After the announcement of the demise of Konica-Minolta, and its replacement with Sony (actually in place now that April came), I asked myself what is now the consequence of this on camera prices.
Quite predictably, the prices are going down while resellers are emptying the stocks of – now discontinued – products.
For example, the Konica-Minolta Dynax 7D is now sold in France at less than 800€ (including S&H). The Konica-Minolta Dynax 5D at less than 600€ (including S&H). Dimage A200 (an excellent 8Mpixel bridge camera) went well under 500€.
I would say that it is creating bargain prices for the reflexes. The 7D and 5D and definitely good cameras. The inclusion of the Anti-Shaking feature giving an additional incentive for those already equiped with long telephoto lenses (always very sensitive to shaking). Even better, it is highly probable that second-hand lenses prices will be plumetting in the coming months (but it is too early to be sure) because high-end users will shift from Minolta-Sony to other brands leaving stranded big lenses behind them.
However, the bridge camera prices seem less impressive. They are nice indeed. But we also have to remember that support will go down (even with Sony accepting maintenance and support contracts) even if the life expectancy of bridge cameras is quite shorter than for D-SLR.
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