I just use Sarah's D40 when necessary.

I will definitely need my own camera by December 1st, though, so I fear I will have to purchase a used D90 if the D7000 hasn't arrived by then. Even then, I will still come out ahead as the prices on the D90 have dropped since I sold mine.

Tom - I just read 2 of your trip reports and browsed through many of your Flickr pictures. Great work, very impressive!

Thanks! I'm working on a trip report from our first Disneyland trip right now.

 

[mom2rtk]

Thanks! I'm working on a trip report from our first Disneyland trip right now.

Can't wait to read it Tom!

 

[GvilleDisneyDad]

I think he mentioned having a 12% off coupon to Best Buy, which would drop the price substantially. For me, it still would've only been a 5% discount after tax, which wasn't enough given the market price on the 18-105 that I was seeing (if I recall correctly, ~$250).

That's right. The 12% was what made it work for me. And I think I sold the lens cheap. here's how it worked out in case you're interested:

BB D7000 Kit $1499.99
12% off coupon -$180.00
Tax + 89.10
Sold lens -$220.00

Final price = $1,189.09

 

[WDWFigment]

That's right. The 12% was what made it work for me. And I think I sold the lens cheap. here's how it worked out in case you're interested:

BB D7000 Kit $1499.99
12% off coupon -$180.00
Tax + 89.10
Sold lens -$220.00

Final price = $1,189.09

Worked out pretty well for you, then!

Part of me wishes I did that, but here's my math (as I see it):
D7000 Body + Epson R1900 ........................................$1,731.57
BigCrumbs CB (thought it was 5, actually 4%).................($69.26)
Visa CB....................................................................($51.95)
Epson MIR................................................................($450)
Epson Printer value recaptured (upon selling)..................($350)
eBay fees (if I can't sell printer on CL)...........................~$50

Final price = $860.36

Granted, it's a lot more of a hassle and some of these numbers are speculatory, but I'm willing to do it for the sake of the deal. If these numbers work out to be accurate, I'll be upgrading to the D7000 for very, very little cost.

 

[rossb]

Thanks! I'm working on a trip report from our first Disneyland trip right now.

Good stuff. I'm not at WDW nearly as much as you are and unfortunately my wife is not nearly as supportive of photography as yours is. No waiting around to get a shot, she wants to keep moving and she gets annoyed when I stop.

I'm going for 10 days in late November, staying at a Pirate Room in CBR this time. I hope to avoid Bed Bugs, I'm bringing spray with me. I'm bringing a D90, a Nikkor 10-24, Nikkor 18-200, and a 35 1.8. I will bring a tripod with me. We are also going to spend an evening in South Beach. Great picture opportunities down there.

I shot about 2000 pictures in Hawaii last month.

 

[mom2rtk]

Good stuff. I'm not at WDW nearly as much as you are and unfortunately my wife is not nearly as supportive of photography as yours is. No waiting around to get a shot, she wants to keep moving and she gets annoyed when I stop.

I'm going for 10 days in late November, staying at a Pirate Room in CBR this time. I hope to avoid Bed Bugs, I'm bringing spray with me. I'm bringing a D90, a Nikkor 10-24, Nikkor 18-200, and a 35 1.8. I will bring a tripod with me. We are also going to spend an evening in South Beach. Great picture opportunities down there.

I shot about 2000 pictures in Hawaii last month.

I think a number of us here are jealous of Tom's spousal support of his photography habit.

 

[rossb]

I got a D7000 body-only today from the J&R retail store. I know this goes against my first few posts in this thread.

 

[WDWFigment]

I got a D7000 body-only today from the J&R retail store. I know this goes against my first few posts in this thread.

Wait...did you pre-order it or just happen upon it? If it was just 'there', I'm going to be seriously pissed. We were promised that our body would ship today. When Sarah called this morning, she was told it would be two more weeks.

In any case, I know that even if you did preorder it, you preordered it after I did. I know Nikon has been sending out small shipments, but this one is on J&R. This really pisses me off.

 

[Gdad]

Wait...did you pre-order it or just happen upon it? If it was just 'there', I'm going to be seriously pissed. We were promised that our body would ship today. When Sarah called this morning, she was told it would be two more weeks.

In any case, I know that even if you did preorder it, you preordered it after I did. I know Nikon has been sending out small shipments, but this one is on J&R. This really pisses me off.

Ouch! That stinks- I'm sorry to hear that Tom. I had a bad feeling about J&R after getting three different stories from three different people. I hope you get a camera soon.

 

[rossb]

My original opinion was pretty accurate. The D7000 has more features, more menu items, and better ergonomics, but the IQ is essentially the same as the D90. Low light ISO 3200 images from the D90 are very close to low light ISO 3200 images from the D7000. The D7000 will natively go to ISO 100 and 6400, the D90 will not.

Nikon changed how the Auto-ISO bump (based on minimum shutter) feature works when using flash. The D90's implementation is better.

 

[rossb]

I just tried my Nikon 18-200VR on my D7000 and it looked pretty soft. It looked great on my D50 and my D90 so I found this to be surprising. I shot a focus scale at around 50mm and I noticed that it was 12mm off. The D7000 allowed me to adjust for that and now the mid range focals look much better and the wide end looks much worse.

 

[MarkBarbieri]

My original opinion was pretty accurate. The D7000 has more features, more menu items, and better ergonomics, but the IQ is essentially the same as the D90.

I've never used either, but DxO shows a noticeable difference between the two.