[cambsno]

I have looked on google to see what sort of price you can order the d90 for.

I have found a number who are selling slightly cheaper that the RRP but would like to know if anyone else has used these companies and if they are any good.

- Campkins Online - Selling a D90 body for £649, 18-105VR lens - £180
- http://www.digital-cameras.com + http://www.camerabox.co.uk - Selling the camera and lens for £800
- http://www.swoptics.co.uk + DigitalRev - Selling camera and lens for £830
- http://www.ukdigital.co.uk - Selling camera and lens for £749
- http://www.expansys.com - Selling camera and lens for £625 (surely a mistake).

I have been into Campkins in Cambridge and would trust them (although you can only order online and have delivered, not order online and pick up from shop).

I am sure the £625 price is a mistake, but are the companies selling for £749 or £800 ok.

[willo]

I have my eye on a D90 as a replacement for my D40, some of those prices seem very low seeing as its not out yet and the RRP £849. I have a feeling some of those maybe be imports so not covered by a UK warranty.

But having said that, ukdigital do state it is UK stock and covered by 2 year warranty. £749 does seem an incredibly good price, very tempting!

[nick1960]

bestcameras.co.uk have the D90 for £599.99 with a few twiddly bits thrown in. This retailer has mixed/reasonable reviews as far as I can see.

Play.com have it for £609.99. I'm getting one, just not sure where from yet

[Strobe]

I have ordered some cheap PDA stuff from expansys.com without issue. I suspect at that price that it would be a grey input, or they reserve to put the price up once it's in stock! Caveat Emptor and all that .. if the offer is too good to be true, it often is.

[Bristol Pete]

Why not buy it in a shop and help keep them on the high street

[Nikumba]

Originally Posted by Bristol Pete

Why not buy it in a shop and help keep them on the high street

My thoughts exactly, I will be going to my local indy photo store to see what he can do for me

Kimbie

[rrfierce]

Originally Posted by Bristol Pete

Why not buy it in a shop and help keep them on the high street

Surely most purchases are driven by price alone. I wouldn't buy on the street if it was available cheaper online.

http://www.hotukdeals.com/search?act...h&keywords=d90

With kit lens for £715 (after quidco etc)

[Bristol Pete]

Originally Posted by rrfierce

Surely most purchases are driven by price alone. I wouldn't buy on the street if it was available cheaper online.

http://www.hotukdeals.com/search?act...h&keywords=d90

With kit lens for £715 (after quidco etc)

Suppose, but then I am not tight with money and I really have better things to worry about. sorry.

[darkeeboy]

Someone posted this on the other thread
http://www.bestcameras.co.uk/shop/ac..._lens_299.html
and clitheroe cameras have it for £749 with lens

[rrfierce]

Originally Posted by Bristol Pete

Suppose, but then I am not tight with money and I really have better things to worry about. sorry.

Thats a nice position to be in.

[willo]

Originally Posted by rrfierce

Thats a nice position to be in.

I was thinking that, why would you pay over £100 over the odds?

[Biscuit761]

Must admit, after looking at loads of on-line ads for my D300 I bought it from Jessops (sorry Pete) as it gave me a base to take it back to if anything went wrong, also they did a 12 month interest free thingy so made persuading myself a lot easier - and I could take it home with me there and then

D90 does look good, show us the pictures when you get it.

Bill

[Bristol Pete]

Originally Posted by Gingerbillc

What a £100 price difference shows to me is how much these people are ripping us off. The ones not making the extra £100 are still making a large profit. Greed. Don't mind paying a 5% mark up on something to get it from a shop but another 10 -15 on hundreds of pounds is ridiculous.

Thats were you are completely misinformed, out of touch, simply wrong and rather annoying.

No camera shops are making 10-15% on DSLR'S - I know, I manage one. The days of large profit in a camera store hark back to the 1970's and 1980's when yes they did clear up but everything has changed.

Hence why one day, camera 'stores' will be a thing of the past as people assume that it is rip of central. Not the case.

Anyway, I am not going to get drawn into another pointless debate on here yet again. Its snooze worthy.

