Buying a new camera... need a little input.

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Postby debngar » Sat Feb 23, 2008 9:41 am

You don't get what you don't pay for! :wink:

I would purchase the camera from B&H or Adorama. Their prices are good and they are reputable.

If you go cheap all around, you may find yourself disappointed and out of luck with missing components that should be included with your camera they will try to charge you extra for.

I purchase some things from my local camera store here but don't see why I should spend an extra $100-$300 to keep them in business for the same lens I can get through B&H or Adorama with a warranty, etc.

Now, for why you should be careful in WHO you purchase from, I can say that I know someone personally who did just that - thought he was getting a fabulous deal on his Canon 40D with all these lenses and flash, etc etc. But there were a few things he DIDN'T get with his purchase - a warranty, the manual and the software that is suppose to come with the brand new camera, etc. He didn't discover this until after receiving the purchase. He will not say exactly where he bought it but it was mail order and I'm guessing it was from one of the many non-authorized scamming camera dealers out there that advertise dirt cheap prices and there are a lot of them. He may have also missed out on the Canon Rebates.

The advantage of puchasing from an authorized dealer is getting the cash rebates offered by Canon. You cannot get that by purchasing from an unauthorized dealer selling greymarket stuff.

I will not purchase anything expensive from Ritz either (which have at least 2-3 stores here locally) because they have not proven to me they know that much about anything after talking with them several times.

Just my 2 cents - take it or leave it.

Debbie
Last edited by debngar on Sat Feb 23, 2008 4:07 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Postby rkligman » Sat Feb 23, 2008 9:54 am

Yes, I painted it pretty B&W and obviously there are exceptions. I've bought several lens at Ritz (at higher price) because ultimately I felt I had to physically touch the lens, like the Tamron 200-500. You say the big chain stores don't provide value. For HELP that is probably very true BUT they DID have the merchandise and you DID pick it up. If there were no value to that then you would have kept on walking and not touched it. If the BCR was selling it for 100% over what MOST respectable places on the web were selling it, THEN your probably safe or you bargain with the store showing them they are way overpriced.

The basic thought is, some things just have to be seen before purchasing and if that's the case then I try my best to buy B&M. I'm in the 7th largest city in the US (well actually San Anotnio just beat us out, 8th largest). We don't have a computer store anymore in this tech mecca. The retailers are adapting but they still have to pay rent etc.

I think we're all basically agreeing to the same thing with varying levels of compliance. Glad to hear I'm not alone in this thought.
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Postby Tarafrost » Sat Feb 23, 2008 10:01 am

BarbaraC wrote:What I think is that we've seriously sidetracked this thread. :D


Ya think?

But the idea of testing locally then buying on the net is quite relevant to the topic.
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Postby BarbaraC » Sat Feb 23, 2008 10:17 am

I wouldn't know about testing camera equipment locally since there isn't a decent camera shop in the entire Capital District of NYS, not since my favorite place in Schenectady went out of business. They knew cameras there, knew how they worked, knew how to fix them, and they also knew how to use them. If they still existed, I'd buy from them happily, but as far as I'm aware, only Ritz is left in the area, and like Debbie, I've found they don't know cameras. There's another small store that I go to when I know precisely what I want, but after discussing filters with them one day and finding they didn't understand which filters did what, I decided theirs were opinions I wasn't interested in hearing.

So it would seem that, if other places are like my own, we may be doomed to eventually having to buy decent cameras sight unseen. It would be nice if some of the Internet entities had showrooms at various locations so we could touch, sniff, and taste.

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Postby Ron » Sat Feb 23, 2008 12:13 pm

Hey Not Insane Rick
Although not mentioned I whole heartily agree with you - After my local shop allowed me to test drive 2 different lenses I felt the least I could do was to make a purchase there for all your reasons.....I hope I didn't imply otherwise....If you put a value on the ability to test drive something then the internet isn't really that much of a bargain....There is a great need for local merchants...especially the smaller stores.
Well thats my 2 cents again
Ron
By the way the D80 I luv(bought at same local store)...lol
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Postby rkligman » Sat Feb 23, 2008 3:55 pm

richichi wrote:Hey Not Insane Rick
Although not mentioned I whole heartily agree with you - After my local shop allowed me to test drive 2 different lenses I felt the least I could do was to make a purchase there for all your reasons.....I hope I didn't imply otherwise....If you put a value on the ability to test drive something then the internet isn't really that much of a bargain....There is a great need for local merchants...especially the smaller stores.
Well thats my 2 cents again
Ron
By the way the D80 I luv(bought at same local store)...lol


No you didn't imply that and I tried to say that in parenthesis. Finally got out today, like Tarafrost, after being cooped up for a month. We have some baby Grizzlies at the zoo and I wanted to check'em out. Absoloutely cute little guys...for now.

