Where to purchase camera.........

[crazyme5kids]

Where have you, do you, like too, purchase your camera and equipment? On-line? Direct in store?

Next if you purchase/purchased on-line, which on -line merchant did you use? Were/are you satisfied with the service?

 

[Greg K.]

I work a few blocks from B&H photo in Manhattan, and I've sometimes gone down there to look at equipment. It's a zoo. ("Toys R Us for gadget geeks," one person called it, not inaccurately...) But they have knowledgeable sales people -- most of them, Hassidic Jews -- and decent prices.

But I've also become smitten with www.buydig.com -- which, from my experience, has the best prices. (No tax, free shipping, and very fast service, too). They're affiliated with Beach Camera, another huge camera outfit here in New York. I bought my Pentax dSLR from buydig and was very pleased with what I got, and how I got it.

 

[YEKCIM]

I've ordered two digital cam's from Butterfly Photo in the past few months, and have been pleased with the price and service. A couple of good sites to check out, for online buying are...

www.pricegrabber.com
www.resellerratings.com

~YEKCIM

 

[fitzperry]

We've ordered a couple of cameras from buydig.com, and I've gotten some gear from B&H online. I bought my D70 from a local shop though. With the rebates and add-ons, it didn't cost much more than it would have to buy it on-line, and I'd rather support the local shop (and have their support if something goes wrong).

 

[cryssi]

We looked at various online sites when shopping for our D200. In the end (DH is impatient LOL) we bought it at a local mom&pop shop that actually had it in stock...

 

[hlbtimes2]

If you know what you want, and dont need a lot of follow up (free classes, etc), then I recomend Costco or costco.com. They currently have the canon S2IS for $349. That is an AWSOME price for a TERRIFIC camera. And, costco has great customer service. They stand behind what they sell.

 

[Anewman]

In my opinion.

Buydig has the best prices of any RELIABLE, NON PRESSURE online vendor.

They currently have that Canon S2is for $325, FREE SHIP NO TAX

 

[rileysmommy]

I like Adorama. They are another big store in NYC. I have used them online several times and have been very happy with their prices and service. I will be using them again this week to buy my new Rebel XT.

 

[jann1033]

i usually buy online after going to local shops to see the real thing and mess around with it's buttons..steves digicam has a list of shops ( online) after the reviews...not sure if it's ebiz but it's rated. also epinions does the same thing, checks for best online prices. as of course ebiz does...i have found ebiz to be pretty good at rating stores...at least i've never had a problem with any one they recommended. and ecost has a limited selection but they literally had my order out within 2 hrs after i placed it.

right now it's driving me crazy waiting for the gift certs. i won and am using to buy my canon s2...especially when dell had it last week for $28?.00. urgggg, i have no patience and have a fear they are going to sell out at every store before i can buy it


i got my memory cards etc from ecost today, ordered them late monday evening! everything looks great so i will use them again for sure

 

[Tink10]

I buy my goodies from Dell......

WHEN they have coupons that can be combined with % off deals, their prices are great! I got a couple of deals on my Rebel XT & 3 lenses.....

 

[mhutchinson]

I bought my 20D Canon from buydig, lenses and tripods from there and B&H Photo. I have also purchased accessories & memory cards from Amazon, buy.com, J&R, and egghead. Lowepro bags and cases came from eBay and eBags.

Brick and morter I have used the usual for DK cameras, accessories, cards and gadgets...BestBuy, Costco, BJs, Circuit City, and Staples.

 

[handicap18]

I've bought a lot of my stuff from amazom.com and have not have 1 issue in the 7+ years I've been shopping there. I've used a few other places I can't think of right now (J&W I believe is one). I've always had good luck with all the on-line stores I've used. But then again I usually only use the same ones and any new ones I use I research them as much as I can and have even called a few to find out how they operate (a few I have not used because of these calls, they weren't very nice).

 

[garris3404]

I bought my Nikon D50, 18-200 VR lens, SB600 flash, and accessaries from 17th Street Photo. Great prices. They were extremely friendly and knowledgable. I needed to return 1 item... no problem.

