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

[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.

 

[Tammy]

The Adorama auction closed back up at $3,459.

This thread is hugely misleading as there isn't a true market wide price drop. I do not feel jipped in the least, i've loved every second shooting with my 5D3 since March and I just got back from a nice trip to Europe with it.

 

[DB]

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.

True, but you have to factor in the fact that the 5D3 was overvalued to begin with - remember the consensus price talk on CR before Easter was $2999 - so it was 20% overpriced to begin with. Now it shed another 10-15% which is the 'early adopter' premium (or you could say the Pre-Order 'I must have it now!' excess, or as economists' say "the wanting of waiting").

 

[scokar]

I'm not sure the Adorama Ebay offer is legitimate

[ ... ]

it is as legitimate as it can get other than a hand deliver by Haruo Murase with personal instruction by Masami Kawasaki.

 

[Chuck Alaimo]

The Adorama auction closed back up at $3,459.

This thread is hugely misleading as there isn't a true market wide price drop. I do not feel jipped in the least, i've loved every second shooting with my 5D3 since March and I just got back from a nice trip to Europe with it.

HAHA...love it +100!!! One place offers a limited time offer and you get this type of thread! Agreed agreed agreed!

I said this on another thread, will say it again here. on the business side of a photographers life, undercutting your competition is generally frowned upon. Now I don't know for sure if nikon is selling the d800 at a lloss, or if the cost is just defrayed that much due to their deal with sony - but I use this analogy. Wedding photographer A set's their price for value at $3500. Wedding photographer B is just as skilled, but decided to undercut A by offering a similar package at $3000. Now if you read many pro forums, Photographer B isn't exactly respected for that. and it kind of forces photographer A into 2 choices -- lower their cost to compete, or, stick to your guns and keep the rate the same and hope that clients see your value and go with it.

Is it that much different for those that sell us the tools to do our craft?

 

[Bob Howland]

I'm not sure the Adorama Ebay offer is legitimate

[ ... ]

it is as legitimate as it can get other than a hand deliver by Haruo Murase with personal instruction by Masami Kawasaki.

Who are they?

 

[nonac]

I'm not real happy about it since I just bought mine about 5 weeks ago. I think it will hurt Canon a little because I, as well as others I'm sure, will NEVER buy their new gear until at least 6-12 months after release. I didn't need mine right away; however, I never dreamed that it would drop that much in that short time frame. They should not have overpriced it to begin with!

 

[Mt Spokane Photography]

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

Selling via ebay certainly doesn't lower Adorama's selling costs. They get a big break off ebay comissions and paypal comissions based on sales volume (I get a measly 20%). Adorama also sells on Amazon, and that likely costs them more as well. However, keeping sales at a high volume also generates not only incentives, but you are the first to get new products as they are delivered.
Selling indirectly through ebay is a way for Canon to blow out excess inventory without dropping MSRP or having low prices advertised on websites. You can see by the comments here that some are not believing the deal, so the impact on Canon is less. Having bought from Adorama on ebay for years, including when Microsoft Bing was giving 25% cash rebates for Ebay Purchases, I am sure that my purchase is legit. (I received the tracking number this morning).
I do the same with my web store. I sell on the web, thru ebay, thru some other web sites, and soon on Amazon. Keeping volume up is very important and generates more overall profit.

 

[papa-razzi]

The Adorama auction closed back up at $3,459.

This thread is hugely misleading as there isn't a true market wide price drop. I do not feel jipped in the least, i've loved every second shooting with my 5D3 since March and I just got back from a nice trip to Europe with it.

+1

This was a 1 day event on ebay by a vendor - not even on their own website - not a price drop by Canon.
What if I said my neighbor pre-ordered from 3 different vendors and ended up selling one of the extras to me for $3k? Sometimes deals happen.

This is a camera, you didn't buy it like a stock expecting it to go up in value over time. Market conditions & competitive pressure will dictate what price Canon can charge.

If you felt it was a good decision for you to purchase the camera for the price you did at the time you did - then that was YOUR decision. If you thought the price was too high or the price would drop after 6-12 months, you should have waited or not made the purchase. I doubt any of you purchased the camera thinking - "I will only be happy with my purchase if the price doesn't drop much below what I paid for at least a year".

Really people. So much sour grapes over a decision you made yourself.

 

[awinphoto]

Camera has worked like a champ for me and love what it can do. Yeah it can always have been cheaper but love that I got the jobs I got and fully learned the system rather than waiting. No complaints. Wasn't a victim and bought it fully aware and knew what would happen eventually so I'm cool

 

[beckstoy]

I, for one, don't think about it. Maybe I ended up paying a couple of hundred more overall, but HEY! I've been shooting with it for five months now, and my business is awesome because of it!

If I wasn't a photo pro, but rather a casual shooter, I'd obsess about this. When I'm earning $ and building my reputation with it, I don't even consider it.