Buying Cameras Far east

[mammarazzi]

Hi Folks just returned from a long trip to far east including Hong Kong, Thailand and Dubai....Looking to buy a cheaper Canon EOS 5D mkIII but could only get £100 cheaper than UK cheapest price (£1799). The problem was that the warranty is not valid the moment you leave the airspace of the country you buy it from. As far as Canon is concerned you get a far better deal at home if you are willing to do the work than trying to buy cheap from abroad, I will be ordering my new EOS 5D MKIII with full warranty from the good old UK......problem was I was looking forward to documenting my trip with a new camera but had to settle for my old 550D

[Shadowman]

You always read articles warning against buying equipment abroad, is it grey market, is a warranty valid, was the product obtained legally, will it get through customs. Not really worth the amount of uncertainty.

[rpcrowe]

I was in Hong Kong five years ago and wanted to purchase a simple lens hood for my 70-200mm f/4L IS lens. They only had Canon OEM hoods at a far-higher price than I would pay in the USA. I could not find any Chinese knock-off hoods. I was very disappointed at the camera shops on Nathan Road both for selection and pricing...

Back in the Golden Days of Hong Kong (Golden Days for a guy like me anyway) when it was a British Crown Colony; the Royal Navy ran the China Fleet Club which was a respite for U.K. Sailors while their ships were in Hong Kong undergoing overhaul. The club rented rooms (bare-bones rooms but at bare-bones prices), had several nice restaurants and a couple of great pubs. They also had a salesroom in which all sorts of wonderful gear was available including a great selection of photo gear at prices even cheaper than in Japan. As a U.S. Navy Bluejacket, I had access to the club!

I really missed the China Fleet Club on my last trip to Hong Kong! In fact, IMO, the general ambiance of H.K. had changed (not for the better) since the People's Republic took over...

BTW Joanne, you do a darn good job with your old 550D but, good luck with new your 5Diii

[Howker]

All the major camera manufacturers 'protect' each market to the point it causes terrible customer service. Lets face it it should not matter where you buy a product the maker should stand behind it. World wide warranties are worthless. I can assure you that Nikon & Canon will not even look at a camera/lens EVEN WITHIN warranty unless its in the country you bought it in. I know from bitter experience. The DSLR market is bigger in USA than anywhere else in the world so by far the cheapest place for them.
ILC's or mirror-less have theri biggest market in Asia not including Japan! So best plce to get them - Anywhere in Asia except Japan.

[Manfred M]

In general, the camera manufacturers do not warranty their products directly, but rather farm that work out to the local distributor (which operates in a specific country or region, and may be wholly owned by the manufacturer).

They are not willing to pay for warranty work on a product that they did not make any money on; part of the selling price covers off these warranty repair costs. If you buy a product in another country, it is covered by the distributor in the country where you bought the product, but that means you have to ship it there for warranty work.

There are a few manufactures that do offer international warranties. These work a little differently; warranty work is billed back to the manufacturer by the local distributor. I believe Sigma works this way.

[shreds]

It is also a way to protect their pricing policies in different parts of the world.

Interestingly, B&H sell 'genuine US models' and 'gray market models' which usually means Europe or the Far East rather than 'knock off' goods. Of course B&H do offer their own warranties, but that is slightly expensive to anyone in places like the UK to ship them back for repair/replacement and of course you have import taxes too (less US sales tax) when you first buy them.

[Bobobird]

From my own experiences - cameras are cheaper here. Lens on the other hand are cheaper in HK.

Richard -
China Fleet Club is still there. Havent been in there for many years and not sure how it is operating nowadays.

Nathan Road - the absolutely last place for camera gear. If you are heading that way again, check in and will give you a couple of places to go to.

Ambiance - it has certainly changed and yes not for the better. Worse now compared to 5 years ago.