How Many Lenses Do They Sell?

[Joseph Tainter]

I got my DA 16-45 in early February, from Adorama. I also placed a 
standing order with Adorama for two more, to go with *ist Ds at my lab. 
Today one of them arrived. Its serial number is 5184509. The serial 
number for mine, which  (as I mentioned) arrived a little over a month 
ago, is 5184028.

Since demand exceeds supply, I would guess that once the distribution 
center in Manila sends a shipment to Adorama, Adorama's next order goes 
to the back of the line and waits until all earlier orders have been 
filled. If this is how it works, then about 500 DA 16-45s a month are 
being supplied. I would guess that this roughly matches the number being 
produced per month.

For comparison, in August 2002 I bought a Tokina AT-X AF Pro 28-80 f2.8. 
It's S/N was 6500112. It proved to be defective, but it took me many 
months to find the time to test it systematically so I could prove this. 
Tokina fessed up (sort of) and shipped me a new, replacement lens in 
early September, 2003. Its S/N is 6500862. So they moved about 800 of 
these in a year. That doesn't seem like many, but it is a specialized 
lens, and a bit expensive.

So did I get DA 16-45 number 28 in the whole world?

Joe