I saw a canon camera that retails with the US warranty for 2999, while a camera that is sold without it goes for 1620. These camera’s are usually exactly the same in all respects except that the instruction manual is written in a different language (and with no rebate.) Is there a company like Mack that will warranty these items? If not, why hasnt someone set up an arrangement like this - A huge grey market importer with a well known warranty service?
You don’t say where you saw this pricing. Good-sized, reputable camera stores ofttimes will offer their own warranty on gray market cameras.
Since you don’t seem to care much for punctuation, I’m also not sure of the actual price you’re talking about. Is it $29.99 (American dollars)? At that price I wouldn’t worry too much about warranties; that’s practically a disposable unit.
With that kind of price difference, you can just buy another one if the first one breaks, and only be out a few hundred dollars. The ultimate warranty in a sense.
Some companies will honour a warranty worldwide. I don’t know for sure if Canon is one of those or not, though I seem to recall either they or Nikon were. Worth checking out.
IIRC the gray market cameras don’t come without a warranty, just without a US warranty. You can’t get it fixed under warranty at a US dealer or manufacturer’s service facility. I think you can always send it to Japan (or wherever) where the manufacturer will repair it.
B&H Photo sells both US warranty and ‘grey’ gear. They import the grey stuff themselves and offer a US warranty from a third party. Exact same equipment, equivalent warranty, better price, no-brainer.
If you’re mail-ordering camera equipment, I’d highly recommend B&H. Beware of many camera mail-order shops. They’ll rip you off.
Yeah, Kamandi, real helpful. :rolleyes:
Sorry, posted as I was rushing out the door for lunch.
Here’s what Philip Greenspun at photo.net has to say about the grey market:
And from the same site, about mail-order shops that will rip you off:
Photo.net is a great source of down-to-earth photo information. Take note, however, that Adorama is now one of their sponsors, so they may be a little biased in cheerleading that shop. Then again, they did recommend Adorama long before Adorama sponsored them, so their advice in that respect is probably pretty good.
I’ve purchased thousands of dollars worth of stuff from B&H over the last few years with no problems whatsoever. You may pay a little more, but their reputation is second to none.
As a former Pop Photo employee, I’d just like to ditto Kamandi’s post. Many mail order camera retailers are notorious for bait and switch. B&H and Adorama, however, are both reputable and correctly priced.
KidCharlemagne didn’t specify what type of camera he was looking for. All of the above may be true for a standard film camera but digital cameras and camcorders can be an entirely different story.[ul][]The camera won’t have the manufacturer’s warranty and the supplier probably won’t be able to fix a digital camera.[]Any video feature might be in the PAL format and not the NTSC (or whatever it is) that the U.S. uses so you can’t send the image to a VCR or TV.[]The instruction manual usually won’t be in english.[]The software that comes with it plus the menu options on the camera itself may not be in english.[/ul]