[Bristol Pete]

Originally Posted by willo

I was thinking that, why would you pay over £100 over the odds?

I would not. I would pay the going rate for peace of mind, customer service, a decent warranty, cover by the retailer, advice etc.

[rrfierce]

If you are prepared to pay more than you have to, then more fool you. Id rather spend the £100 elsewhere. If you manage on of these said indy camera stores, of course you're going to promote people buying from you. I'm trying to see your point but i just can't!

[Valleyman]

BestCameras.co.uk have it for £600 body only and £700 with the kit lense.
+ They have a single high street shop so qualify as "indy"

Keeps everyone happy! I shall be buying one of these and the thought of dropping £850 in Jessops, when I can get it for £700 from an indy surely means they're ripping us off. I'm sorry Pete but thats a 20% premium when they should be offering preferable deals considering their overheads etc should be reduced, more economic etc due to their size. Ther are no excuses as far as I can see!

My 2c

[beachy]

Originally Posted by Bristol Pete

Anyway, I am not going to get drawn into another pointless debate on here yet again. Its snooze worthy.

To be fair Pete i think you bought the pointless debate up

[beachy]

Originally Posted by Bristol Pete

I would pay the going rate for peace of mind, customer service, a decent warranty, cover by the retailer, advice etc.

Which all of the above you could get from a good online dealer as I'm sure there not all bad.

[cambsno]

I did look at getting my camcorder from Campkins in Cambridge, their online store were selling at a good price but was told I could not order online and pick up at the shop? Would have to pay delivery which seeing as I am 15 mins from the shop seemed silly.

There are retailers selling a SB400 flash for £149, but you can buy online at around £80, or even get the SB600 for £125.

I did get my f1.8 50mm Nikon lens from Jessops for £70, used an online councer code to get 10% off (do a google search, some work some dont) so sometimes the big boys are competitive.

I would pay a little more for service and being able to pick up in store now, but the fact that play are charging £100 less (plus i get £30 from quidco) I cannot see any clued up person paying £849.

[Bristol Pete]

Originally Posted by Gingerbillc

If one shop can make a profit selling a camera for £610 and another charges £699 then there is £89 extra. So you are right, that's an extra 14.6% on top of the profit already available for selling it at £610. So yes I am wrong, completely misinformed, out of touch and best of all, glad to be annoying. Please feel free to get over yourself.

Will do.

However, one assumes that you know what various retailers are buying D90's at from Nikon. Note that all retailers have different costs. For example one camera shop I know gets a better rate from Nikon for having a Nikon mat on the shop floor so the whole profit thing is not uniform. Likewise, Sony are throwing discount and retro discount at shops who stock Alpha.

Cheers anyway......

[bodoman]

Originally Posted by Bristol Pete

Will do.

However, one assumes that you know what various retailers are buying D90's at from Nikon. Note that all retailers have different costs. For example one camera shop I know gets a better rate from Nikon for having a Nikon mat on the shop floor so the whole profit thing is not uniform. Likewise, Sony are throwing discount and retro discount at shops who stock Alpha.

Cheers anyway......

Very True, people seem to assume that every retailer pays the same price for the same product and therefore the one asking the highest price is ripping everyone off, the rip off comes from the manufacture, not the retailer.
eg
I have a friend who runs his own hi-fi tv shop locally and i used to work for him many years ago on a saturday afternoon for free and used to enjoy it and also used to get all my hi fi gear at trade plus vat.
He has been a loyal authorised Panasonic dealer for over 20years and a couple of years ago i asked him if about getting a Panasonic plasma tv at trade plus vat, he looked up his trade price added the vat and it came to £1500.00
John Lewis were selling it for £1310.00

Go figure who the rip off merchant is

[Gingerbillc]

I deleted my message because it served no purpose but to be argumentative and cause offence. I apologise, but was reacting and should know better.
getting over myself.

[TarMoo]

I was in my local photography store in Tunbridge Wells the other day. The manager was bemoaning those customers who want to come in and have a hands on try of all the cameras and lenses and then order what they like off the internet.

