New lenses from Olympus

[Antonio Correia]

I wish to move to 4/3 gradually and sell my Canon stuff.
I have already a Panasonic GX7 with the 20mm f/1.7. When I have been in US - November 2014 - I was able to try some lenses from Olympus. I tried the zoom 12-40 and others with good results.
As I do not print more than A3+ the mFT is perfectly suitable for my photography. And the camera is light and I am old.

Now, I want to buy two primes: the 17mm f/1.8 and the 45mm f/1.8
I am looking for the best price of course. I do not find it in Portugal as the VAT is 23%.
It is not the first time I buy from Germany where the VAT is 19%. And I am not going to US before October 2015.
The shipping is not free most of the times. However, my wife bought two pair of shoes from UK with free shipping a couple of months ago.
I thought I can find such a service/bonus when buying the lens from UK.

If you please, I need you - British citizen - to give me a clue of shops selling photography equipment on line.
Thank you !

[outerspaceman]

Hi Antonio try looking here for cameras etc
http://www.camerapricebuster.co.uk/
It is run as a not for profit site by a private individual and lists the cheapest places to buy camera gear in the UK
Hope this helps
Steve

[jcuknz]

When I was trying to help a Spanish resident I suggested Amazon [UK] as a source....
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Olympus-M-ZU...s=Olympus+lens
and
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Olympus-M-ZU...s=Olympus+lens
hope this helps

[Antonio Correia]

Thank you Steve.
Sites must be reliable !

[Antonio Correia]

Thank you John.
Amazon is a good option of course but sometimes they tax the VAT of the destination country. And that, no thank you !

[jcuknz]

I have often bought Amazon and believe any risk comes from the postal service rather than vendor.
Check out the Amazon back-up if you have doubts.

edit ... the difference between 20 and 23% VAT is negligible compared to overall cost of item.

[outerspaceman]

www.camerapricebuster.co.uk/
Only lists reliable retailers on it's site

[ajohnw]

Actually buying from the USA or none EU countries can turn out to be favourable. A lot depends on how the company that sells ships things. USPS is remarkable value into the UK form the USA. UPS etc isn't so it can work out cheaper to buy locally. That is often the case even when buying from EU countries.

If none eu vat is generally the only tax that will be charged on imports plus a tax collection fee probably if USPS has been used. The reason for the fee seems to be that the domestic carruer Royal Mail in the case of the UK does their end for free. This also explains why companies like UPS are a lot more expensive - they handle it at both ends.

It pays to remember that guarantees are often invalid on imports. I get the impression that in the UK for instance there might be some dispute about trying to claim on an EU wide guarantee. Sometimes the UK has a specific guarantee. The companies do this to protect their dealers.

To be honest though often I find that when taxes are taken into account there isn't as much difference in prices any more on camera assocuated things as there was.in the past. The far east can be different but sometimes they price at a level where import duty would make the item more expensive than buying locally.

One thing fo sure though - in the EU VAT should only be charged at source. I suspect this is really why some UK politicians would like to get us out of it. That way they can tax all imports.

John
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[Shadowman]

I wish to move to 4/3 gradually and sell my Canon stuff.
I have already a Panasonic GX7 with the 20mm f/1.7. When I have been in US - November 2014 - I was able to try some lenses from Olympus. I tried the zoom 12-40 and others with good results.
As I do not print more than A3+ the mFT is perfectly suitable for my photography. And the camera is light and I am old.

Now, I want to buy two primes: the 17mm f/1.8 and the 45mm f/1.8
I am looking for the best price of course. I do not find it in Portugal as the VAT is 23%.
It is not the first time I buy from Germany where the VAT is 19%. And I am not going to US before October 2015.
The shipping is not free most of the times. However, my wife bought two pair of shoes from UK with free shipping a couple of months ago.
I thought I can find such a service/bonus when buying the lens from UK.

If you please, I need you - British citizen - to give me a clue of shops selling photography equipment on line.
Thank you !

Antonio,

I can see the reason for considering the 45mm but why the 17mm as you have the 20mm? I'm assuming you are talking about the pancake lens, I have an Olympus Pen camera and was considering getting the 17mm, another member, Inkista suggested I try the Panasonic 20mm and I haven't regretted it since. I have the 14-42mm kit lens, so I can achieve the 17mm focal length; just don't have the speed on that lens.

[Shadowman]

www.warehouseexpress.com

www.ParkCameras.com

[inkista]

Probably completely useless information, but have you tried the Olympus website itself for refurbished lenses? I've used the US site for purchasing refurbed Olympus gear. My 45/1.8 (US$319 vs. US$399), and 9-18 ($399 vs. $699) were both available there.

It looks like the Portuguese site does have an outlet section, but I can't find if they're listing lenses.

One more note. Make sure that if you get an Olympus lens it's an m.Zuiko. Some of the lenses made by Panasonic and Olympus had similar names, but came in both four-thirds SLR and micro four-thirds mirrorless mounts (e.g., Oly made a 9-18 for four-thirds and a different 9-18 for micro four-thirds). You want m.Zuiko for Oly lenses, and Lumix G on Panasonic lenses.

[Antonio Correia]

Antonio, I can see the reason for considering the 45mm but why the 17mm as you have the 20mm? I'm assuming you are talking about the pancake lens, I have an Olympus Pen camera and was considering getting the 17mm, another member, Inkista suggested I try the Panasonic 20mm and I haven't regretted it since. I have the 14-42mm kit lens, so I can achieve the 17mm focal length; just don't have the speed on that lens.

John, you are absolutely right. This is a mistake. I was planning to buy the Panasonic Lumix G Leica DG Summilux 15mm f/1.7 and when looking for prices on the web, I got confused and ...
Thank you !
However, at this point I am not sure if I am not opting by the Olympus M.Zuiko 12-40mm 2.8. I have used in USA with good results. What may attract me in the 15mm is that it is very discreet and very good to photograph people ... in silence.
I am planning to program C3 to face Detection, A priority, iISO and time laps until 20 images are captured. Meanwhile, I will be looking somewhere else hoping for some nice results. Kind of random photographs...
The zoom is very good I know but not that discreet ...

Panasonic Leica DG Summilux 15mm f/1.7
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I am a bit short of time now but I will come back to drop a line to the others who have been kind answering my question. See you later !

[Antonio Correia]

I think I do not have to list everyone just to thank you all for your kind and valuable contributions!
I have been looking throught UK shops and the lenses have more or less the same price all over. In addition there is the currency conversion which runs agains Euro in this case.
I have also noticed that the prices are very similar if not the sames in Portugal for example and in Germany.
I do not want to risk buying from US. Too risky in financial terms.
Kathy Li gave me a good clue about refurbished lenses. I will make sure about the m thank you
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Something else
I hope to be able to go CA next October. Then, I will be able - if the Euro stand at this level because we do not know what is going to happen with the Greek issue - to buy another lens. Now, I will refrain myself and get a shipper equipment.

Again, thank you all ! Much obliged !