Canon 5D Mark III - Price Drop Details

[pdirestajr]

I believe Canon can lower the price of the 5Diii when the 5Dii is officially discontinued. It is actually smart of them keeping the 5Diii high- it keeps the "old" 5Dii selling really well as a "value" camera at 2k!

Nikon discontinued their D700 and needed to be aggressive to compete with Canon's market dominance.

[stephan]

R&D costs are factored into the price canon sells these cameras to retailers - not the price end customers pay. Canon doesn't give these cameras away and asks for R&D money - they sell these to retailers at a price point that includes all costs & profits margin. As soon as Canon sells a Camera (or Lens.....) to a Retailer, Canon makes it's profits, and that's it. Different pricing to end customers affects Retailers! A one-man Ebay seller can live with much lower return than a photo store with infrastructure, employees, rent/mortage and other costs. It is these Retailers that get hurt, those that provide service beyond selling and shipping the camera.

@jrista: Ebay does not sell the camera. An independent seller is using ebay as a platform to sell it. He is raking the profits, ebay just gets a fee for it's services. Canon does not get hurt by this, as they get their money from selling to retailers.
Grey-merket imports are an exception if Canon sells the camera to retailers in that region at a lower price, but due to Canon's warranty practice, the customer might ultimately pay the price for that. But Canon is ultimately controlling pricing and it's profits through it's wholesale pricing & strategies.

Associating different retail pricing with R&D money is economical nonsense. Sorry.

[NormanBates]

check my (very long) post in the middle of this to see how price and relative sales have been moving:
http://www.canonrumors.com/forum/index.php?topic=6539.45

the price briefly fell to $3199 on adorama (15-jul), and right now the kit is out of stock but listed at $4049 directly from amazon

and yes, when it's $3000 directly from amazon or bh, it will be a mildly reasonable price, and I may pull the trigger on the 5D3 and stop complaining
at $3450, I'm still leaning towards the 5D2
I have to buy the camera, whichever it is, before august 6th

[Northstar]

Jrista... Huh? 

This isn't about anybody else beside my personal decision and opinion on buying a camera off of evil bay. I put 500$ extra in my pocket that I will use for other stuff I'll need. If you'd like to forfeit your extra dough over to a retail price camera, that's your decision.

If the seller on evil bay wasn't going to make money on evil bay, They wouldn't put it on evil bay. If the seller is willing to take a loss on evil bay, that's the seller choice.

Its quite simple economics, and I like that.

Well, my comments were more about what seemed like more complaining and demonizing of Canon for charging a beastly extra $500. I was just pointing out (perhaps in an overly wordy manner) that if you want to demonize someone, demonize ebay...they more than deserve it. They probably made $320 in final sale fees off the poor sap who sold a 5D III for $3099, not including PayPal fees and whatever the initial listing fee was. Add all that up, and they walked away with...oh, maybe $2600? Knock off the wholesale cost, and thats a rinky dinky small profit margin...

Good for you for saving $400 (certainly not dissing that!!), but whenever I hear about eBay these days it makes me want to punch something...repeatedly...preferably an ebay C-level douche...

Jrista  - not trying to get you in a "punching" mood but....as I'm reading the morning business news I see eBay reported earnings last night....

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — EBay Inc. shares rose more than 5% in after-hours trading Wednesday after the company reported second-quarter earnings that more-than-doubled from a year ago and recorded strong gains from its marketplaces and PayPal payments divisions.

Warning to the eBay c-level...run and hide.

Just kidding around jrista...take care.

[Northstar]

check my (very long) post in the middle of this to see how price and relative sales have been moving:
http://www.canonrumors.com/forum/index.php?topic=6539.45

the price briefly fell to $3199 on adorama (15-jul), and right now the kit is out of stock but listed at $4049 directly from amazon

and yes, when it's $3000 directly from amazon or bh, it will be a mildly reasonable price, and I may pull the trigger on the 5D3 and stop complaining
at $3450, I'm still leaning towards the 5D2
I have to buy the camera, whichever it is, before august 6th

Norman....I'm a numbers guy, and when I'm looking at buying a camera, car, bike...etc, I think it's very important to try and determine up front how long you'll own it, and what it might be worth at the future point in time that you might sell it.

In this case the decision is $3400 or $2000, if you were to sell each 5 years from now, roughly how much would you get?
My guess:(with normal use and care)
5d3 in 5 years is worth $2300
5d2 in 5 years is worth $900

So, my estimate for the 5d3 total cost of ownership in this case is $1100, and my 5d2 estimated total cost of ownership is also $1100

Three other things to consider - the time value of money...not really a consideration because interest rates are at historical lows.   Second consideration, is one product superior to the other?   I think that answer is obvious...the 5d3 is a better camera and therefore will provide you with some level of additional benefit as compared to a 5d2.( how much extra benefit depends on how you use it)  Third, do you have the extra $1400 available or would you have to borrow it?  Only you can answer this question.

