Re: "Official" Nikon 500 f/5.6E PF Discussion and Image Thread
How popular is the 500 f5.6E PF Nikkor? It's interesting to compare estimated production totals of the more mainstream Nikkor telephotos. The only stats available are collated by Roland Vink in his wonderful website - photosynthesis.co.nz These stats are derived from registered lenses.
Totals of the popular 300 f4AF = 16026 copies (from 2000 - 2005) and 38773 sold since 2006. So approx 54799 in nearly 2 decades. Registers of all versions of the prominent 200-400 f4 total 25 568 since July 2003. These totals equate to 2994 and 1388/year, respectively, for these 2 models.
Sales of more expensive telephotos have been predictably lower. Arguably the 300 f2.8 is the most accessible and versatile model of the exotic tele primes. The first AF version was released in 1988. A total of 61461 copies of all models registered. 25649 of these are the G models = 1769/yr in 12.5 years overall since Aug 2007.
What about the Pygmy Exotic? Compared to the 300 f4 AFS, 35,074 copies of the 300 PF registered in 4.25 years for 8250/yr rates as Decent sales for a telephoto prime.
What about the 500 PF - priced 2.3+ times higher than the 300 PF? A total of 4977 registered since it was announced in August last year. Based on at most 6 months of sales, this is heading to as many as 10000 copies registered in its first year. This underlines significant, in fact unprecedented, demand for a telephoto prime in its class of focal length. Compare the total of 10443 of all AF models of the 500 f4 registered since Nov 1994. It is only 1656 are the current 500 f4E (released July 2015), with 3670 of the 400 f2.8E (July 2014) and 4236 of the 600 f4E (July 2015).
It will be interesting to recheck these estimates at the end of this year. Obviously, all these totals must underestimate real sale figures.
Mar 19, 2019 at 06:40 AM
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