There is a compromise between price and service. You should expect to pay for good advice and service, but not and excessive amount.

I have found that many high street shops are competitive on cameras, but there is a huge mark up on accessories like Sandisk III Compact Flash cards where they are selling them for double the online price.

[Liquid101]

Originally Posted by TarMoo

I have found that many high street shops are competitive on cameras, but there is a huge mark up on accessories like Sandisk III Compact Flash cards where they are selling them for double the online price.

This is my experience as well. My local Jessops will do their best to match online prices - and because of this I've bought a lens, a compact for the gf and a tripod from them. The accessories are shockingly expensive though - I suppose they hope people will get the deal on the camera, and then not feel so bad about parting with the extra dollar for a memory card and bag etc.

As it happens, I accidently popped in yesterday, and accidentally had a play with a D700 - The manager came over (who I already know quite well) and offered me a 5% discount on the spot if I managed to beat him on the scalextrics set he had set up in the corner - that was a £90 discount on the D700 Needless to say, I made my excuses and went back to work before I got carried away. If they can do this, and still turn a profit, it makes you wonder.

The bottom line is, shops need to make their profit. There is no doubt you'll get a much better deal online. Nobody who is willing to drop £1000+ on some camera kit is going to take advice from the spotty youths that tend to be employed by most camera shops. Most will have done exhaustive research on it's features and merits beforehand. I see no reason to buy from a shop unless you need it that day. To say that a shop offers a better service when a fault occurs is rubbish, they just send it back to the manufacturer - I can do that myself. It might cost me the postage, but at least I know it's gone, and it'll come straight back to me.

[Bristol Pete]

All valid here and Bill and I have made our peace over PM.

As he said, selling cameras keeps a roof over my head basically.

Here is one for you.

Guy calls me at 5.43 last night. Wants to talk about the D700. I spend 20 minutes on the phone telling him how great the camera is. We close at 5.45 so I left at 6.10pm in the end and cycled ten miles home, got in at 6.55 pm.

Today he came into buy the camera as we had agreed to sell it at £1679.99, £20.00 cheaper than Jessop's. At this price we make no money, but it is turnover on which we are judged. Of course we look for repeat custom, word of mouth service, peripheral sales and I demoed the 12-24 which he loved.

At 10.30am the guy called me to advise that he had a 'D700 hard on' and that he could not get over how good the camera was. He thanked me for my service and knowledge of the camera. I said thanks for the cander.

At 11.30 he called me to advise he could not get Camera Control Pro 2 to work with the camera so I took a number, called Nikon, got the answer, called him back and problem solved within 10 minutes.

So, does the Internet offer that? Yes, sometimes, but more often not.

As ever I am passionate about what I do. Some of you may recall I left camera's as I took a very well paid job with City of Bristol College in the Transport Team. I knew I had dropped a bollock when I was asked 'What are your opinions on LPG...?'

I replied 'I like it, but the Nikon D60 is better'......

Hope this helps.

Pete

Oh and as for the Jessops scaletrix thing - yeah, you gotta laugh. Would not happen in my shop, we prefer Hornby.

[Gingerbillc]

Just to clear things up, I prefer to buy things in a shop, when I get the urge I want it there and then, I just try to get the price as close to the cheapest I've found on the internet. When I bought my D60 and bits, I got them from jessops wo couldn't price match but where £20 off the cheapest at the time, and I thought thats close enough. I like to buy from shops but when the prices are so much higher it's hard to justify.

