JohnB57 wrote in post #14125215
Hi. Don't know where in the world you are but I have to correct a couple of things here, even though I'm not an apologist for Canon.
Firstly,
England is only one country within the
United Kingdom - Google it for the others if you need to. All UK countries currently come under the same pricing, tax and duty policies and we pay 20% VAT (value added tax) on most items. The current price here for the 5D3 is £2,500 plus VAT = £3,000. Current B&H price is $3214.70 plus NYC sales tax. At today's exchange rate, the difference in price before sales tax/VAT is therefore 23%, not 50%. Enough of a difference, but less than half what you say. The US market is of course much larger than the UK's and as a result, both Canon and UK retailers have less competition, so can demand more for a new item such as this. Prices will soften very quickly...
Secondly, how is "
1 Pound Sterling worth 50% more than the dollar"? It's just an exchange rate issue and it would seem that the dollar is actually worth - in spending power - 23% more than the pound in this case.
Appreciate the geography lesson, but I wasn't talking about the UK, I was talking about England. There was a poster from a few weeks back which stated he was from some part of England, so my reference was really from him. He also stated that the price for the 24-70mk2 was the same in Pounds as it is in US dollars. Since no one else said he was wrong, and I thought there was at least one other person from the UK, which didn't say he was wrong, I assumed the figure to be right (As memory serves me, as I didn't go back to search for the post). Having said that, if the pound was worth 50% more at the current exchange rate and one in England was paying the same number figure in pounds then, yes, in a round number would be more or less correct. But my assumption was since the 24-70mk2 was the same in England, then the 5dmk3 would be as well, and apparently as you're telling me, it's not. My fault for assuming.
Here is the math based on your calculations.
Current exchange rate is $1.58 USD vs 1 Pound. As you stated you can get the mk3 for 3000 pounds in the UK. Here in the US the mk3 goes for a retail price of 3499.
3499 USD at the current exchange rate is 2214 pounds.
If you use the formula of P/B = %/100, the real saving would be 26.2% and not 23% like you've stated. Yes, the previous post was 50%, but I was just going on what someone from England was telling me about the 24-70mk2. Still, it's a nice bit of savings if one wanted to try to take advantage of the current exchange rates.
Best Regards,
David