Buying stuff online for less....

[rtbaum]

For what it's worth-

Early last winter, the boss man whom is also into photography experienced catastrophic failure of his Nikon D80. I was tasked with finding a repair shop to take a look. I also checked various websites to try to determine what may have caused the failure. One of those websites was CinC . Local repair shops merely shrugged their shoulders, and we were forced to send the body out to NikonUSA. Today word was received that since it was apparently a "grey market" body, they could not repair it. He had ordered it online, looking for the best price. IMHO he would have been better served to have made his purchase from a trusted dealer; buyer beware!!

[ktuli]

I suppose putting a $7 battery in a $2400 camera is a NO NO to some who value by price and not performance. I suspect much of the warnings you find in manuals is self protection. I don't expect much of a $7 batteries but I can buy ten for them instead of the $70 version and it is a matter of seconds to change a battery. The curse I find of batteries is keeping them all charged up despite the freedom of Li-Ion to top-up

Actually... at your camera company's discretion, if you have an issue with your camera and they find out that you were using non-OEM batteries, they can void your warranty. Even if the issue has nothing to do with the battery.

I am also surprised that you have a hard time keeping charged batteries on hand. I have a battery grip on my camera, so I constantly have 2 batteries loaded at a time. This affords me days (sometimes weeks) of even the heaviest shooting. I keep two spares in my bag, so if I do eventually get down below 10% charge, I simply pop in the two spares and I'm back to 95%+ charge. The low ones get recharged at the first opportunity and the cycle starts over. I'd actually suspect that as a flaw in the non-OEM batteries if they're not properly holding a charge during storage - or not lasting as long per charge.

When it comes to the electrical circuits in your camera, I feel you can never be too careful. All bets are off if something is short circuited...

Same goes for my memory cards... I recently had two SanDisk cards replaced because they developed a "rattle". The cards themselves were still perfectly functional and read/wrote just fine. When I contacted SanDisk, they were very helpful and after a few quick questions, decided it was best to replace the cards just to be safe. A week later, I had two new cards in my hands. And that doesn't even go into the one that I put through the washing machine in a pants pocket - it still works just fine, and I still have it (I didn't think it was fair for SanDisk to replace something that was clearly my fault - though they do taut them as being waterproof).

I guess you can firmly put me in the conservative camp that thinks you get what you pay for and too good to be true usually is.



- Bill

[jcuknz]

>>>I am also surprised that you have a hard time keeping charged batteries on hand. I have a battery grip on my camera,<<<
You appear to only have one camera whereas I have around half a dozen, still and video, all with different batteries.
While batteries for my FZ cameras seem to be the same Panasonic have changed the design between two of their M4/3 models [ damm the b's ] so i now need three chargers for three cameras from the same maker .... URRGH!

If you buy 'grey' you have to balance the snooty attitude of Nikon against the more responsible attitude of others who give a world wide guarantee irrespective of how the camera is purchased. Trade protection at its worst? I bought Nikon early on but they didn't go where I wanted to go so they lost me. Though when that camera failed and I returned it in the original box the local agents repaired at no charge [ T A Mac. ]... so I guess there is good and bad with all firms.