# Canadian Retailers matching B&H



## Niteshooter (Aug 8, 2008)

We were shopping for a replacement to Annette's Rebel XTi the last couple of days. I had been checking all the usual suspects such as B&H in NYC who tend to set the pace for everyone else and now have cheaper shipping in terms of brokerage to Canada.

Checked out some of the locals, merklecamera,com (lower but not in stock), photocreative.com (lower), vistek.ca, and henrys.com (lower). Went into a Best Buy to see if they would match merkle's price they don't even sell bodies without lenses! 

Anyhow to cut to the chase, we went back into Henry's yesterday to see if they would price match Merkle, turns out they are having a 4 day sale that started yesterday that is not advertised! It was in an email yesterday to previous customers but it's well hidden. The 7D went down an extra $100.

They have a lot of lenses and bodies from not only Canon but Sigma etc.

Henry's - Canada's Digital Camera Centre - Shop for Digital SLR Cameras, Digital Cameras, and Video Cameras


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## Oakbridge (Mar 8, 2005)

I was talking with a buddy about this today. We're both Nikon users and the holy grail of Nikon lenses, the AF-S 70-200 F2.8 VR II LENS is $400 off (down from $2400 to $1999) and I mentioned that I seemed to recall the last time the Canadian dollar had a jump in rates against the US, many electronics retailers started to advertise 'sales' when in actuality, the distributors had modified their pricing because of the exchange rate.


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## Niteshooter (Aug 8, 2008)

That sounds about right. I think the last time the Canadian dollar hit $1.10 us I upgraded some of my gear. 

What is interesting this time are some prices. The 7D we just picked up was $200 lower than B&H who typically set the going rate. Merkle has the T3i (sorry I'm a Canon shooter) for $699 cdn for the body.

Other pieces are a lot cheaper stateside and then with the exchange factored in when the dollar was higher. 

I guess what we might be seeing here is as you say a price adjustment. I know margins on camera bodies is really low, why the stores want to sell you accessories and extended warranties. Ever wonder what the markup on a filter was?


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## Oakbridge (Mar 8, 2005)

Niteshooter said:


> That sounds about right. I think the last time the Canadian dollar hit $1.10 us I upgraded some of my gear.
> 
> What is interesting this time are some prices. The 7D we just picked up was $200 lower than B&H who typically set the going rate. Merkle has the T3i (sorry I'm a Canon shooter) for $699 cdn for the body.
> 
> ...


I worked for Black's during my last couple of years of school and it was my first full time job. That was in 1977-81. 

So yes I know what the markup on a Black's filter was like...

Selling a UV or clear filter was something that I was comfortable doing, protecting the lens was logical. Same with selling a polarizing filter. Thankfully we didn't have extended warranties. I wouldn't have been as comfortable selling those.


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## Niteshooter (Aug 8, 2008)

Oakbridge said:


> I worked for Black's during my last couple of years of school and it was my first full time job. That was in 1977-81.
> 
> So yes I know what the markup on a Black's filter was like...
> 
> Selling a UV or clear filter was something that I was comfortable doing, protecting the lens was logical. Same with selling a polarizing filter. Thankfully we didn't have extended warranties. I wouldn't have been as comfortable selling those.


I did my tours of duty in Photo retail at K-Mart back around the same time in the 70's while in high school. We had darkroom supplies too. Our main money maker back then was photofinishing.

Once I graduated Ryerson I wound up at Classic Camera here in Toronto and when Mike sold out to Queen Street I wound up bouncing through their stores as a manager until I wound up at the paper. Because of the close proximity to Ryerson we sold a lot of darkroom and film plus TC had a mini lab so photofinishing was a big money maker as well. Even back then markup on cameras was low, we made more money on used equipment that had been traded in. Though it might be a lot different today given how fast digital cameras get replaced and upgraded.

Filters do make sense, I use them on all my lenses that can take them though some of the cheaper brands were not so good. We had a house brand that I think we paid $1 for and sold for $30 and it was crap. The B+W filters had a lot of markup as well but were great quality back then and having the employee discount helped. I had a contact that supplied Toshiba filters and so wound up with a lot of their multicoated filters on my old Canon FD lenses.

With the extended warranties the sales people used to get a spiff for selling them so that's why I'm a bit gun shy with them to this date. Not that I don't think they should get a bonus for their work but mainly because I didn't think they were worth it. Plus you can double your manufacturers warranty with some credit cards.


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## Guest (Jun 17, 2011)

I don't think all extended warranties are a bad deal ... for example: I recently purchased a used 5D (classic) body from Henry's for a decent price -- it was a 7/10 condition and has seen it's share of wear and tear but works well. It comes with a 90 day warranty against defects only by default, but ... with the Henry's extended warranty plan I upgraded the warranty to a full 3 year parts and labour warranty for $169 or something. For a piece of used gear that's great ... it's less than what it would cost me for a new shutter assembly (which it will probably need before the 3 years are up)


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## Niteshooter (Aug 8, 2008)

mguertin said:


> I don't think all extended warranties are a bad deal ... for example: I recently purchased a used 5D (classic) body from Henry's for a decent price -- it was a 7/10 condition and has seen it's share of wear and tear but works well. It comes with a 90 day warranty against defects only by default, but ... with the Henry's extended warranty plan I upgraded the warranty to a full 3 year parts and labour warranty for $169 or something. For a piece of used gear that's great ... it's less than what it would cost me for a new shutter assembly (which it will probably need before the 3 years are up)


That's not a bad deal since it's on a used camera and it's always a bit hard to say how much it's been through, something that looks pristine could have had a lot of exposures though . I've bought quite a few things from Henrys over the years and Canon used to sell off all their loaner and demo hardware once every couple of years so you could wind up with some excellent used gear at great prices. I think Canon still has flat rates for repairs or did the last time I had to have something fixed. 

I seem to recall that Canon rated the shutter at something like 100,000 exposures though yesterday Annette cranked off 1000+ frames with her 7D on one shoot so she could hit 100,000 cycles pretty quickly. Sure glad that wasn't film!

Camera repairs can be pretty expensive and that sounds like a pretty good deal if something major packs it in. I think Canon would want more for a flat rate repair on something like a shutter. Granted I have Canon Pro Service so my rates are different, like I say it's mainly from being behind the counter that kind of cools me on the extended warranty plus my Mastercard automatically doubles the warranty though not sure what kind of hoops they may make you jump through vs the store that sold the item.

I guess the question is, does Henry's send it to Canon for a repair or to someone else?


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## Guest (Jun 18, 2011)

Niteshooter said:


> I guess the question is, does Henry's send it to Canon for a repair or to someone else?


I take it for repair, just have to have my Henry's receipt that shows the warranty on it and Henry's is billed. I asked about that too before I purchased


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## Niteshooter (Aug 8, 2008)

mguertin said:


> I take it for repair, just have to have my Henry's receipt that shows the warranty on it and Henry's is billed. I asked about that too before I purchased


That's good to know. Really makes it worth it then.


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## Guest (Jun 18, 2011)

Yep that's what I thought too, don't even have to get them involved in the discussion, just take it in myself ... the copy of the bill lives with all the original box and stuff so if ever there's a need ...


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## gnrd (Apr 3, 2009)

I find Henrys quite expensive and they seem not that interested in matching other Canadian prices. I like Aden Camera but recently they have crept up in price. I've bought most of my equipment (D700 18-70 2.8 and 70-200) at Vistek as they were close by, I rent from them and they matched the Aden price. Then I found the 85mm 1.4 cheaper at Vistek than Aden.


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