Photography Gears at Bargain Price

Photo gears are not cheap, especially if you are buying it brand new or having the latest fancy models. But there are several ways that you can get it cheaper and sometimes at a great bargain.

1. Export Set / Grey Market
These goods usually come without warranty and thus a 10 - 20% discount from those that are retailing with warranty. Do not be mistaken that these are of inferior quality though. Not all stores carry them and even if they do, it may be limited to certain models.

2. Buy Used
For the best bargain, deal with the sellers directly. Check out the local photo forums (Clubsnap or Offstone), Singnet or Yahoo.sg classifieds for bargains. Normally you should be paying about 80% of the retailing price for a mint set. More discount if the set is used, not a mainstream item or old models.
2nd hand stores buy cheaply from you but do not sell cheap. But they do provide you with some warranty which individual seller can't.


3. Buy from overseas
Prices varies among countries. Generally, Hong Kong retailers offers the best price! The difference is so great that it is worth flying to Hong Kong to buy a few high value items like L lenses and medium formats. Or you can get someone to bring it back for you. Alternatively you can mail order from the Hong Kong stores although it is not as straight foreward as mail ordering from US. You'll have to call and fax to the store for confirmation of price and shipping fees. You will also need their bank account so that you can pay them by transferring money to their account. Remember that you will have to pay commissions to the bank for the funds transfer, as well as the local GST when the goods are delivered to you.

Ordering from BH Photo or Adorama in US is easier since they accept credit card payment. But for most items, after adding up the shipping fees and GST (the GST is based on the value of your item plus the shipping fees and you also have to pay the courier company $10 admin fees for tax collection), the prices are not much different from the local's. Nevertheless, the price difference for some items are still worth the trouble. Also, some items are not available locally so you have no choice but to mail order.

You can also try your luck at Ebay or Photo.net for bargain even even though you take into account of the shipping fees.

4. Older Models
Instead of getting the latest 70-200L IS f2.8, you may want to consider its predecessor without the IS function. Go for the 80-200L f2.8 if you want better bargain. Although you will be trading off the IS feature or compatibility with converters, these lenses by and large will take professional L-lens-quality pictures.

5. Non-Pro Gears
You don't have to shoot with L lens to produce great pictures. Some consumer lens are almost as good and used by many pros. For Canon users, some of the bargains are the 28-105mm, 50mm f1.8, 70-210mm and 20-35mm f3.5/4.5 etc.

6. Parallel Models
Not many but there are some of these so called parallel models. Hasselblad Xpan is actually made by Fuji. Fuji calls it TX-1 and cost about $500 less. Both are exactly the same except that one is black while the other is silver.

7. Bulk Film
If you are shooting slides, it is worth the extra effort to load your own bulk film. Fuji Provia 100F bulk film cost $96 and you can load about 20 - 22 rolls. It works out to be less than $5 per roll. Otherwise, it cost about $10 per roll.

8. Digital
Digital camera is expensive but worth considering. It is no doubt an expensive investment but will subsequently reduce your recurrent cost on films, processing and printing. Digital models have a very short product life cycle and will very soon be replaced by new, better and cheaper models. Price drops drastically as well. You will have to pay a dear price if you are to get the latest model. But you will pay much less if you don't mind the previous models.

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