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Author Topic: D-SLR chat Mark Gulbrandsen Resident Trollmaster Posts: 16657 From: Music City Registered: Jun 99 posted 02-19-2007 02:39 PM                     So I've decided to buy a Nikon D-80 body since I already have three "Auto Focus Pocus" Nikor lenses that will work with it as well as my full range of Nikor AI manual lenses. The body lists for $1195.00 and the local camera store price is $995.00. A quick search on E-Bay finds them selling for as low as $510.00 for a Demo body from Nikon with full warranty and for 869.00 for a new body, while a quick Google turns them up for 329.00 atShopcartusa.com Now how can they sell this body which lists for over 1100.00 for a mere $329.00 new in the box? Thats got to be below dealer cost. Mark  |  IP: Logged Mike Blakesley Film God Posts: 12767 From: Forsyth, Montana Registered: Jun 99 posted 02-19-2007 04:47 PM                        It's probably "gray market" goods. IOW, they import stuff that's not intended to be sold in the USA. You probably would have no warranty and the quality may not be up to snuff either.  |  IP: Logged Mark Lensenmayer Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1605 From: Upper Arlington, OH Registered: Sep 1999 posted 02-19-2007 05:33 PM                     The typical way these places do business is to call you soon after you place the order and try to hard sell you a flock of overpriced accessories you don't need. Many times, if you don't fall for their sales tactics, they tell you that the item is not in stock, you will never see it. These places also fill up the sales referral boards with fake recommendations so it looks like you are dealing with a reputable company.  |  IP: Logged Mark Gulbrandsen Resident Trollmaster Posts: 16657 From: Music City Registered: Jun 99 posted 02-19-2007 05:52 PM                     Yea... sure seems wierd but they say new in box with full manufacturers warranty. A friend of my Dad's owns a camera store back in the Chicago area so I will probably just get it from him... I'll get a good price there too... a cost plus deal of some sort. Thanks for the tips guys... am always leary of those places. Mark  |  IP: Logged Mark Ogden Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 943 From: Little Falls, N.J. Registered: Jun 99 posted 02-19-2007 07:22 PM                     I couldn't help but notice that shopCartUSA's contact address is Brooklyn, NY. Brooklyn has come to be a veritable hotbed of consumer electronic and photo rip-off artists, so much so that it has become a tip-off to many photographers that something is too good to be true, price-wise. The incredibly opinionated and often controversial San Diego photographer and Nikon guru Ken Rockwell has an interesting page on his site dealing with just this phenomena: http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/buy.htm Scroll down to "Bad Places"  |  IP: Logged Anslem Rayburn Master Film Handler Posts: 476 From: Yuma, AZ, USA Registered: May 2002 posted 02-20-2007 12:16 AM                     ShopCartUSA doesn't have any ratings on ResellerRatings.com or BizRate.com. I personally wouldn't trust the place, especially when their price is that much lower than the others. Bizrate Reseller Ratings Found this page which shows the store at the address on Shopcartusa.com. Not the type of place one should spend any amount of money, in my opinion.  |  IP: Logged Claude S. Ayakawa Film God Posts: 2738 From: Waipahu, Hawaii, USA Registered: Aug 2002 posted 02-21-2007 12:46 AM                        Mark, Did you consider the D200 instead of the D80 because in my opinion you get more for the buck. I know the D200 suggest retail price is $1,695.00 and if money is no object, I would definitely consider purchasing that camera. After starting out in digital photography with a Fuji S-1, I got rid of it when Nikon introduced the D70 and I was very happy with the newer camera because it has much more features than the Fuji because of the latest progress in digital camera technology. When the D70s came out, I had to have that too. It was not too long after I purchased the D70s when Nikon introduced the D200. After working with both of my D70 cameras for almost a year, I decided to upgrade one more time and get the D200 this past December. I considered the D80 but I was turned off to the fact that I cannot use my large inventory of 512 and one gb. Compactflash cards because the camera only accepts SD/SD -HC cards. Another thing I did not like about the D80 was the fact that it has the only feature I did not like about the Fuji S-1 and both models of the D70 with it's very light plastic body that looks and feel cheap. The D200 body feels exactly like my Nikon F100 film camera - Rock Solid! -Claude  |  IP: Logged Brad Miller Administrator Posts: 17775 From: Plano, TX (36.2 miles NW of Rockwall) Registered: May 99 posted 02-21-2007 01:50 AM                     Mark, I am going to upgrade to the D200. If you are interested in a deal on my D100, let me know. It has been well taken care of and in like new condition. Contact me offline.  |  IP: Logged Michael Schaffer "Where is the Boardwalk Hotel?" Posts: 4143 From: Boston, MA Registered: Apr 2002 posted 02-21-2007 04:02 AM                        quote: Mark Lensenmayer The typical way these places do business is to call you soon after you place the order and try to hard sell you a flock of overpriced accessories you don't need. Well, good luck. I can't imagine Mark G being easily talked into buying something he doesn't want. That will probably end in him selling them stuff they don't want. I think that should be taped and made available on youtube.  |  IP: Logged Mark Gulbrandsen Resident Trollmaster Posts: 16657 From: Music City Registered: Jun 99 posted 02-21-2007 07:34 AM                     Thanks for the tips guys. Claude has good points there but actually the plastic body doesn't really bother me much. My N-70 is plastic and has been through alot of tough places in the desert... down in mines, etc. and still works and looks like new. I do hike with my cameras in Lowepro back packs though and using these is undoubtdly the reason my stuff still looks new. I ought to own stock in that company! I have 4 different Lowepro cases... One for the 6X9 Galvin view, One for the 4X5 and a smaller one for film holders that I have to talk someone else into carrying , one for my D-70 and one for my F-2. Since I hike alot, sometimes many miles I need lightweight stuff. I rented the D-80 body and tried it with the Nikor lenses I use with my N-70 a couple of weeks ago and and the results were excellent. I'm afraid that digital stuff changes so fast these days that soon every camera body will be made from plastic. Compare the weight of the D-80 to the Canon EOS Rebel sometime... The D-80 is quite a bit heavier than the Canon. The best thing about all these Nikons and the part I liked on my N70 is the top side LCD screen for readout of all functions. Nikon sure has Canon beat there in the functionality department by a long shot and the extremely fast 80ms shutter release time! I will still probably go with the D-80 though... I'm going to get a 2gb card with it and if I fill that up I really have alot of home work to do processing all those images! Were I working professionally I would probably go with the D-200 but since the D-80 uses the same imageing chip there really isn't any real "photographic" type advantage for me to speak of. Brad, Am going for the 10.2 mp realm but thanks for the offer. You might want to hang onto it as a back up body if you shoot alot. I can't begin to tell you how many people I run into in the Parks that are trying to figure out why their digital camera isn't working right(or at all). I only have gotten 2 years of use out of any digital camera I've ever owned...6 different models over the time I've lived in SLC... So if the D-80 gets me two years of 10 mp shooting thats fine... There will be higher mp cameras to buy in a few years anyway. Michael, When those sales people call us at work we transfer them around to every extension in the building(no, you need to talk to sales... then sales says no... you need to talk to engineering... and engineering finally transfers them to the boiler room. At home I let them start talking and just set the phone down and go about what ever I was doing. What an awful job phone sales has got to be!! Mark  |  IP: Logged Steve Guttag We forgot the crackers Gromit!!! Posts: 12814 From: Annapolis, MD Registered: Dec 1999 posted 02-21-2007 08:36 AM                     2-years on a digital camera??!! <clutching onto my 3-decade old F2a>...thats freakin nuts! Who has that sort of money unless you are a pro or collecting such things is a hobby? Steve  |  IP: Logged Mark Gulbrandsen Resident Trollmaster Posts: 16657 From: Music City Registered: Jun 99 posted 02-21-2007 09:14 AM                     All of my short lived digital cameras were pocket sized cameras. All worked good till the end and two still do except for the zoom lens. The drive motors are tiny and eventually start to sound like an AW-3 motor with both bearings bad. My N-70 although also plastic has faired really well so hopefully the D-80 will fair just as well but I'm not counting on it... and increaingly more mega-pixels and better sensor technology that makes a new camera worth considering seems to happen about every two years anyway. Geez... I use these cameras for point and shoot stuff and all the film I would have gone through represents way more than any of these cameras cost. The D-80 will possibly be my first exception to that though and I'll have to get the equivelent of at least 250 to 300 36 exposure rolls through it to break even. The extended warranty on the D-80 that Nikon is offering might be worth considering on this or the D-200. Mark  |  IP: Logged Bill Gabel Film God Posts: 3873 From: Technicolor / Postworks NY, USA Registered: Jan 2002 posted 02-21-2007 10:14 AM                     Last year I was looking for a digital camera too. I almost went for the D-80, but I went for the Nikon D-200 instead. It's a Fantastic camera.  |  IP: Logged Martin Brooks Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 900 From: Forest Hills, NY, USA Registered: May 2002 posted 02-24-2007 08:26 PM                        You can get a legit, Nikon USA w/ warranty D80 body for $925 at BH Photo Video in NYC. Very reliable. I have a D200, which is a great camera, but the D80 will actually produce sharper pictures out of the camera than the D200 will. Increased megapixels doesn't always lead to better pics - the D200 produces more noise at high ISOs than the D80 does. There are tons of horror stories online about those so-called discounters. It's not worth the grief to deal with them. They sell you the body cheap, but force you to take overpriced "accessories" that are actually supposed to come with the camera. If you don't go for the accessories, they cancel your order but don't tell you, and frequently charge your credit card anyway and give you the runaround. I've also heard that Costco sells Nikon at a discount. It's gray market and doesn't come with a Nikon warranty, but you supposedly can return the camera anytime during its life and get a replacement or full refund. And by the way..if you buy grey market, Nikon USA will not repair the camera, even for a fee.  |  IP: Logged Michael Schaffer "Where is the Boardwalk Hotel?" Posts: 4143 From: Boston, MA Registered: Apr 2002 posted 02-24-2007 10:05 PM                        quote: Martin Brooks You can get a legit, Nikon USA w/ warranty D80 body for $925 at BH Photo Video in NYC. Very reliable. I get a fat catalog from BH in the mail regularly (no idea why, I can't remember ever ordering from them). That seems to be a pretty good vendor, well stocked and good prices. Obviously, it makes more sense to check the website for current prices since these are so dynamic when it comes to electronics, but the catalog is ideal for lying on the couch and flipping through it.  |  IP: Logged

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