Agylen

Ken Rockwell reports that you can get some very good bargains on Nikon DSLR cameras and lenses. You get $100 instant rebates if you buy any of these three cameras:

• D40 with 18-55mm lens
• D40x with 18-55mm lens
• D80 with 18-135mm lens

together with any of these three extra lenses:

• 55-200mm ($73 after $100 instant rebate)
• 55-200mm VR ($112 after $100 instant rebate)
• 70-300mm VR ($353 after $100 instant rebate).

But that is not all, because you can get an even better deal if you buy an extra battery with the D40. The price for the battery is about $40, but if you buy it together with the camera, you get an extra $74 discount, which means the combined price of the two items is less than the cost of the camera alone!

You have to add the items to your cart and the savings will be deducted as separate line items at checkout. Be sure to select Amazon as the seller, otherwise the deal won’t be there. You also have to be patient, because the D40 and the 55-200 VR won’t be shipping for 1-2 months. However, I just placed an order and got $174 in extra savings for the D40—which is already the cheapest good DSLR out there— together with the 55-200 VR and an extra battery, which makes this pretty much the deal of the century. Hey, I could sell all this stuff separately on eBay for much more than will have payed for it, but I figure I’ll just keep it all.

If you would like to get the same deal, you can either follow the links on this page, or use the ones on Ken’s page, depending on who you would like to get a small percentage of the sale price.

Update: Apparently the $100 instant rebate on the combined purchase of a camera and a lens is gone. I am glad that I placed my order on time.

Update (Feb 20): Just received the following email from Amazon.com:

We regret to inform you that an error caused an incorrect promotional
code to be displayed on our website. We are not offering this
promotion at this time.

In accordance with our posted policies on pricing, we are unable to
offer the item(s) you ordered for the incorrectly posted promotional
price. Therefore, we have cancelled the item(s) from your order.

Argh! I assume the error refers to the incorrect pricing of the extra battery. Well, I suppose I could live without that, but now even the $100 rebate on the extra lens is gone and the only option I’m left with is getting just the camera for just a little less than $500, which is not a bargain at all :(.