Canon prices in the UK vs the rest of the World

[Mr Miata]

I have a Canon R10 and looking to buy one or two RF lenses. However it seems we in the UK are paying considerably more compared to other countries.

I read an article that if you want to buy a R6 body. It’s actually cheaper to fly to New York, buy the camera out there and then fly back. Than it is to buy the R6 in the UK.

What’s the best way to buy Canon lenses without paying considerably more? I can’t afford to spend £1000s more.

I now believe improvements in iPhone cameras and Canon UK’s ridiculous pricing will eventually kill off owning a mirrorless or DSLR camera for amateurs. Canon are pricing out newcomers like myself.

[Tony1963]

Which lens or lenses specifically? And where are you looking for prices?

If you buy abroad, you’ll have no warranty to rely on. There are grey imports. Recently I’ve noticed grey imports in the U.K. have sometimes been cheaper than anything in the USA.

[Tony1963]

I’ll also add that there are plenty of countries where almost everything is more expensive than in the U.K. The U.K. is a small market compared to the US, for example, so you’d expect higher prices. Also, with US prices, you often need to add local/state tax. And when you return to a U.K. airport, be ready to add import duty and VAT if you are stopped.

[Mr Miata]

Tony1963 said:

Which lens or lenses specifically? And where are you looking for prices?

If you buy abroad, you’ll have no warranty to rely on. There are grey imports. Recently I’ve noticed grey imports in the U.K. have sometimes been cheaper than anything in the USA.

I only have the 18-45 kit lens for my R10. I want a lens for travel, landscape and a bit of urban.

I read the 16mm prime can have too much distortion and that the 35 prime is much better and is a great all rounder lens. So I will probably end up buying the 35 prime lens first, then maybe a zoom lens for urban detail, like a 70-200mm lens?

[Mr Miata]

Tony1963 said:

I’ll also add that there are plenty of countries where almost everything is more expensive than in the U.K. The U.K. is a small market compared to the US, for example, so you’d expect higher prices. Also, with US prices, you often need to add local/state tax. And when you return to a U.K. airport, be ready to add import duty and VAT if you are stopped.

If you went on holiday with your camera bag, it would be very hard for them to prove one of the lenses was purchased out there.

[GetCarter]

We have a very weak GBP v the Yen and the Dollar.

Prices for foreign tech have gone up across the board relative to other countries since... (guess when).

[StevieBee]

Tony1963 said:

I’ll also add that there are plenty of countries where almost everything is more expensive than in the U.K. The U.K. is a small market compared to the US, for example, so you’d expect higher prices. Also, with US prices, you often need to add local/state tax. And when you return to a U.K. airport, be ready to add import duty and VAT if you are stopped.

All of the main tech manufacturers (not just photo) determine the retail price of their products which is normally the same wherever it's sold. Any variation is down to sales tax/VAT/currency rates, etc. Even the special deals that some UK retailers run are not them running the promotion but the manufacturer. I think it was Nikon last year that run a discount on some lenses. It looked like a WEX offer but I noticed the exact same promotion running on US and German retailer sites.

I've occasionally seen some decent deals at airport duty free shops but these outlets tend to cater for the lower end of the amateur market.

[GravelBen]

Tony1963 said:

Also, with US prices, you often need to add local/state tax.

This can make quite a difference - I learnt the same when I visited Canada (from NZ), advertised sticker prices for most goods did not include tax (which varied for different items), whereas I was used to retail sticker prices for everything including tax. A lot of things which appeared cheaper at a glance were much the same price as they were at home once tax was added.

[havoc]

GetCarter said:

We have a very weak GBP v the Yen and the Dollar.

...which makes no odds as the goods have to be converted from currency-of-production to GBP whichever route you take.

- Buy in the UK, the currency weakness is priced in.
- Buy in (e.g.) the USA, the currency weakness is realised in the FX rate you get against the dollar.


I suspect part of the answer is that the UK is a small market, so less need to be competitive, alongside which anything Asian-built has a longer supply-chain attached to it to get here vs USA or Mid East. Import duties/taxes may contribute too.

By all means buy abroad and bring back...but as mentioned, if you get stopped, anything which still has a box/packaging, or even a pristine manual may get questioned (beyond that the risk is pretty slight, unless you're bringing back a crate-ful of professional-grade kit). Also note that you'll have zero warranty comeback, as warranties are region-specific.

[steveatesh]

GetCarter said:

We have a very weak GBP v the Yen and the Dollar.

