(news and commentary)
I'm hearing that the lens-only rebates end on Sunday. Any remaining lens rebates will be only with purchase of a body, I believe. So if you've been procrastinating, it might be time to break the credit card out of your freezer.
I suspect Nikon is in analysis mode at the moment. Their fiscal year ends this week so they're not going to upset anything in their critical financials by removing the rebates. Of course, short term pressure will build moving forward if they don't keep putting new product into the pipeline. It's just at the start of a fiscal year, Nikon will likely move more cautiously in terms of taking profit cuts. They have some time to analyze what happened with the year-end rebates and figure out what to do next.
Given the yen depreciation and the need to continue showing growth, I suspect more rebates will return in some form later this spring. But for now, the lens only rebates are apparently on hiatus. That said, it isn't unlike Nikon to change their mind at the last minute. It's happened before. But at the moment the word I receive from multiple sources is that the lens-only rebates are stopping.
The rebate on the Nikon V2 appears to be increasing slightly. Still not enough of a discount, but don't buy a V2 this week.
