POLL: Would you buy a grey market body ??

[Psycronic]

if it cost less taking taxes etc into account, most definitely (reputable dealers only though). Quite a few of them also offer international warranties (eg Mack)

[Redgum]

What is an "International" warranty? I know with some companies that means RTB (Return to Base) for repair which can be prohibitive cost wise and a challenge with customs. If you're unfortunate enough to need this, is it worth it?

[Steve Axford]

What is an "International" warranty? I know with some companies that means RTB (Return to Base) for repair which can be prohibitive cost wise and a challenge with customs. If you're unfortunate enough to need this, is it worth it?

It means a warranty not by the original manufacturer i.e. probably not as good. If you buy it overseas you may have to return it to the country of origin (as in the case of an "international" warranty on lenses with B&H - but you can buy the USA versions which have a manufacturer warranty). I think you have to weigh up the saving. If it is high, then it is probably worth it.

[Paper_Mache_Man]

Yes, totally and the more expensive the item is the more inclined I'll be to get a grey import.

There are numerous retailers that will provide warranty on grey items. There are also some Oz distributors willing to match grey import prices. I'd try the latter first and then go full grey 2nd.

[Steve Axford]

It seems to vary a lot, PMC. Some items are just as cheap in Oz, but some are way more expensive. I think it depends on demand with the less usually items tending to be overpriced here, but it doesn't always work that way. I'm with you though - get them locally if you can, if not grey is ok.

[Redgum]

I did a comprehensive article for Australian Video Camera magazine about three years ago on "international warranties". Like any other insurance you get what you pay for and in most cases that was very little. There were a high percentage of "withholds" where the supplier withheld the return of your camera until payment was made, claiming the repair was outside warranty. Often, this payment and freight was just as expensive as the original purchase.
Most punters had no legal recourse for overseas purchase.
So if international warranty is offered you should factor in this loss at time of original purchase. We found that in the majority of cases the warranty was less than beneficial. (Much the same as third party car warranty on a second hand car).
And quite frankly, this is where the margin is for grey importers.

[Paper_Mache_Man]

It seems to vary a lot, PMC. Some items are just as cheap in Oz, but some are way more expensive. I think it depends on demand with the less usually items tending to be overpriced here, but it doesn't always work that way. I'm with you though - get them locally if you can, if not grey is ok.

Yeah totally, some items just don't work out cheaper and in some cases it's not possible to get good local warranty in which case the cost of having to send it back to Mars/Venus may outweigh the initial saving.

It's always going to come down to a value judgement. The main thing I'd stress is to be aware of greys as a viable option and not reject it just because 'its grey'.

My only experience is with my 450D. I purchased it from B&H. They had a 14/30 day defective return/exchange policy. Once this had expired I discovered a hot pixel that shows at very slow (1/10) shutter speeds at 1600ISO. If I had local warranty I could get it fixed for free (I think). However for the drama it would cause to send it over to Canon US via a mate it's not worth getting fixed.

Am I unhappy that I bought it from there though? Hell no! I think I saved around $400 at the time when I bought it...that's the cost of a good 2nd hand lens or a new prime or flash.

So yeah...just weigh up the options.

The only thing I will say is that you're far more likely to run into warranty issues on a body than you are with any other camera equipment. To me that's a moot point though as most bodies only come with 1 year. I'd imagine with the top models this would actually matter though (where longer warranty is offered?).

Oh and of course, just because they say they will cover it you're still going to have to deal with the actual service.

I am still trying to get a working LCD from DELL which I bought a year ago. So far they've managed to send me a refurb with a big scratch on it despite promising a new boxed package. So yeah...there's always the chance the warranty wont be worth the paper it's written on lol!

[Steve Axford]

I did a comprehensive article for Australian Video Camera magazine about three years ago on "international warranties". Like any other insurance you get what you pay for and in most cases that was very little. There were a high percentage of "withholds" where the supplier withheld the return of your camera until payment was made, claiming the repair was outside warranty. Often, this payment and freight was just as expensive as the original purchase.
Most punters had no legal recourse for overseas purchase.
So if international warranty is offered you should factor in this loss at time of original purchase. We found that in the majority of cases the warranty was less than beneficial. (Much the same as third party car warranty on a second hand car).
And quite frankly, this is where the margin is for grey importers.

For myself, I tend to count an international warranty as being worthless. So, the item has to be good value even without the warranty. Camera bodies seem to be the main problem area as Canon will not warranty a camera body purchased outside Australia, so I buy them here as they really aren't much more expensive if you shop around. Lenses, on the other hand, can be much cheaper and are less likely to break. Also, Canon (sorry I don't know the other brands) do warranty lenses bought overseas, so you don't even have to buy grey. I've only ever bought a few grey items, but that was some years ago when it was worth it (30% off!!!!). I do, however buy a lot of lenses form OS, usually from B&H, but all come with the manufacturers warranty. So I guess, I'm agreeing. Why bother to buy grey nowdays when it costs little extra to buy the warrantied item. But, if the grey item is sufficiently cheap then go for it and accept the loss of warranty.

