In the market for some new glass.....

WheresMyCamera?

So as the title says I'm in the market for some new glass. Now I already know what glass I'm after, so not really looking for advise there. I'm am however looking for advise on where to get them.

Unfortunetly I have had the mixed blessing of having been in B&H so I now always compare prices of gear to there.

Not looking to start up a Rip Off Ireland/England/Europe thread. No real point Just want to see what option so people here have chosen to go for.

The front runner so far has been Albert in Kea photo HK. I do like his prices and have seen from comments here that he is fantastic to deal with. The only problem I have is all the extra costs that are added on. Which usually seem to really bump up the original bargain.

I've also seen (again on ebay) Kerso from Flash Camera. Based in Scotland his prices seem to be very close to the like's of B&H. Anyone have any dealing with them?

Anyone got any other options for me?

Cheers
A

Fionn

well the US is the cheapest you'll get generally, course you know that already, unfortunately for most stuff Ireland is a no go area.
Second-hand might be an option especially for lens, the only other thing i can think of is DigitalRev who operate a online store from HK as well as a e-bay store for some reason they dont export to ireland from the retail store!
They do on many occasions have goods located in London that you can order through e-bay, i have got some stuff that way without the worry of VAT and Customs etc.

conkeroo

Ive bought from Kea-Photo and it was top notch. Got the goods in 3 days, perfect nick but some people do have a problem with their shipping costs.

Borderfox

If its a large purchase then Albert is excellent, all my purchases with him have been over €1000 so its economies of scale, AnimalRights bought of Kerso recently so maybe he can comment on his customer service..

AnimalRights

WheresMyCamera? wrote: »

I've also seen (again on ebay) Kerso from Flash Camera. Based in Scotland his prices seem to be very close to the like's of B&H. Anyone have any dealing with them?

Yep, he's grand, good communicator via e-mails to any querys I had, I bought my 70-200 2.8IS of him and a seperate time a 1.4x extender.

Freddie59

WheresMyCamera? wrote: »

I've also seen (again on ebay) Kerso from Flash Camera. Based in Scotland his prices seem to be very close to the like's of B&H. Anyone have any dealing with them?

Bought a speedlite 430 and a 50mm 1.4 from him. Comms a bit slow but superfast from purchase. Arrived in about three days.

WheresMyCamera?

Thanks for the replies everyone. I've sent messages to both Kea and Flash Cameras and also to this crowd ADANI505 Cameras. Looking forward to what they have to say.

Been a while since I checked Alberts shop but it seems even with his shipping costs he only works out £1.50 more expensive. Overall it's costing about €130 more than B&H which is something I'm ok with.

Now just the wait for the replies.....
A

WheresMyCamera?

Damn it!!!

So it took a little while for the shops to get back to me. Problem now is I've had time to look around more and I'm wondering if my original shopping list is actually what I want.

What I was going to get was:
17-40 f/4L
70-200 f/4L

Now I'm looking at maybe just getting either one of these two:
70-200 f/2.8L
24-70 f/2.8L

Currently I use a
30D,
10-22mm (Sigma)
50mm f/1.8
60mm f/2.8 Macro


I had a mid range zoom, 28-135, but sold it as I found that 28mm wasn't wide enough for me at the short end. And 135mm just didn't have enough reach. And the lens wasn't fast enough for indoor. I hadn't used it in ages before I sold it so I didn't miss that focal range.

I did want to fill the gap a bit at the wider end of things, hense the 17-40L. I looked at the 17-55 f/2.8 but ruled it out as I will upgrade to full frame in the future and don't want to have too many EF-S lenses floating around. I'm pretty fond of 17mm on a crop body.

I also wanted to have something with a little more reach, 70-200. While I'd love to just go out and pick up the 2.8 IS version (wouldn't we all) Apart from price I don't think at this stage I'd be using the IS all that much. I can see more of a benifit of f/2.8 over f/4 IS (they're about the same price). In saying that the f/4 version is what I had on my list, mostly because of the price and it also allowed me to pick up the 17-40 too.

The curve ball has been the 24-70 f/2.8. I haven't used this lens at all. I don't know if 24mm on a crop body will be wide enough for me to serve as a general walk around lens. I know it would be totally fine on full frame though.

See my problem? Too much time to think!

Any advice welcomed.
Thanks