I got the D80 and all my desire for another camera has gone away. I enjoy it very much too. Would I enjoy a D300 more? Probably but I don't have the money and right now I don't feel like the D80 is lacking anything. What I really wanted out the 80 was the larger LCD (love it), the extra focus points (use'em all the time), and 10Mb (been quite handy when cropping) and ISO 100 (which means I can shoot a little slower, easier, to get water to flow and noise reduction). Oh and the new AF and shutter change buttons were SORELY needed and I use the heck out of them too. Ya, I'm really quite happy with the D80.
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Postby crismahn » Mon Feb 25, 2008 10:15 pm

Hehe, well, I hate to hijack this thread :wink: but I thought I would let everyone know that I bought a Nikon D40 this evening on the way home. I got it at BestBuy.

The battery is charging right now- so I haven't played with it yet. But I'm planning to!

Thanks for all the great advice and information. I learned a lot!

Cheers,
Chris

XaiLo

Postby XaiLo » Tue Feb 26, 2008 4:17 am

Congrats and happy shooting.

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Postby Ron » Tue Feb 26, 2008 7:26 am

crismahn - enjoy your new camera and I hope you can "Keep your eyes wide open" its a beatiful world around us if you can "Just see it" take care Ron

PS: I won't comment about the Best Buys...Walmarts...etc....lol
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Postby Tarafrost » Tue Feb 26, 2008 9:32 am

Chris wrote:I bought a Nikon D40 this evening on the way home. I got it at BestBuy.
The battery is charging right now- so I haven't played with it yet. But I'm planning to!
Thanks for all the great advice and information. I learned a lot!


Congrats on the new camera, Chris!

We'll be anxiously awaiting the unveiling of some hot images from the new beast. ;-)

Glad that this thread was useful, even with the philosophical sidetracks and such. :roll:
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Postby PhotoMill » Tue Feb 26, 2008 10:15 am

Please tell me that the store that gave you a hard time was not Henry's !! I travel to Ottawa often for my printing and camera supplies. Never had a problem with them.

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Postby Tarafrost » Tue Feb 26, 2008 11:08 am

Steve wrote:Please tell me that the store that gave you a hard time was not Henry's !! I travel to Ottawa often for my printing and camera supplies. Never had a problem with them.


Neither have I. I deal with Henry's and Vistek these days.

The store to which I alluded is a local, independent one that was in downtown Barrie. Not sorry to see them close the doors.

Actually, Henry's opened a store in Barrie, Ontario in one of malls not that long ago. Probably at least partly to blame for the exit of the other place.
....Andrzej (aka: the curmudgeon)

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Postby rkligman » Tue Feb 26, 2008 1:18 pm

crismahn wrote:Hehe, well, I hate to hijack this thread :wink: but I thought I would let everyone know that I bought a Nikon D40 this evening on the way home. I got it at BestBuy.

The battery is charging right now- so I haven't played with it yet. But I'm planning to!

Thanks for all the great advice and information. I learned a lot!

Cheers,
Chris


Good for you Chris. I'm sure you'll enjoy it.
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Postby iromero » Wed Feb 27, 2008 4:24 pm

OK, after about a year or so of going back and forth, I am finally "graduating" to a dslr. I finally took the plunge. Until now, I had been happy to shoot with my Fuji S7000; a "prosumer" camera that produces excellent results. Today I was finally able to find a local vendor that had the Nikon D60 in stock. As a matter of fact, they put it on the shelf today. So I bought the D60 kit with the 18-55mm VR lens and added the 55-200mm VR lens. I got both for about $960. That's less expensive than the expected 2 lens kit will cost retail. Amazon has the 2 lens kit for $999.00 and it will be available some time in April, I believe.

Now I just have to learn how to use all the bells and whistles. Needless to say, I will be looking for opportunities to shoot. I live about 3 miles from the Everglades and we have a nature preserve about a mile from the house. We have some spectacular sunsets over the Everglades. I might make some time this weekend. We are actually having a bit of winter in South Florida. It will be in the 40's tonight. BrRR...... cold.......

Regards,

Ivan

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Postby BarbaraC » Wed Feb 27, 2008 4:56 pm

Ivan, you're going to have so much fun. You'll also discover you'll have a lot more control over the pictures you take. Good for you!

I was just watching the news and took note of how relatively cold it is in Florida. I hope we all don't end up with another year of ungodly prices on citrus fruit.

Barbara

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