Originally posted by Alex645 Steve, so are you saying this lens is not discontinued?
I am saying that availability at B&H is an indication of whether they are able to source an item for sale. They sell what the distributor (Ricoh N. America) is able to reliably make available to them. If a distributor cannot give a firm date for resupply, B&H marks the listing as "
no longer available"* and also removes the listing from their site's search results. This happens fairly frequently with the item miraculously reappearing some weeks or months later. Probably the most well-known example around these parts is the genuine Pentax Mount Adapter K. It has been "
no longer available" dozens of times.
As to
why the distributor is not able to fulfill a wholesale order, that could be due to a number of things, including erratic supply, poor profitability, and/or marketing decisions on the part of the manufacturer.
Steve
* not the same as "discontinued"