Toronto Photography Meetup Group

Hey,
Judging from the thread titled "Price Jump?" you guys have also noticed the increase in prices following the disasters in Japan... I am leaving my current job that supplies me with lenses which I've had for the last four years, so I need to buy my own lenses and am going to be spending a lot of money. With the price increase, I would easily have to spend about $500 more. Has anyone been able to get stores in Toronto to match their pre-tsunami/earthquake/nuclear disaster prices? (I have them written down from a couple months ago when I was budgeting) If not, any predictions for when prices might drop?

Thanks!

i've been saving money for a lens purchase for the last few months. i too am waiting for a price cut to current prices. at this point it's not looking good as a consumer.

No idea about the price trend but here are some useful websites to help you out. www.photoprice.ca monitors Canadian pricing as well as some US companies (in cdn $).

bhphotovideo.com is a NY store with prices usually lower than what we have up here and a very accurate shipping and duty calculator. (may need to pay taxes) the dollar is about on par or above the US so it would be a good time to buy.

Why not buy used? craigslist/kijiji?

Price matching into the past almost certainly won't fly. But, you might get "price protection" on your purchases. If the price drops within the prescribed time period after you bought your lenses, you should get the difference back. Some stores and some credit cards offer price protection. Good luck.

Thanks, I'll check BH again to see what the prices are like now...

I'm admittedly nervous about buying lenses used (I'm looking for the 24-70 2.8 and the 70-200 2.8 ). I would rather spend the extra money and know it's new and has a warranty since they cost so gd much. I am looking for a 430 EXI or II and a large gear bag used, though no luck yet.

You'll have to wait for some time to get better prices on new gear.. Is your time shooting worth more than the price difference for the gear?

That's a good point. In Peterborough it is, but I'm moving to Toronto on May 1 so I'm leaving my jobs and client base so no, not likely, and I suppose if I manage to wrangle up a more permanent photo job I can buy gear then. It just seems a little odd to have a 7D and only a 50mm 1.4 and a Rebel XT kit lens... I've had half a dozen L glass lenses to use for the last four years.

Your best bet is the photoprice.ca website. If you click near the top of the page for your item, it will show you a historical list of the prices going back as long as photoprice.ca was started. So this gives you a good idea of what the item was selling at all over north america in the past few years. I recently picked up a camera after the tsunami and after the price went up. They gave me the price pre tsunami. But, they remembered me coming into the store and looking at the equipment so the gave me the previous price.

Haha perhaps I should come in with the cards the guys at Henrys give me every time I go in there to drool over gear and they'll remember me looking at the lenses before.

Buy the 28-70L and rent the other lenses when required for paid gigs.

Yeah, good call. I think that's what I'm going to do.