Buying over the Internet

[Mike Jackson]

Hi all,
Not that we made too much money this year, but I was thinking about buying a new digitial camera this week in order to get the 2004 deduction. Over the weekend, I spent quite a bit of time looking at the relatively new Nikon D-70 digital cameras.

I did some searches for a Nikon D-70 and came up wil all kinds of results. Prices ranged from $509 to around $1700 depending on what you buy. As I looked closer, some mentioned the full list of "What's in the box", letting you know exactly what you would get. At it turns out, the $509 price was for a "body only"...and when they say "body only", they mean exactly that. The battery, charger, USB cables, box, literature, software and so forth are not included unless they say it is included. When I asked the guy on the phone about it this morning, he told me if I wanted all that, the price was $869. To complicate matters, some of the cheapest finds can often be "gray market" or imported equipment, lacking any sort of US warranty.

Several places listed a lense that came with the camera that had the same basic specs as the normal Nikon lenses, but when I asked, they told me it was not a Nikon lense...something with a name I had never heard of.

By the end of the day, after looking over countless sites and eBay auctions, I must say I developed a case of cold feet. As a matter of fact, I am at least considering spending about $100 extra to buy one locally. I would at least know it was from a licensed Nikon USA reseller, complete with full warranty.

I am not necessarily on a rant here, but more of spreading a word of caution to anyone thinking they might get a better "deal" looking only for the lowest price. There seems to be a large slice of Internet sellers who boast very low prices but load their sites with misleading and incomplete information. The bottom line is "buyer beware" and "don't assume anything".

Mike

[Raymond Chapman]

Kind of like our customers trying to find a cheaper pair of magnetic signs, huh?

[Mike Jackson]

Hi Raymond,
I think this is different. I've purchased a lot of items over the Internet. I especially love to use it to get additional information and options when making a purchase. Most of what you buy over the Internet is well defined, but the camera sellers are deceitful on purpose. If you were buying a printer, you wouldn't expect them to take the printer out of the factory box and send it to you, keeping the toner, cables, instructions, software and so forth until you call complaining... at which point they shaft you on additional shipping and handling charges, plus an overpriced fee to get the rest of what you thought should have beein with the printer. Based on the two conversations I had with two of the companies, I wouldn't be surprised if they did that with their printers, too. Like I said, when they mean "body only", they mean just that.

I guess the sign industry could do that, too. When someone calls asking about magnetics, you could tell them they are $39.99 a pair. When they show up to pick them up, you say, "Oh, you wanted words on them?...that's $200!". The difference in the Internet, of course, if you pay up front for the item, including shipping and handling fees and then have to deal with their crack customer service team.

Mike

[Ron Berlier]

Mike,

Yikes!! Don't tell me that you are thinking about spending $100 more than the $1700 locally?

Did you check http://www.bhphotovideo.com ??

What's the local tab for the "Complete Box"?

[Mike Jackson]

Hi Ron,
No, the local store wasn't quoting me $1700. I used that number originally as part of the range based on whether you buy bundled lenses, or just the body package.

Tyler and I made a mid week drive over to Idaho Falls to do some shopping. We found one in stock at a Best Buy for around $1250 plus a $100 mail in rebate. I see the camera/lens outfit for $1299 all over the place (plus the rebate to get them down to $1199). The local store had the outfits for $1399. The lady told me she would check with the owner to see if they could get closer to $1299. I checked back in today and they can go $1325 plus a $100 rebate. I will probably do that just to keep the money in the valley and not worry about Internet rip off and shipping. The local store is an authorized Nikon USA reseller, so I wouldn't have to worry about gray market warranty issues, too.

My self imposed "rush" was created by the 12-31-04 rebate deadline and the possibility of using the purchase as a 2004 tax deduction. I finally decided to cool my jets and wait a while. As it turns out, Nikon created a whole new rebate schedule which includes the Nikon D70 and outfit until March 31, 2005.

You can see the D70 commercials on TV regularly with the guy shooting photos of a rhino crashing through fences. I am looking for the improved megapixels and the three frames per second firing. I hear Canon has a similar camera, maybe better in some areas, but the reviews I read on the Nikon D70 were quite glowing. Since I already own some Nikon equipment, along with the Nikon software, I tend to want to go with them again. We already have a Nikon 990 digital and a pocket sized Nikon 3100 digital and they serve their purposes. The D70 would take over as the main scenery and action camera. The 990 would be set up in the studio for close up work and the little camera goes with us when skiing or fishing.

While I might decide to purchase one soon, I tend to think I will wait a little while.

Happy new year to all!
Mike

[John Grenier]

Great camera so far. I havn't found a single problem with it. Of the many positives is the fact that it looks like my old Nikon and the lenses will fit with varing degrees of auto functions. But the lenses that came with it are great so far.

I purchased mine from RoyalCamera.com in Brooklyn NY.
Tamron lenses 28-105mm AF and 70-300mm AF
upgraded to a 1G High Speed Card
Came with a bag and small tripod, battery and charger.

The cost was $1662.90

I did have a problem with the gray market thing. I tried to register on Nikon site to download some software that would work on my mac system 9 and Nikon would not recognize the serial number I called nikon and they told me about the gray market thing. Needless to say I was hot and called the seller. He apologized and offered me a four year warranty at no charge but I said I want a Nikon warranty and a US camera so he gave me their UPS account number and I returned the body and 5 days later I had the US model. He apologized and pointed to popularity of the camera and the holiday season. So look for the US waranty card.

For the last few years we used an Olympus 1.3pix that cost about $400 new and the thing would not take a picture when you wanted to always some short delay or lag time from focus to click.

None of that nonesense, you grab the camera hit the on switch with your thumb and point and shoot and shoot. Just like that, really. I was told the high speed card is important but its the only one I have so nothing compare.

My cousin resently purchased the Canon and I like the Nikon better. The reviews all seem to like the Nikon also.

Have you considered the D100 it has a metal body and about the same price?

Good Luck,
John

[John Grenier]

Here is a good forum

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/forum.asp?forum=1034

John

[Mike Jackson]

I looked over a lot of reviews, but this one covers the pros and cons of the camera fairly well...along with a few glancing comparisons to the Canon counterpart.

http://www.digitalsecrets.net/secrets/NikonD70.html

John,
Thanks for sharing your first hand experiences. I am generally leaning towards buying the combo outfit with the 17-70mm Nikon lense. I'd probably buy a non-Nikon telephoto lense, knowing it wouldn't get the same amount of use in day to day photography.

With my kids doing skate boarding and snowboarding, baseball and soccer, we have always had trouble getting the perfect sports shots with the unpredictable delays on our other digitals. The three fps feature is a real plus. We occasionally use the digital photos in our signs, printed with our Edge II. Doubling the resolution would certainly come in handy.

Thanks again!
Mike

[Ron Berlier]

Hello all!

Since we are close to this subject ...

I read somewhere recently that "on ocassion" you can have problems retreiving images from compactflash cards - I presume it may have something to do with magnetic fields or the rotation of the earth?

However, in some cases the data can be retreived with "special" software. One of these programs is www.DataRescue.com. Based on this potential problem it would seem prudent to carry two 256MB cards rather than one 512MB, or two 512MB cards in lieu of 1GB card.

Does any one have any experience with this problem? What are your thoughts?