For those whose paid full price on 5d III, how do you feel about the price drop?

[Dylan777]

If you buy a new camera as soon as it is available are you really seriously thinking THAT would be the price for the next three years??

No I don't care!

Of course not, but not $750 after 6MONTHS from the release date.

[Brymills]

In the UK the Nikon D800 has dropped by a similar amount - 2600 UKP - 2100 UKP, 5D3 - 3000 UKP - 2500 UKP.  Another month or so and I'll be putting my order in for a 5D 3 to augment my 7D.

[victorwol]

I do not care. I got my camera when I wanted it, they are always going to keep going down. If one is going to keep things going down, never going to get it, and a new one will be out and the previous one is going to be even cheaper.. etc etc....  just want something, and you can afford it. Just get it and enjoy it without thinking about the price.

[Chuck Alaimo]

I am happy with my purchase (got mine early july).  I have so far shot 7 weddings with it, and a bunch of other assignments.  Would my clients have been as wow'ed by my 7D?  Who knows, maybe.   But, if I had not bought one, my options would have been --- rental ---

if i were to rent one for each of the 7 weddings that would run me $800-1300 depending on how i did the rentals (one big period of time or split up).   So based on that, yeah it's worth it.

[Axilrod]

I paid $37xx with tax at my local shop, but I got one of the very first preorders the received.  I didn't feel that it was overpriced, but seeing it drop almost $1k less than I paid for it is somewhat annoying.  I thought it would take at least until the end of the year before it dropped below $3k. 

It's always nice knowing that if things get bad you can sell your camera gear with minimal losses.  I thought "oh well I can always get $3000-$3200 if I need it."  Now what could I get for it?  Maybe $2500?

Oh well, I guess I'll learn next time.  But hell the 5DII was still selling for $2200 used before the 5D3 came out and it was what, $2800 new?  I was going to buy the 24-70 II but I guess I'll just wait until Christmas and pick one up for $1500.

[Axilrod]

If you buy a new camera as soon as it is available are you really seriously thinking THAT would be the price for the next three years??

No I don't care!

No not at all, but I thought it wouldn't drop below $3k until the holidays at the earliest.  I mean seriously, if someone had come on this forum 6 months ago saying the 5D3 would be $750 less 6 months from now everyone would have laughed at them.

[Taemobig]

As a professional, its easily justifiable to not feel bad about the price drop. I pre-ordered the camera right when it was announced. I've had the 5d Mk3 since it was released and I've done countless shoots with it. I mainly work for a clothing company based in Southern California, as an in-house photographer and I also do freelance work.

I do a minimum of 3 shoots a week. I could have used my old 5d mk2 instead and the results would probably be the same, but the upgrades of the new 5d mk3 has made my job a lot easier. The AF alone was worth it.

But if I was looking at it in the point of view of an amateur/enthusiast, especially if they only shoot for fun, then I would find it unfair.

[steliosk]

its simple!

IT DOESN'T SELL the way as 5D 2 used to sell like crazy, and within the 6D nearby the block, canon has no choice to drop the price.

5D 3 is a camera that draws attention. However the price is still high and overated.
- For professionals who want to make an investment for their work the price doesn't matter.
- For photography lovers it does matter because after 4 years they will see their beloved money spent on something that comes with the mark III tag instad of a brand mark IV at the same or maybe above the cost of 5D III of 2012.

if canon cares about profit, and has a pulse on worlds economic crisis should drop the prices in order to get more sales... if not, more people will buy D800 and D600 and especially new photographers that got dazzled from Nikon prices and specs.

i wonder what's canon's strategy here?
aiming at old customers who want just to upgrade and forgetting new customers as well?

[Jotho]

I paid 3300USD where I live, now it's down to 2900 here. I. am an enthusiast. I had the money and I wanted the camera, simple as that. You have to expect to lose money on buying equipment like this. But it gives back a lot of joy in the other end.

[Phenix205]

I preordered mine on the announcement day and received it on March 26. Yes, I still remember the date it arrived and I took that day off to test it out. Then came the light leak "issue", followed by insane price drops just 5 months later. I'd be lying if it didn't bother me at all.

But we can't say right or wrong about the decision made in the past based on today's situation. That "if I had known..." scenario never exists. In my personal situation, I needed it because my 20D had 80,000 clicks and was near death. I was waiting for the 5d3 for quite a while. The 61 points AF system immediately grabbed me ( the reason I passed 5D2 was mainly because of its not so great AF performance and my wife gave me a firm "No" to 7D because she knew I would get a full frame sooner or later). Am I happy with the camera? Absolutely. I've been using it a few times a week and have shot thousands of memorable photos of my two little girls. So I paid extra price for the priceless moments of my family. From this point of view, it worths every penny!

Happy shooting, folks. Forget about how much you paid for it.  The more pictures you take, the more values you get out of it.

[Martin]

i wonder what's canon's strategy here?
aiming at old customers who want just to upgrade and forgetting new customers as well?

Well, I have the same feeling, that Canon is focused on  old and loyal customers who are already well equipped with their gear.  I do not think that there are many newcomers who choose Canon over Nikon. There are some arguments like 1.2 optics or 135L, but I think that we will probably see similar stuff developed by competition or maybe it is not so important. Nikon has already a really good lens, but theirs sensors are outstanding. It seems the canon policy is very careful during crisis, on the other side, the global crisis is a time, when the market share could change, so to summarize-I do not understand why Canon set relatively high prices, imo overpricing  products, which are assembled from old school parts in areas when others make such progress and we only see progress in areas already well developed by the competition like AF. Their almost sell the same products twice or more. You can call it in a marketing way-"conservative approach", but as a customer I would call it-greed.   Maybe their main and only goal is to maximize margin, profit, cash etc following a short term policy or maybe their research assets are not sufficient enough to develop in other important  important areas. Maybe they follow Apple policy, as there is no real WOW considering iphone 5. No revolution, small evolution an, relatively, very high price increase which is hard to be justified.

[FunPhotons]

I missed the window on the 5DMKIII Adorama eBay auction but no matter. While that is a more reasonable price for this camera I'm still not interested. My 5DMKII is good enough. If I had bought it I'd be unhappy with the deals.

[AAPhotog]

I feel horrible! 25% in a few months smh

[Bob Howland]

For those whose paid full price on 5D III, how do you feel about the 5D III price drop at Adorama Ebay store?

Dylan

I'm not sure the Adorama Ebay offer is legitimate. Adorama has a perfectly good website. The current price there is $3949. Why would Adorama create an alternate sales channel with a much lower price? I doubt that selling via Ebay lowers Adorama costs to that extent and I certainly don't think that Canon is cutting their price to Adorama when selling via Ebay.

As for how I feel, when I ordered the camera this past Spring, I asked myself how I would feel if it cost $3000 in December. I decided I could live with it.

Update: Correction, $3459

[frozengogo]

Oh well. I waited years for an upgrade, so it was time and I didn't want to wait. I have shots from my daughters musical this spring and backpacking trip this summer that my old Rebel XT would not have captured (both low light & high ISO situations). My wife saw the pictures after the musical and stopped complaining about the price.