I bought my Hoya Filters from 2filter.com. Great prices. They were extremely friendly and knowledgable.

 

[captaincrash]

I've bought from....

Dell (D-rebel kit), Costco (pocket SD camera + memory), B&H (70-300 IS, 420EX), Canoga Camera (a local retailor - several lenses & filters) and Ebay (10D, 20-35, 18-200 Tamaron, memory, bags, filters, 28-200 Canon, and more plus I sold a lot of surplus camera gear).

In light of some recent annoyances on Ebay I am shifting more purchasig to B&H. If I could buy from Costco I would in a heart beat given their liberal return policy. Dell is good too except to take advatage of their best coupon deals you have to fast and lucky. And as for the cheapest on-line dealers... I have heard of and seen investigative TV reports on the worst sorts. The TV investigation of one such shady internet dealer was quite revealing. It showed a place in NY which forbid anyone from walking in off the street and they had severe lowball prices... but they consistently engaged in high pressure tactics to force folks to buy accessories or items that would otherwise be bundles inside a normal package... like batteries abd chargers! Plus they had instances where they would charge a purchase and put an item on perpetual backorder. So - beware of the deal that is too good to be true.

The same goes for ebay. It no longer seems good enough to me to buy from someone with 100+ feedback with 98%+ positive. I had a seller with decent history (242 etries at 99%+) and a comforting listing refuse to honor their refund offer when the lense I won arrived damaged. Fortunately I was agile enough to get Paypal to force a refund ... but afterwards the seller sent annoying concluding emails - so I went and reexamined the original listing only to discover the seller had used fake ghost Ebay IDs to fake bids and drive up the price I originally paid! I turned him in to Ebay security ... and they suspended his 2nd account and canceled all his active listings which coincidentially had been using the fake ID to push the current bidding higher! AND - in his feedback history ALL of his sales listings with multiple bids had the fake ID putting bids all over the place! Plus, it seems there were 2 other IDs that looked suspicious. That left me with a sour sensation.

As a result I am NOT buying anything above about $100 on ebay again anytime soon. Just small stuff... like BIN goods... like filters and such.

 

[Greg K.]

If you know what you want, and dont need a lot of follow up (free classes, etc), then I recomend Costco or costco.com. They currently have the canon S2IS for $349. That is an AWSOME price for a TERRIFIC camera. And, costco has great customer service. They stand behind what they sell.

www.buydig.com has the same camera for $323 -- no tax, free shipping!

Now THAT is an AWESOME price.

 

[Jeanne B]

www.buydig.com has the same camera for $323 -- no tax, free shipping!

Now THAT is an AWESOME price.

I've seen the buydig.com price on the S2 slowly drop since I've been watching it the last month or so - I planned to buy it in a couple of weeks but yesterday I found a price of $438 for the S3 on buy.com so now I'm trying to decide if it's worth spending the extra $115 to get the S3. I've also read some mixed reviews about buy.com so that's another factor (I bought my A610 from buydig so I have some experience with them).

 

[crazyme5kids]

When you purchase your camera and equipment, do you buy the extended warrenty policy too? If so was it worth it in the long run?

Also, I am leaning towards the Nikon D200. Seems that the price is about the same everywhere I've checked. The one I think I'll wind up getting has a 18-200mm F/3.5-5.6G ED-IF AF DX VR lens. I will be photographing everything from landscapes to action shots. Is there another lens you all would recommend having? What other equipment would be good to have to start with but that I will need or want as I progress? Not that I'm going to get it all right away, but maybe something to think about, kind of like a wish list .

 

[YEKCIM]

I've also read some mixed reviews about buy.com so that's another factor .

I can only share my personal experience, which is somewhat limited, but I've ordered computer components on two separate occasions from buy.com and had *excellent* service both times. I've purchased cameras online thrice; once from zipzoomfly.com and twice from butterflyphoto.com, and been pleased with the service in all three instances.

~YEKCIM

 

[crazyme5kids]

I'm switching gears slightly from my choice, but am still interested in thoughts on the extended warrenties for cameras and equipment.

 

[crazyme5kids]

Does anyone have any experience with with Expresscameras.com?