Buying Stateside - a (very) rough guide

tullaman

I had a couple of questions a few months ago about buying an SLR stateside. Thanks to everyone who replied. To help others this is a belated summary of what I found out. Maybe someone can incorporate some of this into a one of the newbie stickys?

Prices:
Big savings. I got my dslr, flash, bag and sd cards for 900usd. Here I reckon I would have spent eur1000. That is a saving of over 40% based on the rate at the time.

Guarantees:
For Nikon at least it appears you are on your own.

Nikon digital products sold in Europe have a warranty which is honoured by Nikon European offices in the countries listed below. This warranty is not supported by Nikon offices outside of Europe. Nikon digital products sold outside Europe also have localised warranties and are not supported in Europe.

http://www.europe-nikon.com/home/en_...oad/386/1.html

I found it hard to locate resellers for the mackman and sagemax warranties; to figure out if they really covered me and if they would cover the postage costs (which I imagine would be highish) associated with getting a repair done. For a finish I just chanced it without any warranty (see 40% saving above). Touch wood!

Taxes, Duty etc:
Anything you import from abroad attracts a) import duty (there are a dizzying array of duty levels but cameras attract only about 5% - there is fuller info in the stickies) b) VAT. VAT is charged less any VAT already paid in the country of purchase. So keep your receipt. That said unless your camera looks brand spanking new it should not attract the attention of anyone. So throw away your packaging and keep your manuals. Worst case scenario you will still be well ahead in terms of savings.

Voltage/Charger:
Again I just took the chance on this. At worst I would have to cough up for a voltage converter do-hickey. Happily the the charger accepted 220v supply (I read the label - obviously just plugging it and hoping for the best would not be advised) and it took a standard cable the same as my camcorder on the other side so I didn't even have to rewire a plug.

Where to buy:
Okay everyone says www.bhphotovideo.com. I know it's covered in the stickes but it sounds like the Willy-Wonka Chocolate Factory of photography; a tourist attraction in it's own right; I want to visit in person. If not going in person remember to pick out everything before hand and give the shop reference numbers to your friend. NY sales tax is 8% (rounded off) and this is not refundable via any Tourist-VAT-refund scheme as far as I could figure out. Also bhphotovideo is closed on Saturdays!

Beginner Slrs:
If you are a nerd like me you will probably spend a long time looking at various different models of camera www.dpreview.com is procrastinators heaven. In the end I just decided to compare Canon and Nikon models that I could afford (ie the eos400 and the d40x) a) just to cut down on the research load b) to avail of the second hand market for lenses and such and c) stick with the crowd; I reckon nikon plus canon have 80% of the market (good straw-poll for this forum). If you are not going down the buy abroad route these are some of the options I came up with to give you and idea of prices.

***These prices are in euro from January/Feburary 2008 ***
Canon Eos400d w 18-55mm
659 Pixmania, 769 Pixels (c/w 2gb card+case), 609 Komplett

Nikon D40X 18-55mm
640 Pixmania 799 Pixels (c/w 1GB card) 645 komplett
Nikon D40 18-55mm
453 Pixmania 18-55mm 599 Pixels (c/w 1GB card)

Olympus E400
605 Pixmania (c/w 14-42mm & 40-150mm) lenses
Olympus E410 14-42mm
518 Pixmania 615 Pixmania (c/w extra 40-150mm lens) 539 Pixels

Pentax K100D 18-55mm
479 Pixmania, 599 Pixels

Pixmania Free post
Komplett Postage is about eur15 (need to confirm)

A couple of things stand out. Komplett are cheap but have a very narrow selection. Pixels are quite expensive but I think they are a real shop and I suppose it would be good to actually try before you buy somehting so expensive. The olympus and pentax cameras look every bit as good on paper to me as the same level Nikon/Canon models and often come with an extra lens. (It's just hard to find people who actually use them!)

Thoughts/Gotchas:
Very happy with my d40x. But want to get a faster lens.
SD cards of greater than 2gb have issues with old sd card readers (I access my photos over usb cable to the camera)
If I had my time around I would have gone body-only and got a better lens (the kit lenses seem to go for 100-150 euro presumably your 500eur lenses are significantly better in terms of speed and image quality)

RoryW

tullaman wrote: »

.....NY sales tax is 8% (rounded off) and this is not refundable via any Tourist-VAT-refund scheme as far as I could figure out.....

if you are not travelling to NYC and are visiting a friend located elsewhere in USA, outside of NY state, then if you order from B&H and have it shipped to your destination (your friends address) as it is leaving the NY state there is no NY sales tax

Fenster

Option 2: Send me a PM and add a 10% commission.

Thirdfox

^ great arithmetic

OnLooker

RoryW wrote: »

if you are not travelling to NYC and are visiting a friend located elsewhere in USA, outside of NY state, then if you order from B&H and have it shipped to your destination (your friends address) as it is leaving the NY state there is no NY sales tax

What about getting delivered to a hotel outside of NY state?

PaulieC

OnLooker wrote: »

What about getting delivered to a hotel outside of NY state?

B&H won't deliver to hotels

ThOnda

And Norman Bates' Motel would be accepted as a relevant address?