How to get a brand new DSLR at secondhand prices
Being ill (with the flu! :( )forces you to take a step back, and consider the larger scheme of things... and eventually leaves you promising to give better contributions to the community - beyond dumping your spare change into the nearest flag raising kid's tin and then walking away feeling entitled to kick kittens and steal MRT seats from old people. More useful marketing campaigns, more useful reading, more blog posts.
But first, answers to the questions everyone has been asking me:
First, I hunted my dream lens down - the Sigma 30mm f1.4. Yesyes, it's third party, and it's a prime. But I totally love it! And I swear I got lucky with it - I popped over to B&H to check it out, and found it retailing for USD289 (SGD360+)! I remembered being quoted about $6-700 on the lens back in 2008-2009! Of course I got all excited, and did more research. And found out that it was on sale because Sigma would be phasing out this old lens, to be replaced by a new "Art" one with some USB functionality... which I didn't completely understand. When in doubt, I always like to consult the good people of MS Color (from whom I got my 550D, and from whom I bought my Tamron. They've never failed to give me the best prices and service in Singapore). This time, the guy quoted me $740? I'm not sure if I was being smoked.... but since second hand sellers were letting go of theirs for about $3-400+, I figured I'd be better off with a brand new one at $360 - so i shipped it in via comGateway. Unfortunately, the Canon mounts were all sold out, so I had to get the Nikon mount (or pay USD200 more).
Next came the camera body! Now confined to Nikon, I settled on the Nikon D5100 because of the swivel screen - yay to picture perfect selfies! And also, yay to no more scraping my cheek against the ground when trying to take photos. I understand that the D5200 has a much better sensor and can produce 24mp, but frankly, I can't be bothered. This technological one-upmanship will never end, and 24mp photos take longer to delete than 16mp ones. As long as the reviews are decent, I don't mind! :p
The MS Colour guy quoted me $799 on this... but I really didn't feel like paying this price! It's like.. old goods.. and it's just the body... and what the hell with $799 I could have an entire Bangkok trip/tickets to Japan/a Balenciaga wallet..... let's just say $799 could buy alot of things.. and a camera I would probably use once a month wasn't what I wanted to be spending it on. Hence I headed online again.
Finding the perfect camera body was a little trickier than the lens, which was truly a perfect case of perfect place at a perfect time. Lesson learnt: DSLR cameras are more strictly price controlled than other items. If something's going for USD496.95, and you find it going for any less, chances are, you're getting scammed. I found out after googling some of the retailers who were selling the body for anywhere from USD320 - USD450.
I was almost ready to shell out the USD496.95(SGD620++) for the camera, when LS (dear friend who shipped his toiletbowl (or part thereof) in via Tenso) told me about Rakuten, and some international shipping offer by Tenso. He also mentioned how shopping there may yield great savings, or at least the product would be made in Japan. And just like that, I had found a different place to search.
How serendipitous then, that he should tell me about this in late May, and that I should search for it in time for their summer sales - I found my precious D5100 retailing at about JPY44,700 (that amounted to about SGD600+ on that day). After searching around and making sure that the shop was legit, I bought the camera via Maido. Or rather.. I wanted to shop from some.. Omakase/Onitsuka/Omakflsmg shop, but they declined my order because it was sold out? So I shopped from Maido instead, and from there, Tenso shipped it over to me via EMS :)
I think I see people trying to sell their secondhand D5100 for $700 (with a kitlens I'll never use)....
So all in all...I paid... the price of a secondhand camera for first hand items.. and saved about 30 - 40% off the local RRP? This is including shipping, which generally costs about USD16 via CGW (for the lens), and SGD50 via Tenso (for the camera.. but there was some intl shipping promo, so I paid about SGD12?)..and any other taxes..
Key Takeaway: Secondhand sellers need to.. wake up.
