"grey" vs. USA made

[planesh00ter]

HI..
What a GREAT forum. Such a pleasure vs. Yahoo Finance Message Boards. You all are very polite and informative, enough ...

Any comments on the grey vs. US made "L" lens, money is nice to save...

Thanks, gidday

[CyberDyneSystems]

There all "made" in the same place..

The USA model just includes the warranty that Canon intended for the US market.. "Grey" does not.

[JZaun]

I now have 3 Grey lens.. Saved a bunch. Go to the link below and look up lens. B&H gives a good explination on inport ( Grey ) market products.

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=productlist.jsp&A=getpage&Q=GreyMarketStati c.jsp

JZaun

[msvadi]

I guess it really depends on who you buy it from. B&H stands behind the products they sell. Another store can sell you crap and disappear or refuse to cover repair costs if something happens.

[MarkH]

I think that I should be sticking to USA product since I am overseas. It is my understanding that the USA versions come with international warranties and the grey market ones don't. Can anyone confirm this?

Here in NZ we use the term 'parallel import' for products imported from overseas other then through the usual NZ distributor. This is perfectly legal but may cause some hassles with warranty if something goes wrong, the item would have to go back to where you bought it from rather than the NZ service agent.

[ron chappel]

Not much grey stuff offered here in australia.
One online seller that i know of and someone on ebay that ships from hong kong.Both offer their own warrantees ...with the HK seller you have to ship it back to him... :shock:
I want to order a lens from B&H but am not sure which one i should get.I have to call canon OZ first to see what the warrantee/servicing policy is.

At least canon are abit better than N*kon who refuse even to service grey nikon products in usa!

[optical]

Yes Ron, photo gears are so expensive in Oz, don't know why. The savings you get buying in US sometimes can even pay for the airfare !!!
I am thinking of getting some gears in New York, but like you would be interested in the Warranty with Oz Canon. Let us know when you find out more.....

[vvizard]

I think that I should be sticking to USA product since I am overseas. It is my understanding that the USA versions come with international warranties and the grey market ones don't. Can anyone confirm this?


Ok, I can tell you what I (think I) know. I bought a Sigma-lens from B&H just before christmas. Saved me a bundle compared to buying it here in Norway. I ordered the US-version since the price-difference really isn't that big. If this lens breaks, I can send it to a sigma-repair center in Norway to have it fixed. If it was a gray-model, my local repair-center would probably have refused to deal with it, and I would have to ship it to B&H, so that they could send it to a sigma-repair-center in the US (or where the model originally was sold). That means a very big difference in time from delivery to return. I would probably have to pay the UPS both ways to, and that's at least $50 each way.

In my case, this really doesn't matter, cause I don't think Sigma got any repair-centres in Norway, and none as far as I know, is certified by Sigma to do repair on their equipment here (although I'm not 100% sure about the last one). If it was Canon, it would matter a whole lot more, cause we actually got quite a few canon-service centres in Norway.

Although, gray or not, for the sake of the argument, let's not consider French cars right now.. Things seldom just "stop" working.. At least not lenses. They're mostly metal/glass and some well-shielded engines and electronics. Not what I would consider a part likely to break without abuse. Therefore I got insurrance on all my equipment. So in the off-chance of my sigma lens just "stopping" to work, and on the "off-chance" that I wouldn't mind frauding my insurance-company a bit, I would simply drop the lens on the tarmac so the glass broke. Then I wouldn't have to care about US or gray, I would simply deliver it to my insurance-company and get paid back the Norwegian retail-price for it.. (which would mean I could get the Canon-version with IS for the same price from B&H ;))

That was a lot rubbish.. What was the point? Think it was: Be sure your lenses are insured, cause I think there's higher possibilities of you dropping it in the tarmac so the glass breaks, than the motors to just stop working.. But to play it 100% safe, get the U.S version. Price usually ain't that big is it?

[msvadi]

I think that I should be sticking to USA product since I am overseas. It is my understanding that the USA versions come with international warranties and the grey market ones don't. Can anyone confirm this?


from B&H site http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=productlist.jsp&A=getpage&Q=GreyMarketStati c.jsp :

"A "USA" warrantied item is a manufacture's warranty that would be repaired by any manufacturer's authorized service facility worldwide if the item required in-warranty service. A "direct import" item would have to be returned to B&H Photo-Video Corp. in New York City if it required in-warranty attention. A resident of the USA may wish to make the buying decision based on price, since the cost of shipping to an American service center or to us should be about equal. A non-USA resident may want to consider the cost of returning the "direct import" item to us for warranty service, compared to the expense of buying the "USA warrantied" item and having warranty service available locally"