this is how lunatic I've been these last two months and where my money's gone

D60+VR kit, 4gb generic jessops(just so I could take a couple straight away), bag, UV filter, tripod - jessops in store Bolton £500 on 20/06/08
55-200VR(unsure whether to keep it or not) + uv filter, giottos rocket, kenro magic pocket, pro1d uv, £175 27/06/08 - instore at fotosense Bolton(its at the back of Warburtons- family run business, owners mum gave my kids sweets for behaving so well)
nikon ML-l3 remote, circ pol 52mm £40 instore fotosense 30/06/08
HB-45 lens hood- £15 warehoseexpress early july(why did I feel I needed this?)
lowpro fastpack bag(yes 2 bags already) - £45 instroe fotosense bolton early august
50mm F1.8 - £82 - 12/08/08 warehouse express - no shops had one
18-200 VRII, 105mm VR, sb600 - £1008 instore jessops Trafford Centre 31/08/08 - Bolton couldn't get them for a week
went back with 105 to have it checked out/ compared next day and came out with 4 x 2700mah AA + Portaflash reflector- £40 - very nice man did me a discount - but why did I get these, I have more batteries than I can shake a stick at and reflector still in box!
Still need to get 72 + 62mm UV filters and a 72mm Circ pol(not bothering with one for the 105)
5 x 4gb + 1 x 2Gb sandisc extreme III cards over the same period, from play and amazon.

oops nearly £2k - wife is going to make me suffer

Please help me as I cannot stop spending money and now I can feel my pin number finger twitching for a D90. ~£600 is getting too close to my F@@@ it I'll get it mark. If the $/£ hadn't dipped, I'd have got it for the US when on my jollies.

So the point of this post, I spend too freely on boys toys so every penny counts, I'm even worse with my pc upgraditis. I use scan for all my pc needs and far from them being a faceless internet company, I get all from their shop by the Reebok Stadium. (except my printer ip5000 which got from jessops ex display 18months ago)

So support your local retailer, but the retailer must support you too by remaining competitve as that's why they call it a free market. I just happen to be lucky in that some of the cheapest internet stores are actually my local shops - Scan, fotosense, Dabs to name but a few.

[olisun]

Originally Posted by cambsno

I have looked on google to see what sort of price you can order the d90 for.

I have found a number who are selling slightly cheaper that the RRP but would like to know if anyone else has used these companies and if they are any good.

- Campkins Online - Selling a D90 body for £649, 18-105VR lens - £180
- http://www.digital-cameras.com + http://www.camerabox.co.uk - Selling the camera and lens for £800
- http://www.swoptics.co.uk + DigitalRev - Selling camera and lens for £830
- http://www.ukdigital.co.uk - Selling camera and lens for £749
- http://www.expansys.com - Selling camera and lens for £625 (surely a mistake).

I have been into Campkins in Cambridge and would trust them (although you can only order online and have delivered, not order online and pick up from shop).

I am sure the £625 price is a mistake, but are the companies selling for £749 or £800 ok.

I had placed the order with expansys when the price was £633 for the kit and they honoured it...

I am very happy....

[Yandros]

I'm with Pete on this one. I've bought three cameras in the last few years - one from Jessops, and two from my local Photooptix. The latter has now gone bust, but at least I did my bit.

We tell people to go into a store to try cameras - well if everyone buys online after wasting half an hour of a helpful salesperson's time, frankly I think that's pretty poor (being polite!).

For the record...

My D200 body came from Photooptix Lakeside
105VR from Grays of Westminster
12-24 and 50mm from Microglobe on New Oxford St
18-200VR from a camera shop in Cheshire

I do buy online as well, but I feel I give the stores a good share of my cash.

Use 'em or loose 'em folks - your choice!

Same thing goes for hifi kit, the last receiver and speakers I bought were auditioned and bought from a store. Sure I could've saved a few quid by walking out and buying online after having a guy run around swapping speakers etc while we decided, but I would've felt like pond scum.

[julian_fraser]

This is a difficult one, especially if money is a factor because there's no doubt about it that SOME things are cheaper online... It's like anything - we all want to support local food producers and buy in the greengrocers & butchers but sometimes the supermarkets are cheaper.

I just spent one hour in Mifsuds in Brixham, an independent camera shop that is also a Nikon Pro dealer. The staff there were very helpful, very knowledgable, friendly and keen to help...and I had a cup of tea while chatting.

We talked about cameras, lenses, bags, prices, alternatives, upgrades etc etc.

So I'm pleased to say I bought a Nikon D700 and a Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8 from them

Still feel a bit sick actually, need to go and lie down now...

[rodman]

play.com has good prices for this camera