|
Links
Jump To: My Friends -
Interesting Websites -
Photographers, Photography and Nature Websites -
Where and How to Buy
My Friends :-)
Interesting Websites
- Photo and Video
Interesting Websites -
Technology, nature, travel
Interesting Websites - Software
I use
Interesting Websites -
Information, News, Useful services
Where and how to buy
 |
B&H Photo Video (www.bhphotovideo.com)
is one of the largest stores of new and used
photo and video equipment: if you are searching
something, it is likely that you will find it
there.
|
|
 |
Adorama (www.adorama.com)
is another large photography dealer. The prices
usually are the same of B&H, but it is always
worth checking. Other than selling new
equipment, Adorama offers the possibility of
buying and selling used equipment, and it has
even a rental service.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
NewEgg (www.newegg.com)
sells both photo equipment and a lot more:
computer hardware, software, mobile phones and
more.
|
|
 |
Amazon (www.amazon.com)
is well known and serious, but it is not one of
my favorite dealers. The problem of Amazon is
that sometimes they don't sell directly, they
publicize other (dubious) dealers. You can find
good prices on Amazon, but I recommend to buy
there only when it is clearly specified "Ships
from and sold by Amazon.com". |
Rebates, offers and warranty
Sometimes, the dealers have special offers on
some specific items - always check the price on
all the dealers listed in this page, so you can
be sure to find the best offer. Other than that,
sometimes the manufacturers offers "rebates" or
"cashback".
To get the rebate, you have
to send a coupon (included with the item you
bought) to the store/manufacturer, and they with
send you the amount of money specified by the
promotion. Wouldn't it be simpler to lower the
price? Yes, of course, but many manufacturers
prefer to use rebates because they want to
promote a product only in a particular area; for
example, the rebate may be available only for
U.S. residents. SanDisk and Canon are two good
examples of manufacturers that often offer
rebates on their products.
There are two
main types of warranty; the "manufacturer"
warranty (e.g. Canon USA Warranty, Nikon USA
Warranty) or the "Store" warranty (e.g. B&H
warranty). What are the differences? The items
with manufacturer warranty are imported in the
U.S. by the official manufacturer; if you have a
problem you have to send the product to the
manufacturer. The items with store warranty
(also known as "grey market" or "direct import"
items) are imported in the US by the store
itself; if you have a problem you have to send
the product to the store. The prices usually are
lower than the prices of products with
manufacturer warranty. Which one to choose? You
have to consider the difference of price (pay
attention to possible rebates); if there is a
substantial difference, I'd suggest to buy the
imported (cheaper) item.
Pay
attention to scams!
If you buy from one
of the websites that I have listed in the first
paragraph, as I recommend, you will never take
the risk of being scammed. If you try other
stores, instead, you have to pay attention.
There is plenty of fraudulent websites that
advertise every kind of stuff (camera, lenses,
etc.) at fantastic prices. If you order
something from them, in the best case you'll
lose the money that your paid; in the worst you
will lose a lot more money and you will have a
lot of troubles. I don't want to scare anyone
from buying online, but please pay attention to
the place where you buy from, otherwise you will
be ripped off by these felons.
Remember
that is a price looks too good, it is a scam. An
example: nowadays, the Nikon D300 costs $ 1600
at B&H. If you find it at $ 1500 on another
site, it may be legit. If you find it at $ 800,
it is a scam for sure! There is no way that a
honest dealer sells something at half the
regular price!
If you don't know a
dealer, check it on ResellerRatings (www.resellerratings.com).
RR has a database of thousand of stores with the
opinions of those who bought from there; if a
store is a scammer, you will see a lot of
negative feedback. Of course, there is the
possibility that a reseller hadn't been rated
yet, and some comments might be misleading, but
overall ResellerRatings is an excellent resource
to discover if a store is honest or not. Don't
forget to add your buying experience, positive
of negative, to ResellerRatings! |
|
|
