Cheaper in Japan?

Are lenses / accessories from any of the major manufacturers any cheaper in Japan than in the states?

I travel there for business every year & now I'm beginning to wonder if I'm missing out on purchases I should be making!

Jeffbx wrote in post #3787323
Are lenses / accessories from any of the major manufacturers any cheaper in Japan than in the states?

I travel there for business every year & now I'm beginning to wonder if I'm missing out on purchases I should be making!

No.

Another no. You would think so though since they don't have to import much of the stuff.

Actually, there are some that are cheaper here. It's kind of strange, because some are cheaper in the US, while some are cheaper in Japan. For example, the 135 f2L costs $910 on amazon, but in Japan about $810. The 24-105 f4L, costs $1050 in US, about $900 in Japan. For some reason the 24-70 f2.8L costs $1120 on amazon, but about $1340 in Japan. If there is a particular lens you would like to look at I will look up the price for you.

Thanks for the offer, jaym.

Does that also hold true for Sigma, Tamron, Kenko, etc?

I found that some Tamrons are cheaper in Japan. I haven't really checked sigma, get back to you.

I checked some Sigma prices, and the 18-200 is cheaper in US, but the 30mm 1.4 is cheaper in Japan. 18-50 f2.8 is cheaper in US.

Weird - I guess I'll just have to bring a price list along next time I go & see if anything strikes me.

Thanks for all of the input!

No. A 50 f/1.4 is $440 here in Japan, while in the states its closer to $300.

no, what you can find cheaper here is 100 yen store.. you just amazed what they sell for 100 yen in there.

I think Japan have more used camera and lenses (at least in tokyo) than US

JAcosta wrote in post #3787644
No. A 50 f/1.4 is $440 here in Japan, while in the states its closer to $300.

The 50mm is one of the cases of US being cheaper, but as I have mentioned there are many lenses that are cheaper here in Japan.

I'd be curious how used gear prices compare...when I was there, anything used had little market value among Japanese...tho not to us gaijin.

Depends on what you are talking about.

Camera gear in good condition retain their value even in Japan since it's a specialized market.

Just check out places like yahoo auction Japan...you'll see a pretty healthy used market there.

kitacanon wrote in post #3788521
I'd be curious how used gear prices compare...when I was there, anything used had little market value among Japanese...tho not to us gaijin.

Both Japan and USA are cheaper than the UK from what I can see, lucky sods

It all has to do with profit margins, supply and demand.

US has the largest market share thus get the largest quantity discounts.

Japan says about equal to US because of lack of export/import duties.

UK and Europe is a smaller market PLUS have export/import duties. The EU was supposed to fix this but different countries have different laws/business practices forcing large buying capacity companies to buy for individual countries still (well, be taxed differently anyway). It makes perfect sense really.