Hi anybody out there.

can somebody give me an indication on prices of Canon EOS 20 & the new 350 SLR digital camera range? They are fairly pricy in SA and I was just trying to compare pricing in $ versus Rands to see if we are being ripped off over here.

Thanx in advance.

Cheers Schmidie

"opie-knoppe"

Do a google search for B&H or Wall Street Camera and you will get the prevailing US prices.

I'll vouch for B&H too. I do a lot of business with them.

That camera is currently selling for $1,200 with a $100 rebate.

l

Dang, I have only used B&H for about 10 years and get fantastic service.

I used them a number of times in the 90s before I finally learned my lesson. For me, the final straw was when one of my fixed focal length lenses began to have a sticky aperture. Due to a pressing commercial shoot coming up on the weekend, I elected to purchase another of that very kind of lens. I figured I'd just get the older one cleaned and checked out and then sell it. The salesman assured me he had the lens in stock; he assured me it would ship that same day; and he assured me I would have it the very next day (Friday) -- in time for the weekend shoot.

To make a long story short, I did not have it for the weekend and had to have my wife make a 4-hour round trip to the nearest shop that carried that particular lens.

B&H did not have the item in stock, as I was told. They did not ship anthing to me when promised. And the item I got was some Tokina zoom -- on the following TUESDAY. And yet I was still charged $30+ dollars for overnight shipping. To make matters worse, I was fed the biggest pile of horse manure you can imagine. The person I spoke to (not the original salesperson) tried to tell me that this Tokina lens was actually made by Nikon for Tokina and that the results would be the same as if I had used a Nikon lens. But, to paraphrase as closely as I can remember, I "needed to keep this quiet because it's an industry secret." (How gullible would I have had to been to buy his story???)


I am happy for those who've had good luck with B&H. Perhaps I just had a string of bad luck with them -- who knows? But as for myself, they will not get any more of my business.

quote:

Originally posted by Bobby Tomek:
Exercise caution with B&H. You can buy "x" item but they'll ship you "y" instead and try to tell you the one that was "inadvertently" sent is actually better - and that they'll let you keep it for no extra charge.

That would be fine by me if I ordered a D70 and they "inadvertently" sent me a new D2X instead, or if I ordered a Rebel Digital and found a new 1Ds Mark II waiting at my door!

Otherwise, no deal.

I've actually heard horror stories about almost EVERY one of the New York, etc mail order houses. Is anything other than face-to-face safe any more when dealing with equipment like this?

As Cold Bore and Bobby T. said, I think many folks have been burned by one of the NY folks one or more times.
WAY back when, they all advertised a particular (and VERY popular/high demand) flash unit. I kept calling them and none of them EVER had one in stock, no matter what the ad said in the "Trade Rag".

A friend ordered several thousand bucks worth of equipment from one, and lucky for him the PO was involved. After several months of discussion a credit was issued the DAY after a letter was received by the USPS inspector's office. The letter from the dealer claimed that the mail fraud issue had nothing with the sudden change in heart, rather it JUST happened to get cleared up THAT VERY day.

I had a fun time with one of the mail order houses out of New Jersey. Ordered a Canon Elan IIe kit with 3 lenses, which according to the ad were "USM" (Canon trademarked) lenses. The ones I got were Tokina if I remember correctly. AFter dealing with the NJ consumer protection agency for 18 months, I got it all fixed, but no more ordering from those businesses anymore. If I can't hold it and play with it, I don't buy it.

I see one of my posts must ahve gone to the cyber graveyard -- not sure just what happened to it or if I somehow deleted it the last time I posted...

For all electronics, including cameras, go to http://www.cnet.com It has excellent reviews and the pricing from many dealers. Excellent site.

I have used B&H for about 20-25 years and have never had a problem. I am sure sometimes they make mistakes and have bonehead salesmen.

The cheapest I've seen this camera in South Africa is in Digital World Nelspruit who can be found at www.wholesaledigital.co.za They sell the body only for ZAR7639.

Jessops (www.jessops.co.uk) in the UK sell the same thing for UKP525.

B&H sell it (I think) for around US$1200 but if you do a search on yahoo I think you'll find it in other places in the USA for around US$900 .....however, I don't know reliable these dealers are!

You'll find exact exchange rates on the net but there's roughly around ZAR12 to the UKP & ZAR6 point something to the US$.

So I guess the short answer is that a lot depends on how you work out your exchange rates and of course how you pay for the item..... credit cards don't usually attract a bank charge but some other payment methods will...... Then of course, you have to decide how you have it delivered. If they send it by post or courier from overseas then you'll get hit with a lot of duty. The other way to do it is to go over to the African Hunting forum and ask if anyone over there is coming to RSA in the near future. If they are, you can have the camera sent to their home address in the US or UK and then meet them here in RSA to collect it........

Try C-net .com the compare aii prices and tell the lowest.

I didn't mention e-bay in my previous post but there's sometimes a good deal to be found there. If you want lenses as well, you might like to check this out http://cgi.ebay.com/Canon-EOS-Digital-Rebel-XT-350D-USA...QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

An issue you may want to consider with the cheap pricing is the grey-market sales and re-furbished equipment many of the mail order houses sell. If yo know in advance that is ok but they won't tell you and you had better get it in writing. If not and you have a problem you may end up sending the camera to Japan direct and try to get it covered by the manufacturer with no help from the business.
The added cost of mail order is not worth the hassle in my opinion.
I have dealt with BH for over 25 years when buying film, harware like tripods and such but I buy my bodies and lenses local, pay the extra few bucks (my recent purchase of the 5d was at the advertised 3200 just like the mail houses) and have a place to get a loaner while my camera is worked on when needed.
Besides that you support you own tax base and not that of another location.
Frank

Grey Market is not necessarily bad. I buy Canon equipment and even with there grey market items the only differnece is I must send it to a regional repair center in the USA to get it fixed. But I never had anything break anyhow. BUt each manufactor is different.

Although not the cheapest price for a camera alone there's some great package deals on offer on e-bay...... Around US$1200 will buy the camera, 3 lenses, camera bags a a pile of little goodies.......

The original poster lives in South Africa (as do I) but it shouldn't be too difficult to find a forum member in the US who's heading over here and willing to have the package delivered to him and bring it over with him.

$879.00 for the Rebel XT and the kit lens (18-55mm).
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?A=searc...=Go&shs=&ci=6222&ac=