[Paper_Mache_Man]

For myself, I tend to count an international warranty as being worthless. So, the item has to be good value even without the warranty. Camera bodies seem to be the main problem area as Canon will not warranty a camera body purchased outside Australia, so I buy them here as they really aren't much more expensive if you shop around. Lenses, on the other hand, can be much cheaper and are less likely to break. Also, Canon (sorry I don't know the other brands) do warranty lenses bought overseas, so you don't even have to buy grey. I've only ever bought a few grey items, but that was some years ago when it was worth it (30% off!!!!). I do, however buy a lot of lenses form OS, usually from B&H, but all come with the manufacturers warranty. So I guess, I'm agreeing. Why bother to buy grey nowdays when it costs little extra to buy the warrantied item. But, if the grey item is sufficiently cheap then go for it and accept the loss of warranty.

I don't understand, if you buy from B&H you are buying grey either way. I know B&H have a grey import option but I thought that only affects US residents.

[Steve Axford]

I don't understand, if you buy from B&H you are buying grey either way. I know B&H have a grey import option but I thought that only affects US residents.

You buy lenses from B&H and you have a choice, "international" or "USA". If you buy USA, you get an international warranty from Canon. If you buy "International", you get a B&H warranty that you have to send back to them to get fixed. So, you don't have to buy grey from OS.

[Paper_Mache_Man]

Really?! I thought all Canon lenses were covered by an international warranty regardless of where it was purchased/imported from. If that's not the case...good to know. I guess that's another down side to grey/imports...you really need to check the fine print.

[David]

No way> A guy at my camera store told me today IF you can get an international warrranty serviced in Australia they go to the back of the queue behind the Australian Warranty/Brought jobs so you can be waiting months and months to get the camera back. For the extra dollars you pay to NOT buy grey imports and shop around and make a deal with the locals I would resist buying a body or lens from a 'grey' supplier.

[Steve Axford]

It is my understanding that (with Canon) camera bodies bought overseas have no Australian warranty even if they are not grey items where purchased. Lenses, on the other hand, have a full Australian warranty if they are purchased overseas and are not grey items. I think "a guy at my camera store" is not the best reference for this. Try calling Canon. They don't run a double queue.

To PMP. The B&H "International" means grey. The B&H "USA" means it is from Canon.

[David]

It is my understanding that (with Canon) camera bodies bought overseas have no Australian warranty even if they are not grey items where purchased. Lenses, on the other hand, have a full Australian warranty if they are purchased overseas and are not grey items. I think "a guy at my camera store" is not the best reference for this. Try calling Canon. They don't run a double queue.

To PMP. The B&H "International" means grey. The B&H "USA" means it is from Canon.

0k Steve, thanks for the advise

[The Moose]

I'd think about it but if I'm going to buy new, I don't think I would. If it's not used then it'll be bought from an authorised dealer.

[TUN35]

I did buy grey due to the saving and would again as long as I was making a reasonable saving.

[luvmadaysoff]

L series lenses I believe still have an international warranty. As for the Bodies, one has to ask ones self two questions:

1) how likely is it that a camera body of this magnitude (canon 30D, 40D, 5D MarkII), is going to become faulty from a warranty perspective?

2) If in the very small chance there is a problem, then this second question becomes simple; Is the cost of repair, like to be less than/equal to/greater than the amount saved by purchasing the real thing, simply imported from a grey import dealer (Non Authorised).

Some time ago I purchased a camera body from a grey importer. I then saw prices change over the next few weeks (currency/exchange rates), and mentioned that I wished I had of purchased the dearer model. His response: Bring it back in, we'll use it as a demo model, and we'll sell you the one you wanted". GOOD LUCK getting that response at "Teds" or another store.

We have since purchased thousands of dollars worth of stock from them, over several years, and are very impressed. My only gripe is that they are temporarily shut down while moving location. (* five weeks to go -Yippee!!)

A note of interest. They sell an incredible amount of stock, (November 2007 = approximately 35 DSLR camera bodies per week plus lenses & accessories). They mentioned to me that they had had a couple of cameras returned over the years with warranty problems. One customer waited while the unit was shipped back to manufacturer, repaired, returned, and picked up by customer within less than three weeks, (Canon Australia would be lucky to have looked at it by that time), while the other two customers, happily exchanged their camera body for a BRAND NEW body at No extra charge. Again, good luck getting that from some retail camera store. They don't want to know you half the time if your not there to potentially spend money!

On the other hand, if you have an out of the ordinary, very good camera retailer, then advice & service from them is very valuable, and sometimes well worth the spend.

[kiwi]

Shame if your camera died while they were moving. 5 weeks is a long time between shots.

Teds however are always there. And have always looked after me, despite the fact that I price shop vs Grey and sometimes they cant match price.

Im glad you like your current supplier, but you are making huge generalisations about Teds and Canon.

[arubaato]

I bought my 5D2 body plus a 135 f2L plus an extreme 4 16GB card in HK for less than a "authorised" body here. It's absolutely fine. So I would definitely buy "grey". The whole "grey import" name is just given by the authorised dealers as a scare tactic to encourage people to buy from them.

[Redgum]

I don't think so but read the rest of this thread first.