Hugely Disappointed In 5D III Price

[Angryoak]

not shocked at the price, $3500 was about what I was expecting...however UK retailers are asking for £3000...pretty much £1000 more than the conversion and only £500 short of the US $3500.

bit much for me to be honest.  I'll wait and see what happens in the summer.

Well in Australia they want $4399 for a pre-order. Remember that every $1AUD= $1.08US. This company is obviously either ripping us off, or can't implement a basic currency hedging strategy.

Very unhappy & very pissed off!!!!

[noisejammer]

To be fair, this is about $200 above the introductory price of the 5D2 and probably doesn't take into account the depreciation of the USD against the Yen. Nevertheless, I'll be using my 5D2 for the next while and if Canon Canada doesn't get its pricing and availability in line with the US, my order for a 1DX will be cancelled too.

Re the price in Norway.... that's simply absurd. Fly over to the US and get one from a low-sales-tax place. You will save money

[alipaulphotography]

I could fly to the US, have a mini holiday in New York and pick up the 5DMKIII for the same price as buying it in the UK.

Question - Has anyone ever done this and how did they avoid customs?

Seems like a pretty tempting idea!

EDIT - just to clarify I dont have a massive problem with the price and I can pay it off with a few weddings this summer. But a free trip to the US does sound tempting!

[studio1972]

I could fly to the US, have a mini holiday in New York and pick up the 5DMKIII for the same price as buying it in the UK.

Question - Has anyone ever done this and how did they avoid customs?

Seems like a pretty tempting idea!

As long as it's just 1 camera, surely there would be no problem (practically speaking rather than legally), tourists do tend to carry cameras around with them after all.

[CJRodgers]

I could fly to the US, have a mini holiday in New York and pick up the 5DMKIII for the same price as buying it in the UK.

Question - Has anyone ever done this and how did they avoid customs?

Seems like a pretty tempting idea!

EDIT - just to clarify I dont have a massive problem with the price and I can pay it off with a few weddings this summer. But a free trip to the US does sound tempting!

I would like to do this aswell but then it would be pain to get it fixed under warrenty if something went wrong.

[darrengreer]

There is no way in heck as an amateur I'll be able to justify the mark III, but I'm probably going to buy the mark II, but not sure when it will be safe to do that.  I've found a good price here:

http://bestpricephoto.com/h/product_info.php/canon-eos-5d-mark-ii-211-megapixel-digital-camera-body-p-17452?csv=gg&osCsid=bf0b926da9798ef2fae7a536460da34e

But, do we expect it to drop further than that?

[nighstar]

i will probably end up buying the Mark III for $4,200 AUD, but i won't be the least bit happy about the price! the only reason i even can is because my S.O. is an awesome person who's ok with me paying him/us back. 

to be honest, i would be completely happy with "just" a Mark II if it weren't for the AF. i need fast AF (and low light performance) for animal photography and nothing else i own can do it right. my miss rate is utterly frustrating. so that, and pretty much that alone, is my reason for forking out $$$$. everything else is gravy.

[nex-s]

Why wouldn't we complain? 5D mk II costs ~1500 pounds, 5D mk III will cost around ~2500 pounds. Ridiculous.

Even more so when you consider the evolution. If Continues like this then you'll pay 4500$ for your next 5D or whatever only because it will have an even more improved sensor or smth. SO WHAT? SO WHAT THAT IT IS IMPROVED? You don't charge people for something that is improved over a several year old camera or anything else for that matter. If everyone would make the prices like Canon do now with these new releases, then your VW Golf 10 will cost you 5 times more in the future than it does now. (considering the value of money doesn't change). So where is the logic? If I buy a laptop with an i7 processor now for 1500$ ir whatever and in 4yrs the same laptop with the new generation processor will cost me 2500$?!?!?! Just because it's evolving?! That's just absurd! And that is exactly what everyone is complaining about. If you are happy with the price now, don't be surprised the next 5D will cost you the same 30% more than this mk III one when it comes out. In the end we'll pay more than twice as much for cameras than we do now just because they have evolved... Basically, we shouldn't pay the same price for old gear after it's been out there for several years...

[necator]

It's not fair but hey, if you think that US consumers are getting a great deal, go ahead and exchange your money, buy the camera from a US seller , and see what price you end up paying. After you do this and pay about an extra $1000 USD you'll understand the price and exchange rates don't work out that way. It's all based on relative purchasing power... Not the actual exchange rates.

