buy gear from US

I live in Alberta and have purchased all my lenses and cameras from B&H. Be sure to have it shipped "Expedited", that way you pay no Brokerage/Duty, just the GST. The camera retailers in Canada are not lowering their prices at all. The last lens purchase two weeks ago cost me $508 Cnd (including shipping) from B&H. The cheapest I found that lens for here in Canada was $750.

If you're travelling to the US for any reason, order when you're there and have it shipped to your US address.

I just ordered EF-S 17-55 and EF-S 10-22 lenses from Amazon.com and had them shipped to the address I was staying at in Miami. Free 2-day shipping and no taxes. I saved a whopping 60% compared to local prices+taxes for these lenses. I then mailed the lens boxes to my home address after putting the lenses in my camera bag. (I went down with just the 40D body in the bag.)

BTW, I bought the 40D locally as pricing for this body is quite reasonable here in Canada.

[EDIT] Both lenses came with a US/Canada warranty so no worries there.

i ordered 1dm3 from us not too long ago and it was the price i paid 4500 usd and i was only charged the pst and gst (i live in ontario) and that was the end of the story, much cheaper than buying localling from viskek here.

thank you thank you and thank you. And I just phone BH and they said canon have stopped to ship out their MARK III?? No idea...

Im living in Banff atm and a friend of mine just ordered a $550 sony handycam
got UPS exp and had it arrive in less then 24hours to banff from B&H

no duty fees and managed to "not" get hit with GST as well

GST is one of those thing you should certainly calculate into your costs though

Troopa wrote in post #4082549
Im living in Banff atm and a friend of mine just ordered a $550 sony handycam
got UPS exp and had it arrive in less then 24hours to banff from B&H

no duty fees and managed to "not" get hit with GST as well

GST is one of those thing you should certainly calculate into your costs though

I usually get the letter to pay the GST a week or two after UPS delivers the goods.

Cool, i actually think thats a good thing anyway(i dont have any problems paying tax where tax is due)
Ill have to let them know that it might be in the mail as it was about 2 weeks ago now

This is one of my favorite gripes!! Canadian retailers had better wake up soon! Especially with the value of the C$ and the amount of time in the news now. Consumers are starting to understand how badly we've been ripped off.

Once you buy from B&H be sure to ship expedited, this includes brokerage and is less expensive that regular shipping plus brokerage fees.

You will pay PST and GST on the declared value, as Alberta has no PST ....

Take a look for other Canadian retailers on line stores and see if someone comes close. Camera Canada does pretty well. If buying from another province you usually don't pay the PST when shipped out of province, If we continue to support the local suppliers that don't rip us off, they will survive while the others fail. Are you listening Henry's?

Have patience with B&H orders, phone or e-mail the customer service if you have any questions. They have always been good to me, even if I had to fight for it.

Good luck!

tonylong wrote in post #4079509
Sam.

Make sure your information is current. Over the last couple of months, the US Dollar's value has dropped to the point of "Parity with Canada" so that what was is no longer...in other words, your quoted prices may not hold today.

I don't know how that holds in the on-line sales, but it doesn't hurt to ask.

Hope this helps,

Tony

Tony Long Photos on PBase

Tony - Good point but the economic arbitrage that leads to higher Canadian prices vs. US have less to do with the relative strength of the USD than several other factors. Pricing should remain the same on both sides of the border despite the recent weakening of the USD.

JAZZ D.P.G. wrote in post #4083988
Take a look for other Canadian retailers on line stores and see if someone comes close.

I concur. Especially with the current Canon Canada rebate. I find http://www.photoprice.​ca pretty useful since it has all the rebate information and lets me compare to the B&H price directly.

Just ordered a Mark III from BH Photo, used UPS Worldwide Saver (most expensive one) and I will see how much extra when its here.. lol Thank you soso much guys.

I ordered a 70-200 f2.8 IS from them on saturday. It should be arriving today so I'll let you know what I get hit with. I used the same shipping method as you did.

Waiting is so painful =( lol

James

I ordered a Canon 17-55 F2.8 IS yesterday from B&H. It was $924 from B&H, shipping is $33 and taxes will be $129 (no duty), it will get to my door for $1086.

If I baught it in Canada it would be $1349 - 100 rebate + taxes = $1423. Thats a $340 savings and I don't have to wait until God nows when before the Canon $100 rebate check comes in.

That $340 is a nice 50 mm 1.4 or just money in my pocket. Unless Canadian prices change to match the USA prices, I will never buy locally again.

If you have any hope of switching to another shipping company I would. They are now two days late and can not give me any idea as to when my package will be delivered. They have no idea where it is except that it may be on a truck somewhere. They are blaming the fact that they are understaffed in Edmonton and they are something like 1500 packages behind on delivery.

The only upside is that B&H is applying to get the cost of the shipping refunded and I will be getting that money back. The downside is I have no idea when I'm going to see my lens.

James

Well my package finally showed up but I'm still not happy with the way UPS operates in Edmonton.

James