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December 07, 2005
[ ‘TIS THE SEASON TO BE HAGGLING ]
BUYING A DIGITAL CAMERA and accessories is becoming as bewildering as buying health insurance. There are so many special deals that it is hard to work out the real price being charged for a camera.
To start with it is difficult to get an idea of the real retail price of a camera. Only suburban photo shops put the RRP on their price stickers these days. Many, but not all, electrical goods retailers and the big city camera shops and chains advertise discount prices. Shops offering interest free terms are usually selling at full retail price, but not always. One city department store has the superb Sony DSC-H1 on special for $700 -- the RRP is $800.
Some companies, notably Nikon (Maxwell Photographics), Sony and Canon put their camera retail prices on their web sites.
Canon and Kodak offer camera/printer bundles that represent value for money. In the case of Canon there are two combinations -- the Powershot A520 camera with the Pixma iP6210 A4 inkjet printer ($398) and the the Powershot A410 camera plus the Selphy 10x15cm printer and a battery charger and 4 batteries. ($298)
The Canon combo is an illustration of how careful the buyer has to be to check the facts before going to the shop. One well-known city store is advertising the Canon A410/Selphy combination for $2 more than the recommended retail price and calling it “on special”.
The Kodak combination units consist of camera plus 10x15 cm dye sublimation printers. One such offer combines the EasyShare Z740 5 megapixel camera with the EasyShare printer for a street price of $500. It makes sense to think beyond the camera and to take into consideration the future reproduction of the photographs.
If you’re feeling adventurous keep an eye on the on-line auction site at GraysOnline Auctions. This is where superseded cameras go to die. Companies like Kodak, Nikon (Maxwells) and Olympus sell off their remainders on Grays.
Some companies offer cashback rebates to customers. Canon, for instance, offers variable rebates depending on the equipment purchased. The popular 350D single lens reflex can be bought with various accessories and there is a calculator on the canon.com.au web site that instantly calculates the rebate that can be claimed.
Nikon’s version of the rebate was to offer impressive free accessories for their D50 SLR. The most recent version of this offer has now ended but it is worth keeping an eye out for similar inducements in the future.
Retailers sometimes advertise “bonuses” with digital cameras. Some of these bonuses are of doubtful value -- cheap carry cases, flimsy tripods or cleaning kits -- but sometimes they can add real value to the purchase. One city camera store currently offers a free 128 meg memory card with Fujifilm Finepix compact cameras. The camera is not much use without memory and this is a reasonable capacity xD card.
Retailing cameras is fiercely competitive and once the best discount has been found there is not much point in beating the footpath just to save a couple of dollars.
Read the camera reviews in magazines (we recommend the Australian magazine PhotoReview for the best, objective print reviews), dpreview, the acknowledged world reference on digital cameras. Work out what you want and check the retail price with the distributor. Then look through advertisements in Livewire or in the junk mail to check discounts. Be prepared to haggle but be reasonable. Salesmen have to make a living too.
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Posted by terry at December 7, 2005 04:14 PM
