5DIII pre-order thread

[Lloyd50]

I'm glad I pre-ordered at a local camera shop now.

[lintoni]

Didn't pre-order, walked into Jessops (Leeds, UK) this afternoon and bought the kit with the 24-105 lens.  Am happy, but poor.

While I'm jealous, in two weeks I'll have my own and be £800 better off. Which kind of alleviates it.

Normally, I'd have waited a few months until the price was (more) reasonable, but I've just received a legacy that means I can afford one silly purchase, and this was it.  Of course, I'd have been £3700 better off if I hadn't bought the camera kit at all!  I've been holding off from going digital until I could afford a full frame camera, the release (of the 5dmkiii) has coincided with getting the legacy, so sod it - my luxury purchase.

Drama 79 - Yes?

[Drama79]

erm...yes? Not going to tell you, or anyone else, how to spend their hard-earned. If you've got it, and you want it, have at it!

[lintoni]

erm...yes? Not going to tell you, or anyone else, how to spend their hard-earned. If you've got it, and you want it, have at it!

lol

[jalbfb]

When it comes to buying stuff for oneself, I always follow the advice of my personal physician and psychological counselor: 

"Don't fell guilty, you're worth it!"

[stuartblance]

I get my body only this week, 22nd I believe, just wish everyone got them at same time rather than have embargo on body only but not on kits.
still love my 5DII, keeping it as second body.
stuart
www.stuartblancephotography.com

[V8Beast]

I just got an email from B&H that said they have no idea when the 5DIII (body only) is going to ship.

[frisk]

So, plenty of posts from people ordering from B&H or Amazon, with some info on their orders, but what about Adorama - has anybody heard anything from them?

[picture-this]

So, plenty of posts from people ordering from B&H or Amazon, with some info on their orders, but what about Adorama - has anybody heard anything from them?

Nothing yet for me from Adorama.

My order on March 2nd still says "order pending" for the 5D mark III body-only as well as the 24-70mm 2.8L II lens.

[fugu82]

I got the boilerplate backorder notice from Adorama on the 15th - nothing since. Preordered on the 2nd; they wouldn't tell me where I am in the long, long line when I asked. Still "Pending".

[jalbfb]

Sigh. This really is kinda silly actually, and clearly not necessary. Canon and Amazon and Adorama and B&H and (add yours here) all have accurate inventory control that is, or could be, or should be, up to date. They should be able to tell each and every customer EXACTLY when their equipment will ship.

So why do they put us all thru this crap? Maybe there is a good reason but other companies manage just fine with this sort of thing. Why not them?

I and many others feel your pain.  It's frustrating that in other parts of the world they are getting access to getting the camera (I say, great for them!) while we wait by some arbitrary release date that some obviously feel bound by.  Why they can't give us something more than evasion is hard to understand.

[Arkarch]

In one way I congratulate Canon for getting this camera out only a few short weeks after announcement.  There are those who have been waiting for D800's and 1DX's much longer. 

However it is quite frustrating not to have good test/review data and not to have plannable ship dates.  Maybe mine ships this week or maybe not.  I am in the Adorama group at 12:41 so who knows.

Is this partly due to this litiguous nature - dont promise anything - especially with so many here earning a business off these cameras?

edit - ebrakus's comment below is a great point.

[Rukes]

Sigh. This really is kinda silly actually, and clearly not necessary. Canon and Amazon and Adorama and B&H and (add yours here) all have accurate inventory control that is, or could be, or should be, up to date. They should be able to tell each and every customer EXACTLY when their equipment will ship.

So why do they put us all thru this crap? Maybe there is a good reason but other companies manage just fine with this sort of thing. Why not them?

That's the problem right there, if there are thousands of people pre-ordering, and they tell ONE person how much they are getting and what # they will be, then that person posts online that they got the info, imagine how many emails and calls they will be getting of people trying to change their position or asking about where they are.

[ebrakus]

I'm waiting for mine like the rest of you.  But I've been on the other side of this.

I had a small sideline business selling specialty electronics, some had long lead times.   The customer base was a mess to deal with.  One guy pestered me daily and requested constant status reports.

Finally after 20 status request updates I lost my cool and told him "Its just a garage door opener, not a kidney transplant.  Be patient".

I should have saved the email response, it was a highly creative string of four letter expletives.

So be cool everyone.  A week after GA on the 22nd, if you dont have a ship date, then it might be time to look at optons.

cheers
-E

[SomeGuyInNewJersey]

I was in B&H late last week... I tried asking several different people about the size of preorder lists and my place in them. I was told my one two that the company doesnt want them to be able to give any of the information away so they dont let them have access to it.

I was also told by one of the assistants that one of the reasons they dont tell customers anything is because that gives too much information to competitors, a persons asking about preorders even if they have actually made a preorder themselves could be working for the competition... I do wonder what use the information would be to the competitor? Perhaps Canon doesnt like each vendor knowing how many and when it is supplying the goods to other vendors?

One reason I can think of is that people knowing where in lines may make them jumpy and cancel their order and go with another vendor... say you are told by Vendor A you are 473rd in their line you may go Vendor B who then tells you you will be 23rd in their line... you may cancel and switch... aside from lost business for vendor A it may not do you any good either if Vendor B only gets 20 units from Canon in their 1st shipment but Vendor A gets 500...

Once you have already made your preorder a vendor telling you where you are in line can result in them losing a sale that they have already made if you switch to another vendor...  of course a million and one scenarios exist including telling customers high up the list where they are to keep the sale and not telling those lower down so you dont uase the sale but then they talk on forums so those not told would then know... blah... blah blah...

So I guess its just EASIER for the vendors not to say anything... they possibly dont know how many units Canon is giving them and the other vendors and how quickly so its best for the larger vendors to say its their policy not to tell and avoid the headache trying to work out tactics! Its probably simply better business sense for them not to get involved with it...