“Galaxy is bankrupt..”
“Galaxy is closed …”
“Galaxy sells grey market”
“Henry’s has bought Galaxy”

This has even extended to an e-mail (not from Henry’s directly) sent to members of the RA Photo Club” echoing that same line.

Henry’s Bank Steet, is pretty much a Nikon shop, staffed with arrogant sales people like PW, who if you aren’t going to buy $10K plus of Nikon gear will walk away from you. In fact I quit buying at Henry’s Ottawa because I despise being talked down to (again PW) My favourite crack of his was reference that he was a pro,stating his words; “I am a professional photographer!” well.. actually he is a middle-aged man working in a camera store!

I doubt any of the sales floor level Henry’s staff are privy to any actual Canon allocation plans, as they are not involved in purchasing.

Sounds like they are trying to keep people out of the local shops.

“1) The 5D2 can only be sold by pro dealers. Henrys, Aden, Vistek, Downtown Camera… etc etc. This would eliminate selling in mom & pop stores as well as Best Buy & Future Shop.”

FutureShop IMHO never sold pro-level cameras, they would always go popular.

They got 3 shipments, apparently 10 each
one is for End of Nov delivery, then End of Dec, then January 2009

& they claimed that “most” of the 5D2 shipment to Australia, is coming to Michael’s Melbourne (i find it hard to believe though)

so yey .. i am getting my 5D + kit end of november/early december

PS: A$3999 is pretty cheap considering our falling AUD vs USD (they are selling USD2699 @ B&H = AUD4050 + gst + duty if u buy it direct)

To build new factories, to have built up extra inventory, etc., would have cost money that in this economic environment they can ill afford. No reason to think any of that would pass through their corporate mind.

So, all Canon is doing is trying to be as fair (in their eyes) as they can to the pros who will buy their next pro camera. Canon apparently thinks, “Why not get this pro camera into pro hands first?” They are the bread a butter of this niche market; they buy the lens; they buy second bodies; they buy all the accessories.

Okay, not my idea of fair, but ce la vie! If I have the annoying bad luck of getting my 5DMk2 in March instead of November, they will just have to wait until then before I buy my 16-35mm zoom, too. I’m not switching to Nikon this late in the game with all the glass I own… and, well, Canon knows that, too.

http://www.usa.canon.com/app/emails/eosnov08/?WT.mc_id=EM0811EO01002

I also appreciate the fact that production is flexible only to a certain point and that predicting demand is difficult at best. 100% service levels are infinitely expensive.

These points help me see that waiting customers are inherent to the process of bringing out a popular new product. I do not like it, but I just have to.

I agree that they grossly under estimated the demand for the 5D MK II, but I can’t find fault with that, after all, they now have 2 competitors so any new product would have to share sales, and they were likely very concerned about Sony being a sleeping giant and waking up to sell a huge number of FF cameras at a low price point.

It turns out that in spite of the complainers about auto focus and unwanted features like video and too many pixels, a huge nomber of people put down their hard earned money for a camera that doesn’t have a final production version out.

The huge Canon pre-sales is certainly not lost on Nikon or Sony, and we can expect a Nikon competitor soon, and hopefully, Sony will see that there is a large market out there, and come up with a low cost FF next year. I believe they could do it if they wanted.

I also agree that raising prices on pre-order cameras is bad. I had a 50D with 18-200mm lens pre-ordered from Amazon.com from almost day one. After two weeks, they raised the price by $400 and cancelled my order. I have since avoided doing business with them, they have lost several thousand in sales.

One of the most basic (or at least smartest) rules of doing business is to under promise and over-deliver. Canon is doing just the opposite with price increases, suspected delayed release dates and from what it sounds like there’s going to be a massive shortage of stock. I don’t mind waiting a week or two if it’s late but months?

What I’m most frustrated about is the price raise on pre-order cameras. I can understand price increases due to exchange rate but for Canon and their distributors not to honor the pre-ordered prices seems ridiculous. I feel like Canon thinks demand for this Camera is so high they can do whatever they want. It’s sad but I know I’m still going to do whatever I can to get my hands on one as soon as possible but I’ve definitely lost a lot of respect for Canon and I’ll definitely be weighing my options in the future for when Nikon releases a high megapixel, full frame, dSLR + video. Better yet whose excited for the “game changing” RED announcement?