I’ve never pre-ordered a camera or ordered one on launch day. My D750 was out for two years when I bought it, my Canon 50D was out for almost a year. The closest I’ve come was my Canon 7D, which had “only” been out for eight months at my time of purchase. The Z8 is the first camera I’ve ordered as soon as it was released, and I’m learning some lessons about that for the future.
I’ve pre-ordered plenty of Apple products to have them reliably delivered to my door on launch day. I even stood in line for the iPhone 4s when Apple didn’t do pre-orders and happily walked out of the store with one. I’ve learned that I’ve been spoiled; cameras are very different. They aren’t high-volume products like phones and they (at least Nikons) are often supply constrained, dating long before the pandemic. Very few stores carry them – most brick and mortar camera stores are out of business and few electronics stores sell the professional models I want or ever have them in stock (e.g. Best Buy). That leaves me with online retailers like Adorama, B&H, and Amazon as my options.
I thought I’d be good with the Z8 by making sure that I was ready for the pre-order and ordering it as soon as it went live. I thought I had succeeded: I ordered within the first 10 minutes of availability on May 10, and purchased from B&H, a large photography retailer that would surely receive an ample supply of the first batch units.
After ordering, I followed Facebook groups and forums, sharing my excitement with others as we awaited the official launch and shipping day. May 25th came and those channels filled with excitement as people tracked their Z8s’ shipping status, received them, unboxed them, and posted their first images. The day passed and my B&H order was unshipped and still listed as “backordered”.
As I dug into the conversations, I realized that I had made some big mistakes. Apparently ordering from a large retailer like B&H or Adorama is not always a good idea for a camera launch. Why? Because they’re so popular that everyone orders from them and there isn’t enough stock to fulfill all of the orders. I read horror stories of B&H orders taking six months to arrive while smaller retailers and local camera shops were shipping within weeks. I also learned that the particular configuration I bought, a kit that included a 24 – 120mm lens, was probably contributing to my issue.
The kit isn’t a camera in one box and a lens in another, but a single box with both items in it sold for a small discount. That means Nikon only distributes a certain number of kits. The rest are just the body without a lens. I suspect that the body-only configuration is the most popular and represents the largest proportion of the Z8’s initial manufacturing runs. I’ve barely seen anyone post anything about receiving that kit and several other folks on the interwebs are also still awaiting their kits.
Buying the camera as a kit saves me $200 on the lens, but I’m starting to wonder if it’s worth it. My order is still listed as “backordered” and there is no expected restock date. I’ve read that retailers received far fewer kits than expected and they don’t know when they will get more or how many. There is a rumor that Nikon will distribute another batch in the first or second week of June, but I have no idea if mine would be in there. B&H lists both the kit and body-only configuration as “backordered” with no ship date and Adorama lists them as shipping in November. Amazon has no ship date for the kit, but does have the body-only config shipping in the second week of July.
I have no idea when my camera will ship, but I hope it doesn’t take until November! As a backup, I’ve ordered a body-only configuration from Amazon so that I’ll get one by early July in the worst case (assuming Amazon’s estimate isn’t garbage). If Amazon ships first, I’ll cancel my B&H order and buy the lens separately (probably used or refurbished). If not, I’ll cancel the Amazon order. I’m camping at the end of June and I’m really hoping that my B&H order comes through prior to the trip. There will be lots of opportunities to use it if I have it.
It’s only been a week, but it’s tough since the entire point of pre-ordering is to get your product early. At least I’ve learned something: the next time I buy a newly released camera, I’ll consider the popularity of my retailer and skip the kit.
Relatively Ambitious 