Prices for foreign tech have gone up across the board relative to other countries since... (guess when).

I’m guessing it’s part of a long term slide against the Dollar, but certainly the financial crisis of 2008 - 2010 seems to have played a major part…. Although the strength of the dollar seems to be a big factor rather than weakness of the GBP?

Against the Yen, harder to see but looks like a gradual rise in value going back to the financial crisis, and certainly so since 2016.

Happy to learn though……

GBP to Dollar

GBP to Yen

Euro to Dollar

Over 20 years.

Edited by steveatesh on Tuesday 7th February 11:08

Edited by steveatesh on Tuesday 7th February 11:09

[singlecoil]

I had a bunch of Canon lenses all grey imports from (I think, mostly Hong Kong) from Panamoz, very significant savings over UK list prices, never a moment's problem with any of them.

Buying again I would do the same, or maybe buy second hand from MPB.

[Tony1963]

singlecoil said:

Buying again I would do the same, or maybe buy second hand from MPB.

I struggle to warrant buying used from MPB. Usually a brand new item from Panamoz will be significantly cheaper than used from MPB. Ok, perhaps a warranty claim might be easier, but as we all know, issues within the first year or so are extremely rare, with most cameras going their whole lives fault free.

Example: EOS R3, new from Panamoz, £4070; used (like new) from MPB, £4700.

Edited by Tony1963 on Friday 10th February 07:57

[SteveKTMer]

Tony1963 said:

singlecoil said:

Buying again I would do the same, or maybe buy second hand from MPB.

I struggle to warrant buying used from MPB. Usually a brand new item from Panamoz will be significantly cheaper than used from MPB. Ok, perhaps a warranty claim might be easier, but as we all know, issues within the first year or so are extremely rare, with most cameras going their whole lives fault free.

Example: EOS R3, new from Panamoz, £4070; used (like new) from MPB, £4700.

Edited by Tony1963 on Friday 10th February 07:57

Same here, I asked MPB if they would tell me, before I bought a lens, if it was a UK supplied lens or not and they said it could be either, so a used lens from MPB could be from the Asian or US market anyway and it doesn't affect their warranty and isn't relevant as far as they are concerned. Which makes perfect sense - why should it make a difference ?

So if I might be buying a non-UK supplied lens, I might as well buy it at the cheapest price so Panamoz has had some business from me. The new RF 85mm 1.2 for example, is £150 cheaper from Panamoz than it is from MPB used, and £800 cheaper than a new UK supplied lens if you ignore Amazon which could be supplying a lens from anywhere.

Having sold most of my EF lenses and moved to RF I'm pretty pissed off with Canon for keeping RF lens prices so high, especially when a number of them are not optically any better than the EF equivalents and need the in camera correction to achieve the results they do.

My EF 16-35 f4L is still a lovely lens to use even with the RF converter and given it cost me something like £800 a few years ago (£1250 now UK new), the new RF 14-35 f4L is £1750 with the distortion the 16-35 doesn't have. ( https://dustinabbott.net/2021/10/canon-rf-14-35mm-... )

With Canon also preventing third parties from making RF lenses, it doesn't bode well for Canon.

[havoc]

SteveKTMer said:

With Canon also preventing third parties from making RF lenses, it doesn't bode well for Canon.

Really? You'd think there'd be a competition issue there, but I guess the argument is you can switch to an all-Nikon or all-Sony system if you want instead.

Does mean I'll stick with the current D-SLR bodies for a while longer then.

[C n C]

havoc said:

SteveKTMer said:

With Canon also preventing third parties from making RF lenses, it doesn't bode well for Canon.

Really? You'd think there'd be a competition issue there, but I guess the argument is you can switch to an all-Nikon or all-Sony system if you want instead.

Does mean I'll stick with the current D-SLR bodies for a while longer then.

There's really no need to limit yourself to the current DSLR bodies (assuming you're using Canon kit).

The Canon EF lenses all seem to work well on an RF body with the EF/RF converter. I'm using several EF lenses on both 5Dmk3 and R5 bodies with no issues whatsoever. I just leave the converter attached to the R5 body, and carry on as normal.

I agree with the previous poster that Canon don't seem to be doing themselves any favours by pricing RF lenses significantly higher than the EF equivalent, often without significant image quality improvements.

Personally, I intend to continue using EF lenses for the forseeable future, and am even considering adding an EF 11-24mm F4L. If I do, I'll almost certainly get it from HDEW as a grey import, which is what I've done previously for several lenses, and bodies, without any issues whatsoever.

