Those elements resulting from the observation of long-term markets and futures, they have quite good reliability. But if the recession does not seem ready to end, why this move up? As a matter of fact, memory buyers are probably preparing themselves for the arrival of the new Windows 7 and its unavoidable additional resource demands. Furthermore, while many processors (specially from AMD, but not only) may be using DDR3 memory but also older DDR2 with no perceivable performance loss, the transition from DDR2 to DDR3 is slowly happening. And this is pushing DDR3 quantities up.

So, if you have a clear need today, I would recommend you to buy your DDR3 memory now. But if you think that you can use DDR2 memory (if you have to ask, that’s your situation), you’d better wait for the relative price slowdown that will be happening on DDR2.

Let’s start by noticing that some local markets are very different from the rest of the global economy. For exemple, in some countries, custom taxes are pushing the costs so high that it’s unthinkable to buy imported products (I think about Brazil where I wouldn’t buy a computer or a camera for this reason). On the oppposite, the Japanese market is well known for its cheap photo camera prices (but never half of the European or American prices) if you are ready to go there or to fight your way through a web site with nearly no latin-based characters (just try once to find your way in an on-line Japanese camera shop to know what it means to be utterly lost in a place you thought would be yours in seconds. Frustrating!)

There are only a few solutions left:

• eBay sales made by well-identified vendors. Prices can be quite low even for brand-new products and prices do not always fly sky high. But, be very attentive and do not bite all abits. I like this possibility (but it’s time consuming).
• Market anticipations (that’s the name I use for them): Some vendors apply the common knowledge that prices are going down and attempt to anticipate this by offering you what they think they will be able to do next week or next month. Advantage: They and you surf the wave of prices going down. Bad, bad, bad: Even if it is not said clearly, you may have to wait even more than what the resellers was expecting and instead of a week’s delay, you may see your money gone and no camera back for months. Definitely not my definition of a bargain.
• Pure crooks and swindlers: On the Internet as elsewhere, some people would have you believe that fairy tales are true stories and either they will try to sell you another product at a higher price (replacement, my a..), or they will leave for a spending spree in Caiman’s islands with your money.

Don’t let them bite you now.

Nikon Rumours affirmed last week that the Nikon D700 (or D700 FX) will be priced just under 3000 USD. It has been said that the Canon EOS 5D MkII should arrives around 3500 USD, but the Canon EOS 5D is already sold under 2000 USD now. And the Nikon D3 (already previous generation camera) is still near 5000 USD, except in some very small on-line shops whose reputation is a bit low.

Not taking into account the actual performance and exact features of each, I would say that Sony will be able to position itself around 2000 USD which is the price point that Canon is setting for all the others. But keep in mind that there is a large body of amateurs enthusiasts that are ready to pay much more than the usual 600-1500 USD price tag for a digital SLR, but the competition is heating to bring Full Frame capability to the masses.

Your guess is as good as mine, but I would say that the tendency is to prepare to a very low price point. 2000 USD will be considered a turning point (notice how Canon is letting the price of the EOS 5D plummet down). A camera willing to position itself as top-quality Full Frame will probably aim at $2500 (I think the price of the Canon EOS 5D MkII or a possible Canon EOS 6D could climb there, not even speaking of a possible Nikon D3x in 2009 with a stratospheric price), but a product aimed at a larger market would have to start around $2000 and preparing for a street price going under this limit (this should be the case of the Nikon D700 -the name is referring more to the D300 than to the D3/D3x pro family- and of the Sony Alpha 900).

If you are visiting Paris, you must know about rue Montgallet. This is the nice little geek secret here. A street (and a couple of neighbouring ones) where you will find literally one computer shop every other door step. Prices are as low as they can get in France.

I usually start from the top (Metro station Montgallet), moves down the street collecting prices, possibly continuing in rue de Charenton. Then, having decided about the model-price I want to buy I come back to the metro. This is done very easily because for most products the prices are displayed in lists outside the shops. If it’s not listed, the prices is not worth asking for inside.

This is the first-hand observation I made this week. I wanted to add 2GB of RAM memory to my main PC (going from 2GB to 4GB RAM allows to accelerate all my activities in Photoshop when I open more than 3 or 4 12-mega-pixel images at the same time). So, as the normal Parisian geek I am, I ran to the Paris Mecca of PC computing: Montgallet street.

There, I could buy 2 memory modules in a matched XMS2 set of DDR-2/800 PC6400 (CAS5) from Corsair for a mere 41€ and observe that -if you accept lower performance or less famous brands- prices can go as low as 19€. This is the right time to buy RAM!

However, I should also indicate that DRAMexchange announces a possible small increase of RAM prices during this Summer. Maybe the beginning of a small recovery for a market that has been very favorable to the customer for a long time?

Important notice for those intending to do exactly like me: Under Windows (at least if you do not use the 64-bit version of the OS), installing 4GB of RAM will only provide 3.5GB of really available memory. But at this price, I have no issue with wasting 512MB…