Amazing - no difference in price

[rpcrowe]

My son-in-law wants a camera in a somewhat smaller package than the Canon 350D with 28-135mm lens he inherited from me. He doesn't need exceptionally high quality imagery but wants a long lens as part of the setup.

I was thinking about the Canon Powershot SX50-HS which suits his criteria to a "T".

I looked at prices from Adorama and from B&H in New York City, both of which are great retailers. Here are the prices from Adorama...

http://www.adorama.com/searchsite/de...erShot+SX50+HS

I normally think that camera packages are a waste of money but, this package is the same price as the bare camera and includes an extra battery, a memory card, a case and a tripod. O.K., the tripod is a piece of junk but the other three items are something he would need to buy.

BTW: B&H pricing is exactly the same for the bare camera. Both retailers offer free shipping.

[blakemcguire]

Well, I agree on the tripod, but we sell the Transcend cards and I have yet to hear of one being bad. Sounds like a good deal!

[Manfred M]

Richard - I remember reading an article that Canon, Nikon and potentially other camera companies have instituted policies that dealers cannot discount their products. This was in theory an attempt to prevent people shopping around just for price. The outcome seems to be that the dealers all have the same price for the product now, as has been forced on them by the distributors, so they have started to add in "extras" to attract customers.

This means that you will see all retailers selling at list price, hence the same price for the camera by itself and the package deal.

[AB26]

Hi Richard,

I am a little confused here. Do you look at the picture at the top displaying the camera, tripod, battery, memory card and bag, for $449.00? Have you phoned them and made sure what is included in the "bundle"?

They always say if it is to good to be true......... - be careful.
Makes no sense.

[DanK]

Canon, Nikon and potentially other camera companies have instituted policies that dealers cannot discount their products.

Thankfully, it is not as bad as that. Canon recently followed Nikon in imposing MAP--minimum advertised prices--on authorized dealers. That does not control actual sale prices. It just makes it harder to shop. Retailers can add freebies in bundles, or they can leave it to customers to contact them for actual prices. Henry Posner at B&H posted about this on photo.net recently.

[Scott Stephen]

Thankfully, it is not as bad as that. Canon recently followed Nikon in imposing MAP--minimum advertised prices--on authorized dealers. That does not control actual sale prices. It just makes it harder to shop. Retailers can add freebies in bundles, or they can leave it to customers to contact them for actual prices. Henry Posner at B&H posted about this on photo.net recently.

Can you post a link to that post please? Thanks.

[oleleclos]

MAP--minimum advertised prices

The operative word here is advertised, and that is apparently very narrowly defined. According to Amazon.co.uk, it means that they can't show prices below the minimum on the main product web page, but they can have a link there that says "click here to see price". Smoke and mirrors.

[rpcrowe]

Is the Minimimum Advertised Price the reason that some internet ads state "you will not see the price of this item until it is in your shopping cart"?

That way, they are not advertising the item with a lower price than the MAP. But, they can sell it at a lower price...

A store like Costco, doubles the manufacturer's warranty period. I guess that's their way of getting around the MAP...

[DanK]

Can you post a link to that post please?

I don't have it, but you can find it by searching the Canon EOS forum at photo.net

[Dtilden]

maybe its just me but I have found the people at B &H willing to meet any deal Adorama has. It's worth the call to see if they will. good luck. Dennis