[singlecoil]

C n C said:

...and am even considering adding an EF 11-24mm F4L...

I had one of those for a while, in the end I couldn't find a use for it and it was too heavy for me to carry around on the off chance. Still, bloody good lens if you need it.

[Tony1963]

SteveKTMer said:

Same here, I asked MPB if they would tell me, before I bought a lens, if it was a UK supplied lens or not and they said it could be either, so a used lens from MPB could be from the Asian or US market anyway and it doesn't affect their warranty and isn't relevant as far as they are concerned. Which makes perfect sense - why should it make a difference ?

So if I might be buying a non-UK supplied lens, I might as well buy it at the cheapest price so Panamoz has had some business from me. The new RF 85mm 1.2 for example, is £150 cheaper from Panamoz than it is from MPB used, and £800 cheaper than a new UK supplied lens if you ignore Amazon which could be supplying a lens from anywhere.

Having sold most of my EF lenses and moved to RF I'm pretty pissed off with Canon for keeping RF lens prices so high, especially when a number of them are not optically any better than the EF equivalents and need the in camera correction to achieve the results they do.

My EF 16-35 f4L is still a lovely lens to use even with the RF converter and given it cost me something like £800 a few years ago (£1250 now UK new), the new RF 14-35 f4L is £1750 with the distortion the 16-35 doesn't have. ( https://dustinabbott.net/2021/10/canon-rf-14-35mm-... )

With Canon also preventing third parties from making RF lenses, it doesn't bode well for Canon.

That’s quite interesting. I was looking at the R3 cameras on MPB and there’s a few, “like new” at exactly the same price, about £4400. Your post shows why and confirms my suspicion. I suppose it’s like the old days of importing cars, do the import yourself, or choose from a range of different options and risks. As long as you can cough up the readies for your chosen route, all is good.

I also have the 16-35 f/4.0, and yep, I’ll be reluctant to let that go!

[cirks]

Mr Miata said:

What’s the best way to buy Canon lenses without paying considerably more? I can’t afford to spend £1000s more.

If you want to save money and buy superb lenses for less than the RF ones, get EF ones and use the adapter. Quality of images still perfect and only downside is the extra length of the adapter. You can of course also use other EF mount lenses vs Canon only RF. It doesn't look as though Canon are going to license the mount any time soon and looks as though Nikon may even go the Canon root and restrict to OEM Z mount lenses too.

if you want a 70-200 2.8L (mk1) a cracking lense in perfect condition, I just happen to be selling one ;-)

[havoc]

cirks said:

If you want to save money and buy superb lenses for less than the RF ones, get EF ones and use the adapter. Quality of images still perfect and only downside is the extra length of the adapter. You can of course also use other EF mount lenses vs Canon only RF. It doesn't look as though Canon are going to license the mount any time soon and looks as though Nikon may even go the Canon root and restrict to OEM Z mount lenses too.

if you want a 70-200 2.8L (mk1) a cracking lense in perfect condition, I just happen to be selling one ;-)

So, silly question time...if you have the adapter, does that mean you can still use e.g. Sigma lenses through the adapter. Or do they not communicate with the R bodies?

[EdR]

Tony1963 said:

That’s quite interesting. I was looking at the R3 cameras on MPB and there’s a few, “like new” at exactly the same price, about £4400. Your post shows why and confirms my suspicion. I suppose it’s like the old days of importing cars, do the import yourself, or choose from a range of different options and risks. As long as you can cough up the readies for your chosen route, all is good.

I also have the 16-35 f/4.0, and yep, I’ll be reluctant to let that go!

For what it's worth, I bought an R3 from Panamoz about a year ago, and have been very happy with it. The only EF lens I kept happened to also be the 16-35 f4, as I wasn't convinced that the RF versions would be a step up. I use it with the ND EF-RF adapter, which works very nicely, however did rent the 15-35 f2.8 recently for an event (I don't actually have the standard EF-RF adapter, and figured the ND filter wasn't going to be much use indoors!) - couldn't honestly say that I could see much difference in the quality between the 2.

I have swapped my other EF lenses to RF versions, due to certain advantages - I wanted the extra reach of the 100-500, the lighter weight of the 70-200 f2.8, and I had quite an old 24-105 f4 that I was never 100% happy with, so thought it worth changing to the RF version. Still haven't replaced a couple of my less used lenses yet, as the cost of these things does start adding up!!