Luminous Landscape Forum
Equipment & Techniques => Cameras, Lenses and Shooting gear => Topic started by: John McDermott on January 04, 2009, 08:23:31 pm
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I have a 20D and am tempted by the 50D. I am seeing a plethora of vendors offering the 50D in the $700 - $800 range. I have never heard of these vendors which is a red flag, but they pop up as sponsored vendors in Goggle (search for "canon 50D"), which I assume gives them a modicum of respectability. The established vendors such as B&H and 17th St Photo are offering in the $1000 - $1200 range - quite a difference. Obviously, less is better if I can convince myself to trust them. It is the larger number of low offerings that has cought my attention. I don't remember seeing this with the release of the 30D or 40D.
Can anyone shed any genuine light on what is going on? is there an inventory clearance going on at this early stage, or what? Or is it simply the old rule of "if it sounds too good to be true, it is"?
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[blockquote]
If it sounds too good to be true, then it probably is.[/blockquote]
Most of these vendors have spotty records. They have several ways that they can defraud you:
* Once you enter your order for a body only at the fantastic price, they call you and try to upsell you on $200 1 GB CF cards and other inferior quality accessories. If you don't buy other stuff at the grossly increased prices, they drag their feet on shipping you you product. They may never send you your camera.
* They sell refurb gear as new...probably unlikely for the 50D
* They sell gray market gear...though the price differential has become pretty paltry.
* They sell stolen gear that has no warranty.
I would steer clear for a major purchase like an SLR body, but with all that said, I have successfully bought from one of these vendors and after enduring a long and tedious hard-sell phone-call to try to get me to buy accessories, they did finally ship me the camera.
Storefront pics of Brooklyn Photo shops (http://donwiss.com/pictures/BrooklynStores/)
Consumerist Story on Camera shops (http://consumerist.com/consumer/complaints/priceritephoto-want-to-cancel-your-order-well-sue-140203.php)
I have a 20D and am tempted by the 50D. I am seeing a plethora of vendors offering the 50D in the $700 - $800 range. I have never heard of these vendors which is a red flag, but they pop up as sponsored vendors in Goggle (search for "canon 50D"), which I assume gives them a modicum of respectability. The established vendors such as B&H and 17th St Photo are offering in the $1000 - $1200 range - quite a difference. Obviously, less is better if I can convince myself to trust them. It is the larger number of low offerings that has cought my attention. I don't remember seeing this with the release of the 30D or 40D.
Can anyone shed any genuine light on what is going on? is there an inventory clearance going on at this early stage, or what? Or is it simply the old rule of "if it sounds too good to be true, it is"?
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I have never heard of these vendors which is a red flag, but they pop up as sponsored vendors in Goggle (search for "canon 50D"), which I assume gives them a modicum of respectability.
Reseller ratings is your friend. But in general if it is insanely cheaper it is usually too good to be true.
"A modicum is a very small amount." - Myron Reducto, Harvey Birdman Attorney at Law.
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but they pop up as sponsored vendors in Goggle (search for "canon 50D"), which I assume gives them a modicum of respectability.
I think this is a very, very bad assumption.
As the others noted above, always check resellerratings.com before buying electronics from unknown vendors at impossibly low prices. There's a reason why the prices are impossibly low.
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You can also check here:
http://www.resellerratings.com/ (http://www.resellerratings.com/)
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Just do the simpliest check you can,
Go look at BH Photo Prices. It's currently 1170, 1070 after rebate. If a shop is much less than that, say more than 50USD less, run away.
Only exception is if it's a real store like a BestBuy or Circuit City running some super sale or such.
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I finally made a decision and bought a 50D from Amazon at $1,069.95. Best pice I could find from a reputable dealer.