Thread: Time to order gear from the USA

Originally Posted by Chucaro

Keep THIS site in your bookmarks, it is among the most reputable shops world wide and a good reference for prices of gear.

Thanks! The prices looked pretty keen but I haven't compared them. I read somewhere that due to the US being in a deflationary state at the moment that the whole place is "on sale". I read that people are buying Merc's in the US and then shipping them back to europe and still saving money??

Worthwhile to check out the au greymarket sites for price comparison. I haven't recently, but when I did it worked out cheaper than from US.

Originally Posted by Captain_Rightfoot

Is normal camera gear cheaper over there than here? Like if I wanted a nikon XXX lense would it be cheaper to order from the states?

Originally Posted by abaddonxi

Worthwhile to check out the au greymarket sites for price comparison. I haven't recently, but when I did it worked out cheaper than from US.

USA Camera prices aren't actually that good. From what I've read Nikon and Canon seem to have had some price hikes over there. Hong Kong still seems the cheapest but I haven't priced anything in Singapore for a while.

Also if you buy over $1,000 you get hit with duty on the goods so that also makes the price less appealing.

From some reasearch I did last year I found that with camera gear from the US (10% import GST and rather expensive freight factored in) that 85-90c per Aussie Dollar is the break-even mark. And of course some gear you can't get here anyway (like what Derek ordered), so any higher exchange rate is a bonus. Of course you may have to worry about non-Australian warranties, but B&H and the like are pretty good with that anyway.

I bought a Nikon D700 from B&H in August last year (with the Dollar at .85 from memory) and paid a couple of hundred more than I would have if I had bought it here. The difference was that here I would have joined a waiting list of unknown length (even though a lot of the stores here were advertising it as "in stock"), with B&H I had it in my hands literally 4 days after ordering. 2 weeks later I was on a trip to Europe and Iceland, making great use of it. Best photographic purchase I ever made!

Originally Posted by slt

The difference was that here I would have joined a waiting list of unknown length (even though a lot of the stores here were advertising it as "in stock"), with B&H I had it in my hands literally 4 days after ordering. 2 weeks later I was on a trip to Europe and Iceland, making great use of it. Best photographic purchase I ever made!

slt,

Dont forget the fact that Nikon Aus wont repair it under warranty. Lenses come with an International warranty, items such as bodies have location specific warranties.

PS - I have the current Nikon Aus price list if anyone's interested in comparing to US prices.

Originally Posted by DFNDR90

Dont forget the fact that Nikon Aus wont repair it under warranty. Lenses come with an International warranty, items such as bodies have location specific warranties.

I did mention this, read my post again. And I think I'd rather deal with B&H on warranty issues over Nikon Australia anytime.

Originally Posted by slt

From some reasearch I did last year I found that with camera gear from the US (10% import GST and rather expensive freight factored in) that 85-90c per Aussie Dollar is the break-even mark. ...

From the US there is no 10% GST as we have a free trade agreement and that would contravene the FTA, although if the item is manufactured in Japan or some other non-US country then the GST is applicable.

Remember that you should never allow any one invoice/delivery including shipping and insurances to land in Australia with a value of $A1,000.00 or more as that is the magic number where taxes and duties are levied.

Diana

I bought my last lens from this mob:
DSLR Lenses :: Digital Camera :: YouShop247

They shipped promptly and it was cheaper than buying from the US.

They are grey imports, but come with a 12 month warranty and you can buy an extended warranty. I haven't tested the claims procedure yet.

Cheers, Steve