Buying Camera gear in Aus? Who do you use?

[scottsdaleriots]

Insure it. Then it's fine. Costs next to nothing..

Canon Aus will help with a lens if it is broken... Just complain to them on twitter.

Camera Exchange is a rip off. Go on Gumtree if you want to buy something then you can look at it.. I bought both of my Tilt shift lenses off gumtree for a steal.

Did you mean insure it with a company like RACV/AAMI? The home insurance companies?
Lol do Canon Australia really help? I know you said they helped you. Did you have to use your warranty? The paint chipped off my L lens when I was photographing at a major event (my camera was less than 2 and a half-3 weeks old when it happened  ) and the zoom ring isn't as smooth as the focussing.

Lol, did you have a bad experience with camera exchange? I never thought you could buy lenses from Gumtree, thanks for the tip I'll check it out. I found photovideo.com.au when I was on amazon looking/researching for tripods (they're a sponsored link), they have a large range but the prices are a bit stiff.

[wopbv4]

Camera Electronic in Perth. These guys have been around well over 30 years and give excellent service. They are a bit more expensive (~5%) then others, but you do get top quality advice and whenever something is wrong they will handle it professional i.e fix the problem with passion. Website: http://www.cameraelectronic.com.au/

[wickidwombat]

Camera Electronic in Perth. These guys have been around well over 30 years and give excellent service. They are a bit more expensive (~5%) then others, but you do get top quality advice and whenever something is wrong they will handle it professional i.e fix the problem with passion. Website: http://www.cameraelectronic.com.au/

yep cant fault their service, they also put a lot of sponsorship effort into the local arts community and their special prices can often even rival ebay prices. worth keeping an eye on their monthly specials

[Gollum]

Don't like JB after the sales guy screwed me.

Was buying a number of lenses and a body for a trip OS. The price a gave me was good so we did the deal. When I got home I found out he had swapped a lens on the list for a cheaper version (no this wasn't an L/Non-L issue).  As the material listed on the invoice was correct and only the total price was shown, I didn't get a good deal. Now you may think that this guy was just a low payed salesman... he was the manager.

I blame myself for not checking, never trust a company that employ this type of person.

[scottsdaleriots]

50mm lens for $356 + $6 insurance + free freight. Good deal? I am tempted but it's from DWI and I get the feeling they would resell items (namely lenses) that's been returned from customers. http://www.dwidigitalcameras.com.au/store/product.asp?idProduct=62

[niccyboy]

50mm lens for $356 + $6 insurance + free freight. Good deal? I am tempted but it's from DWI and I get the feeling they would resell items (namely lenses) that's been returned from customers. http://www.dwidigitalcameras.com.au/store/product.asp?idProduct=62

Why would they do that? who does that? If it has a canon warranty it would be fine.

[scottsdaleriots]

Why would they do that? who does that? If it has a canon warranty it would be fine.

I heard that amazon and B&H do that. they will charge you a restocking fee if you return the lens within a certain period (2 weeks or something) and will resell the lens - dunno if they'll resell the lens as brand new or as a refurb

[4thchicken]

Don't know about cameras but I bought my Zeiss 21/2.8 from topbuy.com.au and it came to my place pristine 5! days after ordering  - regional Australia. I read a lot about unhappy customers there but read about equal amount or more happy ones and decided to give it a go - fantastic price, better than B&H and anywhere else.
I am NOT a member of their team - I am just one lucky customer. They offer Australian Warranty as after-buy.

zeiss lens pricing is quite good in australia - recently acquired a 100/2 ZE - teds offered 2050 as the first price and JB 1999 (very competitive to grey import pricing). Michaels was asking for $2600+ lol

[scottsdaleriots]

what is topbuy.com.au? is that kinda like overstock.com and buy.com? like the smaller (not as high demand but makes good profits) version of amazon? how much is shipping? that's what i wanna know and the warranty policy.

[wickidwombat]

you should also keep an eye on gumtree in your area for any good deals on stuff you are looking for at least then you get to try it out

[scottsdaleriots]

is $6799 a realatively 'good' price for the 1dx body?

[Chewngum]

Don't like JB after the sales guy screwed me.

Was buying a number of lenses and a body for a trip OS. The price a gave me was good so we did the deal. When I got home I found out he had swapped a lens on the list for a cheaper version (no this wasn't an L/Non-L issue).  As the material listed on the invoice was correct and only the total price was shown, I didn't get a good deal. Now you may think that this guy was just a low payed salesman... he was the manager.

I blame myself for not checking, never trust a company that employ this type of person.

What do you mean a cheaper version? Thats a pretty negative blanket statement on a fairly large company. I worked for JB for a while and they were some tossers but plenty of people who were nice and regular people. Customers in Aus(generally) are terrible, expecting everything for nothing and treating the sales people like dirt  when they're just doing their job. The biggets problem i experienced at JB was having adequate staff for regular flows of customers but then 90% of customers all arriving at once and all expecting service immediately even if like 10 people asked for service before them.

[niccyboy]

i picked up a couple of mk3's from jb, they did it for 3800 which at the time was far cheaper than everyone else.

nice guys in the eliz st store