Camera Equipment Worth?

[Dave Throgmartin]

As someone who has a few things to sell I've been paying more attention lately than normal to Canon's promotions.

Is it just me or are Canon's sales seemingly going on constantly? The 15% off refurbished sale has been active on a few occasions with even one occasion where you could combine discounts with multiple codes.

The 7D Mark II, a quite high end crop camera, has dropped in value by a large amount since launch. Several "L" lenses have had reasonably large price decreases for new lenses. I jumped on one of those and bought the 70-300L to replace my 70-200 f/4 L USM.

Do you think the price drops will continue?

It is great from the buyers point of view... for now... not so great from the seller's point of view.

My other hobby has been attempting to play golf and you lose your shorts buying clubs, etc... if you want to sell them. I hope photography doesn't go that way.

Dave

[Joel Eade]

I agree, there are constant "deals" to be had. One thing for certain .... camera bodies depreciate very quickly due to the pace of technology, high shutter counts and new ones coming out at short intervals.

The really nice L lenses seem to hold value better but I have noticed lately the used Version 1 super tele lenses are dropping in price.

For camera bodies if you can wait a year or so after they are first released you will save big and you can expect your old ones to not be worth much on resale or trade in.

[HDNitehawk]

The dollar is stronger vs the yen than it was a few years back. That has been a factor.
Ever since I bought my first digital I have been watching Canon and there are always sales or deals.
At time they gave away top end printers as part of the deal, but that is just a way to sell expensive ink and paper.
Price drops also seem to come before a release. For instance the 1Ds III had substantial drops in price right before the release of the 1Dx.
The 5D II had drops right before the 5D III. If you notice the 1Dx is about 4.5k, at the same or less than the 1D IV was selling for at the release of the 1Dx.
So you have several things going on, the normal price cycle of the technology and the drop in value of the yen.

The L lens drops Joel mentions I believe are the result of the weak Yen.

[Kayaker72]

I agree that the price of the yen has something to do with the current prices. But, I also think that the market is approaching capacity. We saw an incredible growth in the market for several years and this seems to have plateaued. And, in terms of DSLR sales, in decided decline since about 2012. So, I think another side of it is simple supply and demand, as in more supply of used gear and less demand.

To an extent, I think the supply/demand vs weak yen could be product specific. The obvious example is the 24-105 f/4 L. Used market used to be $800-900. But so many units were sold as part of a kit that the price now sits at ~$500-$600. But I think this applies to other lenses as well, likely the more popular. But, more niche lenses may be less effected.

I expect the supply/demand argument also applies to what we are seeing with bodies. I believe we are approaching a point where most that desire a DSLR has one, so demand has gone from "growth" to "replacement/upgrade/new entrants" cycles.

[Sean Setters]

I think all the things mentioned have factored into the equation: weak yen, saturation/maturity of the market & product life cycle timing. That said, I'm still amazed at the 7D II deals. The original 7D stayed at its MSRP for nearly its entire lifespan; the 7D II was discounted via instant rebate soon after its release and now it's a whopping $500.00 off a little more than 1 year after its introduction (and while that is a pre-Black Friday special, the original 7D never saw that kind of a discount until its replacement was announced).

[Joel Eade]

I think all the things mentioned have factored into the equation: weak yen, saturation/maturity of the market & product life cycle timing. That said, I'm still amazed at the 7D II deals. The original 7D stayed at its MSRP for nearly its entire lifespan; the 7D II was discounted via instant rebate soon after its release and now it's a whopping $500.00 off a little more than 1 year after its introduction (and while that is a pre-Black Friday special, the original 7D never saw that kind of a discount until its replacement was announced).

Agreed...there are already really good deals on the 5Ds and 5DsR as well as the 100-400mm II lens!

[Dave Throgmartin]

IMHO, the market is changing. Supply is high, demand is low, and prices will continue to go down especially for non-niche items.

While I don't like that my current equipment value is going down so much, it is an excellent opportunity if you want something. I've wanted a 400mm for a long time and $849 refurbished for the 400 f/5.6 was good enough to go for it.

Dave

[peety3]

I don't have specifics, but I remember the original 7D dropping $100-200 in price after a year or so. I picked up a pair of them refurbished for $500 below original list, but that was only $300 off current selling price IIRC.

I figure there's likely to be three general price tiers: initial price, intended to recover R&D costs over an absolutely safe guess for quantity of product sold in the first year; second price, profitable over manufacturing/distribution/marketing/warranty/satisfaction-return-guarantee* costs are covered; third price, far less profitable but intended to move nearly every last unit so the shelves are empty as the newer model starts shipping. * Canon can easily choose to "surrender" this margin by offering a rebate for part of the time the product is being sold; by making it a mail-in rebate, customers have to commit to cutting out the UPC from the box, rendering it unreturnable, and putting the onus on the customer for how quickly they want the rebate money vs. how long they want to keep the box intact.

Canon probably doesn't need to sell every last unit, as the final few pieces can easily become parts for future repairs. Nonetheless, they probably want to manage inventory well, as they probably set up the factory line(s) for one or a few products at a time, and adjust run cycles based on demand. Overbuilding on one item causes excess warehouse space needs and delays the build cycle for the next "thing".