The problem is: Canon refuses to repair foreign cameras (and lenses and so on) which are not from the same country. (Well, and if laws forbid that, they'll send it over the big pond for repair ... have some happy moths waiting). Not to mention warranty. They do this, since (at least for Europeans) you people in the US really get the GREAT DEAL. Really.

[nighstar]

sorry, but this made me laugh...

[fifthblade]

I have no problem with the $3499 rrp, I do have an issue with the UK retail of £2999 though.
Which at today's exchange rate would make it $4755US.

I just don't see how its justified for UK residents to be expected to pay an extra $1256US for the exact same product. But its hard to blame Canon for something that happens with every manufacturer on every electrical item, in nearly every store in this country.
We pay through the nose on pretty much everything, our wages are considerably lower than  most of the rest of Europe and our costs of living considerably higher.

So consider this more of a general 'Rip-off' Britain moan than a 'angry at the 5dmk3 price' one.

I'm still hopefull for Amazon.co.uk really,
They routinely sell Apple products in the UK at far less than the Apple Discounted Education or pro account rate.
I'll wait until they list the body and see if the situation improves.

[caMARYnon]

31 000 Swedish kronor

translated

4 654.805 U.S. dollars

While it seems simple to compare the pricing " injustice" by simply using an exchange rate, that is would be so far from how pricing is actually determined in different countries and markets. The USD price of the camera is based on US consumer purchasing power, the exchange rate and fair market value.

It's not fair but hey, if you think that US consumers are getting a great deal, go ahead and exchange your money, buy the camera from a US seller , and see what price you end up paying. After you do this and pay about an extra $1000 USD you'll understand the price and exchange rates don't work out that way. It's all based on relative purchasing power... Not the actual exchange rates.

For those interested in market pricing strategy
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Purchasing_power_parity

In Romania 16 000 RON means 3.680 EURO or 4.878 US$ ... so, jbwise01, just empty words

[Axilrod]

Yeah I'm kinda fed up with people complaining about prices too, but I'm not going to tell them to shut up.  I've spent the last month trying to tell people that $3500 was accurate and what I noticed was, people didn't really use reason.  It boiled down to this:
1) Anyone that couldn't/wouldn't pay $3500 didn't want it to be $3500
2) Anyone that could/would pay $3500 didn't care

It sucks when you really want something and it's released and not in your price range, but come on it's not like no one saw this coming!  The price has been up for a month, and it's interesting that people welcomed and accepted every single spec except the price.  "Oh well the rest of the list looks good but the guy must have misheard/misread the price."  or "that's gotta be the kit price"--- even though that would put the body within a couple hundred bucks of the 5DII, which would be foolish.  I even saw someone suggest $3500 was the price with the 24-70 II, which seriously made me laugh so hard I was almost crying.

[scubasteve03]

There is no way in heck as an amateur I'll be able to justify the mark III, but I'm probably going to buy the mark II, but not sure when it will be safe to do that.  I've found a good price here:

http://bestpricephoto.com/h/product_info.php/canon-eos-5d-mark-ii-211-megapixel-digital-camera-body-p-17452?csv=gg&osCsid=bf0b926da9798ef2fae7a536460da34e

But, do we expect it to drop further than that?

STAY AWAY from that website. Look at it on resellerratings.com. You will never get your camera from them at the agreed to price. It's well known scam.
I think the 5d mk ii will get down to $2k new, so hopefully we can find them used for around $1700 when people start selling off theirs to upgrade.

[caMARYnon]

Yeah I'm kinda fed up with people complaining about prices too, but I'm not going to tell them to shut up.  I've spent the last month trying to tell people that $3500 was accurate and what I noticed was, people didn't really use reason.  It boiled down to this:
1) Anyone that couldn't/wouldn't pay $3500 didn't want it to be $3500
2) Anyone that could/would pay $3500 didn't care

It sucks when you really want something and it's released and not in your price range, but come on it's not like no one saw this coming!  The price has been up for a month, and it's interesting that people welcomed and accepted every single spec except the price.  "Oh well the rest of the list looks good but the guy must have misheard/misread the price."  or "that's gotta be the kit price"--- even though that would put the body within a couple hundred bucks of the 5DII, which would be foolish.  I even saw someone suggest $3500 was the price with the 24-70 II, which seriously made me laugh so hard I was almost crying.

Agree 100%. But what you say about almost 5k US$ for 5D3 ?