Where can you buy a Mark II?

I've checked around a little, and it looks like no one has Mark IIs in stock. B&H told me that they will CHARGE MY CARD TODAY and ship when the get one, which could be 4-6 weeks ... or longer. They also said that the day you can call them and find one in stock like any other item may be several months away.

I realized that they were going to be hard to come by at first, but this is a little over the top. Anyone have an idea as to how you can get one sooner? I considered getting one from a local shop, but the sales tax would be $400 in my area. The $4500 price tag seems like plenty enough already.

Mike

Mike H wrote:
I've checked around a little, and it looks like no one has Mark IIs in stock. B&H told me that they will CHARGE MY CARD TODAY and ship when the get one, which could be 4-6 weeks ... or longer. They also said that the day you can call them and find one in stock like any other item may be several months away.

I realized that they were going to be hard to come by at first, but this is a little over the top. Anyone have an idea as to how you can get one sooner? I considered getting one from a local shop, but the sales tax would be $400 in my area. The $4500 price tag seems like plenty enough already.

Mike

Order it now and just hang out until it gets here. 4-6 weeks isnt really a long time, and who knows.. it may get here sooner...

The short answer is unless you are Indian Jones and happen across one in a sealed tomb somehwere.. you can't


In some places the waiting liust stretches till late june...

Those that do actually own one now for the most part odered back in late Feb.. and have waited this long.

Get on a list..

You guys are making sense, but I just hate the thought of "pay for it now, get it later." It's sorta un-American, isn't it? Don't we usually do the reverse? Especially with the delivery date long off and not even semi-committed. I will give them credit, though, for being straight about it instead of stringing me along. Thanks for the responses.

Mike

FWIW, I had one on order with B&H (prepaid) with apparently a couple weeks to go. I got a tip on an area dealer that had a couple extras on hand and managed to score one of them. B&H was very good about cancelling the order and crediting the card. The only downside was that the charge reversal to my card didn't show up for a couple days after I'd bought the other camera, so it could have been a problem if I hadn't had enough available credit. Personally, I think you should order one just about every place that doesn't require prepayment and see what happens. I'm quite sure you won't be the first to do it that way.

I went throught the same thing when I got the 10D (about this time last year..)

I would not "pre order" I wanted it in stock.

In this case I eventually found one in a store (NONE were available on the internet at the time) but I know how you feel.

I like the idea of ordering everywhere there is no prepayment required. I suppose tomorrow I'll start looking for places that will do just that.

It's a shame that my local retailers are the only ones that I really believe will be able to get it. I would like to support them, but as I said in the original post, that's an extra $400 in state and local taxes. The cost is one feature the Mark II doesn't need to have beefed up.

Thanks for the advice.

Mike

Mike, if your not in So Cal, I'd recommend checking with Kurts Camera Corral in Albuquerque NM. I've used them a couple times in the past, and was surprised with the stock they keep on hand.

http://www.kurtscamera​corral.com/

Where are you located?

I'm in River Ridge, Louisiana, a suburb of New Orleans. We cleverly avoid paying property taxes here by paying outrageous sales taxes instead. One result of that--very unfortunate for local retailers--is that people are tending to buy expensive items over the phone or the 'net instead of locally.

I will give Kurt's a call as soon as they open. Thanks for the tip.

Mike

Call Jeff Snyder at Penn Camera in DC.
Put down $500 and wait. They will get them in on a regular basis.
Penn supplies a lot of the media outlets.
I bought mine from Jeff, service is great.

I had an order in since February 6th. But giving a deposit or paying upfront, garantees you a spot in line.

I called Kurt's Camera Corral, and they gave me an interesting response. They told me that the cameras are being distributed on an "allocation basis," which they described as follows: stores order the camera in quantities that they specify, and distributors send them out in the order that the stores placed their orders. Since Kurt's has ordered none, an order placed with them this minute would be in line after all of the orders already placed by all other stores. That sounds as though it would be pretty far back.

The distributor told them that a camera ordered today can be expected to take at least 2-3 months. Oh, well ... a swing and a miss. Maybe I should just take my 10D out and shoot some pictures ...

Mike

Mike - I sent you a PM.

Scott