Quote:
Originally Posted by joonsup
lol wow this post was very insightful till you guys are debating over which lens is better. thats just way too advanced for me. i'm trying to find the best price possible for the kit that comes with the lens. I know ebay has good deals, but they chop it up and throw in other brand lenses. I checked out the amazon site for the canon but i'm not sure if all the sites that give a price for the "kit" come with the same stuff as if you were to get it directly from canon or nikon.
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Amazon, B&H and Adorama will sell the kit just as it comes from Nikon or Canon. I can't speak for any other on-line/mail order places, I've never used them.
If it seems too good to be true, it is. You'll start hearing about grey market vs. US. The US stuff is imported by Canon / Nikon USA, and they carry the warranty. The grey market is imported Canon / Nikon gear, but it's imported by the store and not warraneted by Canon / Nikon USA.
Amazon does not sell grey market to my knowledge. 3rd party retailers through Amazon may, it's hard to say. Good retailers like B&H or Adorama, who carry both, will tell you this up front. The retailers that have crazy low prices are generally using grey market, don't want to admit it, and piece out the kits. They'll tell you there's a warranty on the grey market camera, but it is through the store, not the mfg. That's a little shady to me, given the complexity and price of these things. I have only one grey market piece, an 80-200mm f/2.8 lens I bought about 10 yrs ago, and the AF switch is broken. Thankfully the lens still works fine, but the retailer is out of business and no repair shop around me will touch it.
One other thing on the lens debate - you can usually re-sell your Nikon or Canon lenses at nearly the price of a new lens. Something to consider, as many people buy and sell lenses as they upgrade over the years. One advantage of Nikon is they've never abandoned or obsoleted old lenses with new bodies. Canon doesn't do it often, but has on occasion. The 50mm f/1.4 from my Dad's old Nikkormat, the camera I learned on, still works on my D200. None of the auto anything works, but you can still make images with it. I don't know of another mfg that can claim that.