Lens Rebates

Anyone seem to know approximately when Canon Corp will be having their next rebates on lenses? Thanks.

Right after they finish hiking up the prices for all lenses

So for rebates....

Canon jacks up the prices.

Do Retailers jack up the prices as well? So they can claim they applied instant rebates?

So basically, rebates don't even save you money?

Rebates save you money over the current prices at the time. But unfortunately, most of the rebates haven't been deep enough to counteract the price hikes. So, you're saving money over what you'd pay now, but not a lot.

I'm happy I got my 70-200 f/4L IS and 17-55 f/2.8 IS's when I did. Just wish I picked up the 100-400L too, cuz its gone up almost $300 since I started looking at it about 18 months ago.

One thing I do, and suggest, is that you try to combine rebates to get overall prices down. What I did for both of the lenses above was I used the Canon Instant Rebates + MS Live/MS Bing eBay Cashbacks + eBay Bucks to get my final price down as far as possible. Just make sure the purchase qualifies and the vendor is reputable.

With my 70-200 f/4L IS, the Live eBay Cashbacks were 25% (up to $200) at the time + the Canon Rebate was $75... so, the lens cost was $1050-ish minus $75 = $975 - $200(max out) = $775 + $50 shipping (yeah a bit high but oh well) = $825 final price for a brand new with warranty f/4L IS, this was back in December '08.

For my 17-55 IS, the Bing eBay Cashbacks were 8%, and I got 2% back in eBay Bucks, plus the Canon Rebate was $75 I think (don't remember if it was $75 or $80). But the final price for the lens ended up being about $850. $1025 - $75 (Canon Rebate) = $950 - $95 (10% total between Bing and eBay Bucks) = $855 + shipping. So the 17-55 costed me more than the 70-200 f/4L IS, but both prices were great.

Nowadays I try to save my BING eBay Cashbacks for such bigger purchases, because you get an annual/lifetime limit of how many you can get, I think the current number is 20, with MS Live it was 12 (thats how I learned about this limit, I hit it).

I'm lookin forward to the next round of Rebates, hope upon hopes that they do a "combo" rebate like they are doing right now. But with the 7D and 100-400L being qualifying purchases, because those are the main 2 things I need/want right now.