april 7 and still no xsi

Well, it's April 7 and still no Digital Rebel XSi at Best Buy or anywhere else in the States. The rumor circulating around DPReview was that Best Buy would be getting some on April 6. It's possible, though, this was just the date they would arrive in their warehouses, and that we will see some on the shelves this week. By comparison, Canadian and European retailers have been selling them for at least a week now.

In the past, the U.S. typically got new cameras before the rest of the world (ex-Japan — almost all digital cameras are made by Japanese companies so Japan naturally gets new ones first). This year, though, the U.S. seems to be at the end of the list for new releases - this was/is the case for the Fujifilm F100fd, Tokina AT-X 116, and now the Digital Rebel XSi.

Of course this is only speculation, but the reason seems obvious: with digital camera prices holding fairly steady and the US Dollar in freefall, U.S. camera sales currently represent the lowest per-unit profit margin. With the U.S. practically in recession, manufacturers have been reluctant to raise prices on what are, to most consumers, highly non-essential luxury goods. Thus, if I were a Japanese camera manufacturer, I too would reserve precious initial shipments to my highest paying customers - i.e., anybody but Americans.

If the U.S. enters a protracted recession or slowdown which does not take down the rest of the world with it, cameras and other consumer electronics will inevitably get more expensive. On the other hand, the decades-long trend is for consumer electronics to steadily drop in price, so depending on the severity of USD devaluation this may only temporarily halt the slide in prices. But even an extended halt would be unprecedented, at least in the last quarter century. Get them while you can.

I'll repeat, though, this is just an educated guess based on the prices I'm seeing for the cameras I'm looking to buy. If you're seeing a different pattern, I'd be interested to hear about it.