Other things you should look out for: When you shop from Singapore shops during IT show, they usually bundle in useless but useful things like filters, memory cards, screen protectors... and bags.. all of which I found myself without and in need of. I ended up shopping these from gmarket :( But a perk is that I got to cherry pick them all :)
But first, answers to the questions everyone has been asking me:
- How many cameras have you changed? er.. i'm on my 4th one
- Where did you get your latest camera from?
- How much did you save? about $400
First, I hunted my dream lens down - the Sigma 30mm f1.4. Yesyes, it's third party, and it's a prime. But I totally love it! And I swear I got lucky with it - I popped over to B&H to check it out, and found it retailing for USD289 (SGD360+)! I remembered being quoted about $6-700 on the lens back in 2008-2009! Of course I got all excited, and did more research. And found out that it was on sale because Sigma would be phasing out this old lens, to be replaced by a new "Art" one with some USB functionality... which I didn't completely understand. When in doubt, I always like to consult the good people of MS Color (from whom I got my 550D, and from whom I bought my Tamron. They've never failed to give me the best prices and service in Singapore). This time, the guy quoted me $740? I'm not sure if I was being smoked.... but since second hand sellers were letting go of theirs for about $3-400+, I figured I'd be better off with a brand new one at $360 - so i shipped it in via comGateway. Unfortunately, the Canon mounts were all sold out, so I had to get the Nikon mount (or pay USD200 more).
Next came the camera body! Now confined to Nikon, I settled on the Nikon D5100 because of the swivel screen - yay to picture perfect selfies! And also, yay to no more scraping my cheek against the ground when trying to take photos. I understand that the D5200 has a much better sensor and can produce 24mp, but frankly, I can't be bothered. This technological one-upmanship will never end, and 24mp photos take longer to delete than 16mp ones. As long as the reviews are decent, I don't mind! :p
The MS Colour guy quoted me $799 on this... but I really didn't feel like paying this price! It's like.. old goods.. and it's just the body... and what the hell with $799 I could have an entire Bangkok trip/tickets to Japan/a Balenciaga wallet..... let's just say $799 could buy alot of things.. and a camera I would probably use once a month wasn't what I wanted to be spending it on. Hence I headed online again.
Finding the perfect camera body was a little trickier than the lens, which was truly a perfect case of perfect place at a perfect time. Lesson learnt: DSLR cameras are more strictly price controlled than other items. If something's going for USD496.95, and you find it going for any less, chances are, you're getting scammed. I found out after googling some of the retailers who were selling the body for anywhere from USD320 - USD450.
I was almost ready to shell out the USD496.95(SGD620++) for the camera, when LS (dear friend who shipped his toiletbowl (or part thereof) in via Tenso) told me about Rakuten, and some international shipping offer by Tenso. He also mentioned how shopping there may yield great savings, or at least the product would be made in Japan. And just like that, I had found a different place to search.
How serendipitous then, that he should tell me about this in late May, and that I should search for it in time for their summer sales - I found my precious D5100 retailing at about JPY44,700 (that amounted to about SGD600+ on that day). After searching around and making sure that the shop was legit, I bought the camera via Maido. Or rather.. I wanted to shop from some.. Omakase/Onitsuka/Omakflsmg shop, but they declined my order because it was sold out? So I shopped from Maido instead, and from there, Tenso shipped it over to me via EMS :)
I think I see people trying to sell their secondhand D5100 for $700 (with a kitlens I'll never use)....
So all in all...I paid... the price of a secondhand camera for first hand items.. and saved about 30 - 40% off the local RRP? This is including shipping, which generally costs about USD16 via CGW (for the lens), and SGD50 via Tenso (for the camera.. but there was some intl shipping promo, so I paid about SGD12?)..and any other taxes..
Key Takeaway: Secondhand sellers need to.. wake up.
Other things you should look out for: When you shop from Singapore shops during IT show, they usually bundle in useless but useful things like filters, memory cards, screen protectors... and bags.. all of which I found myself without and in need of. I ended up shopping these from gmarket :( But a perk is that I got to cherry pick them all :)
Comments
Post a Comment