Bruce, the price will come down as more used ones hit the market, as well as demos for less, (as soon as the box is opened, the price drops) folks also return them to the dealers, who have to sell them for less. I would say later this year.
My advice is that the SF is a nice glass from an optical perspective, and among other glass on the market are not worth 2700.00.
Andy W.
Your guess is a good as mine on where the prices will go. I do not see anything coming up in the shorter term, from now to BirdFair in August, to think there will be any big changes. Longer term, if Swaro were to come out with an all new EL SV replacement, then that may have an impact depending on the pricing.
The grey SF first start hitting the streets in the fall and winter of 2014 and the blacks sometime after Birdfair in August 2016. That has been awhile to stabilize the used market, at least for the shorter term.
The price can have some material fluctuations during the short term. This is the result of short term promotions for new units and for some individuals highly motivated for a quick sale on the used side. Anyone willing to watch for a few months will likely come across a good deal.
Zeiss currently has an instant 10% off program on the SF. Optics Planet was offering a brand new black 8X42 SF for $2,308 the other day with the addition of their own 10% off discount. It was even less at Sports Optics but the status was back order when I saw it.
$2,300 is a lot of money but then I see lots of folks now just birding with DSLR cameras and big lenses costing $5,000 to $10,000 or even more. One guy had two big lens camera systems that I saw a couple of weeks ago. I feel like a relative pauper around them with my close out grey model.
Also keep in mind that binoculars do not have near the depreciation as electronic products such as digital cameras.
Probably the best deal on as SF can be on a grey model. They are the same optically as the black. The later production grey units has the same focus mechanism tolerances as the black units and Zeiss will furnish the new eye cups for free. Some closed out for under $1,700.
I agree with what you say in regards to the large objectivize 56mm Swaro SLC that have only been imported by Swaro USA for a couple of months or so. (The exception is the 15X56 which has always been available.) It may take some waiting to catch a used 8X56 on the market. Probably the best bet is to privately contact a forum sponsoring vendor to see if they are allowed to sell at a special member price compared to the minimum advertised price.