Hey Carl I have thought the same thing and in fact at one point I had thought about selling my a700 because my thinking it already has dropped in value from the price I paid thanks to Sony dropping the price. I think we need to rethink how/what/when we purchase items in our new economy as well. I'm more disappointed than scared that these types of commodities are not so much an investment as they once where. I am not sure that the market will be flooded, I do think however all manufactures profit margins will be effected because of a failing world economy, so I think it may be less units and more features per unit to try and add value and attract new and upgrading buyers. I know my A700 has already dropped in value but my camera has not got the message yet cause it still takes awesome pictures...:)

Kevin
"Vision Is Seeing Beyond Your Sight"

Hopefully, my A700 will be worth more than my OM-2 with the Zuicko 75-150mm/f4 zoom or my ground-breaking DiMage 7i. (Actually, KEH keeps calling me about these, but I refuse to sell at any price.)

Andy

Invest in good quality used or new lenses and protect them. They hold there value well.

Buy the DSLR bodies open box or on sale. I just bought a BRAND NEW A700 for $559 at Best Buy. A long story short: With some help from friends at forums.slickdeals dot net I got it marked down from $1089.
I'm now shopping for FULL FRAME lenses since they will be around for a while and are the most versatile. Eventually the Prosumer DSLR's will probably all be full frame. I'm currently looking at the 70-200 SSM and the SAL 70-300G for my sports lense.

I would rather buy a high end lense and pay the extra price to have a great lense that I can keep for years to come and have no problem selling in the future if my hobbies change.

See ya'!

I still have my DiMage 7i. My 10 year old son kind of inherited it for now.

I bought my a200 when they first hit the stores and paid $699 now they are $499 so I have lost $200 in value right off the bat! It is a fact of life for anything electronic that when new to market price is high and will drop as production increases, computers are a fine example.In all things electronic there is always something new on the horizon with high prices. So you just have to pick a spot and jump in and not get upset when a few months later the same thing is available for one third the price and better than what you bought ! Example= my first CD burner cost $500 and was very slow, my last was $40 and 100 times faster and better.So pick a point in the development buy what you want and don't get upset when YOU TAKE IT IN THE SHORTS!

Jim

Hey Carl,

Cool thread, unfortunately the dropping residual value of DSLRs is a fact of life. It's frustrating to think how much is wiped off stuff like an A700 in a short space of time, but as long as people are happy with the cameras then that's the main thing. Perhaps we will get to the stages like the 70's and 80's where people kept their cameras for several years- decades even!

I think that the value of DSLRs will only get lower, I mean there is so much great stuff out there now, at such great prices. Who would pay £200+ for a KM 5D when the A200 is just a little bit more. I think people would be lucky to get even £150 for the 5D. Another example would be the Fuji S5- that camera cost well over a grand when it came out, yet was recently selling for just £499 from several retailers- such is the pace of technology. Perhaps the biggest bargain of recent times would have been the Sigma SD14, that got down to crazy prices. I think it went as low as £299 after cashback- that's a hell of a lot of camera for not much money!

It's becoming a buyers market now...

Andrew