More DS-565's than E3's. Why?

[NikonWeb]

As most of you have probably noticed, there's plenty of Fujix DS-565's around. This has got to be the most common of all Nikon E/Fujix DS cameras offered on eBay. For some reason, you won't find many Nikon E3 cameras for sale (Nikon's equivalent to Fujifilm's DS-560/565 models).

Why?

The E3 series was first announced in June 1998, but according to the Photography in Malysia website, it wasn't available until December 1999. Guess what happened in between? Yes, Nikon announced their revolutionary D1, effectively killing all interest in the cumbersome E cameras. I expect Nikon production numbers for the E3 series to be very, very low.

Fujifilm, on the other hand, had their own market segment, and could continue to sell DS-560/565 cameras relatively undisturbed by Nikon's new 2.6 megapixel supercamera.

At least this is what I first thought. I then found that Fujifilm announced their S1 Pro DSLR just six months later, in January 2000. So much for my theory.

There's perhaps a small chance that professional photographers (those that would buy these cameras) considered the S1 Pro an 'amateur' model, while the D1 was considered a 'professional camera'? Loyal Fujifilm photographers would continue to buy DS-560/565's, while Nikon photographers would instead get the new D1.

Or: Is it just a coincidence that we're seeing many more DS-565's than E3's on eBay?

Thoughts?

Jarle

[NIKON KIU]

I think the US government had something to do with that.
The seller from Florida has listed 4 of them(I bought one and stan got one) and he claims that there are government liquidations.
May be the Government ordered a bunch of these from Fuji and Nikon missed the contract.Hence the recent offerings of DS565's.
Dont worry this party won't last long.
Kiu

[Stan Disbrow]

Hi,

I clearly recall Nikon having the D1 on the market for $5000 and several dealers also offering the E3 for $10000 at the same time.

This is when I was trying to figure out just what was what in the digital photo world in the fall of 1999. that was also when I found the E2 I have on the used market at what seemed to be a very low price of $750. It wasn't until I'd used the E2 for a couple months that I realized that I should have just gone for the D1 - and wound up doing just that. But, that's a different story.

Anyway, I do think that the relatively low numbers of Nikon E3's vs. Fuji 560's and 565's is likely a result of Nikon pushing the D1 out the door while Fuji was several months behind with their S1. Any Nikon dealer that had a couple E3 units on hand were not likely to order any more when the customers were all looking for a D1. Heck, Nikon probably pushed all their E3 parts over to Fuji to boot, making for even more Fuji models vs. Nikon ones.

Stan