As you might expect, Nikon is being aggressive about moving older products out of inventory, but wants you to pay top dollar for the newest ones. Still, we do get a few deals that look really good if you're willing to buy at the tail end of product cycles:
- D500 — US$1800 for the body with the MB-D17 grip isn't a great deal, but US$2400 with the excellent 16-80mm f/2.8-4E and grip is starting to edge into good pricing. Now that the D850/Z7 have appeared the D500 doesn't get the love it used to, but it's still a mini D5 and arguably the best APS-C sensor body you can buy even today.
- D750 — US$1400 for the body with the MB-D16 grip is a great deal. If you don't need the grip, sell it for US$100 or more and you start to see how this is a really great price on a full frame camera. And don't make a mistake, even though the D750 is four years old in design, it's still highly competitive with the other 24mp full frame bodies. The US$1900 deal that adds the 24-120mm f/4G lens is a good price, too. Deal
- D810 — US$2800 for the body with the MB-D12 grip is probably the least exciting of the body deals. As good as the D810 is as a camera, the D850 is better, and this isn't enough price discount as far as I'm concerned.
- D3500 — US$500 for the two AF-P lens kit (18-55 and 70-300mm DX AF-P) is a steal, and probably the best APS-C deal you can find. That's because this is a great entry DSLR, and those two kit lenses are better than you'd expect for kit lenses. That you get a case and some online education at the price sweetens the deal ever so slightly. Deal
- D5600 — US$700 for the two AF-P lens kit seems like a good price, but I really have to question why you're buying in this slot. The cheaper D3500 takes photos just as good, the more expensive D7200 is a much more desirable camera for a serious shooter. It's that fold-out LCD you pay the extra bucks for over the D3500, for the most part. And it's the enthusiast features (buffer, dual slots, more control, better autofocus, AF fine tuning, etc.) that you pay more for with the next model up. To me, the D5600 sits in no-man's land. But if you're going to get it, get the two lens kit for US$50 more than the one lens kit, and sell any lens you don't want to get more money back than you implicitly paid.
- D7200 — US$1000 for the two lens AF-P lens kit is a decent deal. Not great, but decent. US$800 for the body only seems to be a little high for a camera a generation old.
- D7500 — US$1450 for the body plus 18-140mm lens, or US$1750 for the body with 16-80mm lens are okay deals. While the D7500 has been much maligned, read my review: it's a far better camera than Nikon's marketing has made it seem to be. The problem, of course, is that you're sort of buying DX at an FX cost (D750+24-120mm).
So what am I excited about in that list? Entry shooters get an incredible bargain in the D3500 kit. Serious shooters get a really great price on the D750. These are the bargains in the bunch.
In terms of lenses, the earlier lens rebates are still in effect, so see my article about those. Plus we get a few more:
- 35mm f/1.8G DX — Should be in every DX owner's kit, and at the discounted US$170 price there's not really a reason you shouldn't pop for it. Deal
- 55-300mm f/4.5-5.6G VR DX — You get US$150 off if you buy this lens with a body. But I'm not sure what body that would be, since you're likely to be buying DX kits. See note at end of next item.
- 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6G AF-P VR DX — You also get US$150 off if you buy this lens with a body, but again you're likely buying a DX kit. Note: Here's Nikon's dirty little trick: those 70-300mm AF-P lenses in the kits don't have VR. These two telephoto lenses on discount do have VR. So what Nikon really wants you to do is buy a kit plus one of the VR telephotos, then unload the non-VR copy for them ;~).
Nikon also has small discounts on the SB-500 and SB-700 flash units, which may or may not be completely compatible with your camera. So make sure you know that it is.