Hope this helps your decision making!

[marekjoz]

(...)

I paid full price for my 5D3 to qualify for CPS benefits. Lucky for me! At under 10,000 shutter actuations I needed the shutter replaced. It took 3 days and I had a loan body during the repair period. It would have been a different story with a gray purchase.

PW

Why?

[TTMartin]

How about $2865? With free shipping?
http://www.eglobaldigitalcameras.com.au/canon-eos-5d-mark-iii-body-only-digital-slr-camera.html

Yes, it's gray, but that's a fairly compelling price. I have bought lesser items from this mob and had no issues. Fast delivery with tracking, items properly packaged etc.

I paid full price for my 5D3 to qualify for CPS benefits. Lucky for me! At under 10,000 shutter actuations I needed the shutter replaced. It took 3 days and I had a loan body during the repair period. It would have been a different story with a gray purchase.

PW

That price is in Australian dollars

2853.00 Australian dollars = 2975.96 US dollars

[knifez]

Word of warning..

http://www.productreview.com.au/p/e-global-digital-cameras.html

When it looks too good to be true, it probably is.

[janao]

Currently in Norway the price of the 5D mk3 is 27890NOK (4550 USD). The price is the same at the two biggest online photo retailers.

One of them had an offer today with 5d mk3 for USD 4550 and get a Flash 580ex II for free. Are they having problems selling all the cameras?

Both shops have had abundant number of cameras in stock for at least the last month.

[Dylan777]

check my (very long) post in the middle of this to see how price and relative sales have been moving:
http://www.canonrumors.com/forum/index.php?topic=6539.45

the price briefly fell to $3199 on adorama (15-jul), and right now the kit is out of stock but listed at $4049 directly from amazon

and yes, when it's $3000 directly from amazon or bh, it will be a mildly reasonable price, and I may pull the trigger on the 5D3 and stop complaining
at $3450, I'm still leaning towards the 5D2
I have to buy the camera, whichever it is, before august 6th

Norman....I'm a numbers guy, and when I'm looking at buying a camera, car, bike...etc, I think it's very important to try and determine up front how long you'll own it, and what it might be worth at the future point in time that you might sell it.

In this case the decision is $3400 or $2000, if you were to sell each 5 years from now, roughly how much would you get?
My guess:(with normal use and care)
5d3 in 5 years is worth $2300
5d2 in 5 years is worth $900

So, my estimate for the 5d3 total cost of ownership in this case is $1100, and my 5d2 estimated total cost of ownership is also $1100

Three other things to consider - the time value of money...not really a consideration because interest rates are at historical lows.   Second consideration, is one product superior to the other?   I think that answer is obvious...the 5d3 is a better camera and therefore will provide you with some level of additional benefit as compared to a 5d2.( how much extra benefit depends on how you use it)  Third, do you have the extra $1400 available or would you have to borrow it?  Only you can answer this question.

Hope this helps your decision making!

If this number is true, then upgrade to newer body every 4-5 yrs is not bad at all 

Cost $1200 to own a body in 5yrs = $20 per month or 66cents per day. I think it's cheaper than rental   

[marekjoz]

Cost $1200 to own a body in 5yrs = $20 per month or 66cents per day. I think it's cheaper than rental   

If owning wouldn't be cheaper than renting, then how rentals could make money on lending?

[cliffwang]

I probably would have just purchased the 5D3 at release if it was 2999$. No problemo.

Same here.  3.5K is not a problem.  However, that's just not a right price for me.  I will keep using my 5D2 till the price of 5D3 drops to 3K.

[marekjoz]

I probably would have just purchased the 5D3 at release if it was 2999$. No problemo.

Same here.  3.5K is not a problem.  However, that's just not a right price for me.  I will keep using my 5D2 till the price of 5D3 drops to 3K.

What if it rises up after new entry level FF?

[cliffwang]

I probably would have just purchased the 5D3 at release if it was 2999$. No problemo.

Same here.  3.5K is not a problem.  However, that's just not a right price for me.  I will keep using my 5D2 till the price of 5D3 drops to 3K.

What if it rises up after new entry level FF?

If the price of the new entry level FF is below 2K, the price of 5D3 should drop to about 3K.  Actually I am very interested in the new entry level FF camera.  However, not much information about it yet.

[marekjoz]

What if it rises up after new entry level FF?

If the price of the new entry level FF is below 2K, the price of 5D3 should drop to about 3K.  Actually I am very interested in the new entry level FF camera.  However, not much information about it yet.

And if the price of entry level FF would be around 2500$?