international lenses

[fatcat]

what is the difference in buying a lens that states it's an international lens.  How is the quality is it comparable?  The price is lower, just wondering if any of you know?  thz, L.

[diverhank]

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@fatcat wrote:

what is the difference in buying a lens that states it's an international lens.  How is the quality is it comparable?  The price is lower, just wondering if any of you know?  thz, L.

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I believe that there is no difference in quality.  The only difference is that Canon USA may not honor the warranty and may refuse to fix the lens if something goes wrong.

[fatcat]

good to know thanks.  That would explain the deep discount.  I suppose contacting Cannon would be the next step to confirm that prior to purchasing one.  DARN, I was hoping for better news than that.  ty for the info.

[ScottyP]

The term is "grey market".  The lens was made by Canon for non-US markets. 

They will ill not likely tell you they will cover it if you call in advance bit I have read they usually cover it anyway. 

I have never bought a Canon grey market lens though I have bought a Sigma Art 35mm lens on grey market. I have also never had to use a warranty on any lens so I don't know. The 1 year warranty is not very long. Unless you are shooting daily as a pro it seems it would be hard to really wear one out that fast, and if a lens is bad from the moment you buy it you can just return it to the seller if it is at least a good seller. 

But it that's only my feeling on it. I've had about 7 lenses and the oldest is about 5 years old. 

[Waddizzle]

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@fatcat wrote:

good to know thanks.  That would explain the deep discount.  I suppose contacting Cannon would be the next step to confirm that prior to purchasing one.  DARN, I was hoping for better news than that.  ty for the info.

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A wise man once said that you get what you pay for.  Me?  I would never cough big dolars for something with no guarantees.  What happens it is malfunctioning, and needs warranty service?  It's a risk some poeple can accept, but not me.  It's an individual choice, and the circumstances of each purchase scenario are different.

[kvbarkley]

The policies are all over the place - even from the same manufacturer:

The Online Photogropher on Grey Market

The online photographer: More on grey market

[ScottyP]

If I was a member of Canon Professional Services I would not stray from the USA version. If the warranty was lifetime, or maybe even 5 years rather than just 12 months I would be more into how the warranty works.  If I were a pro and was mort likely to break one in the 12 month warranty period maybe. 

As as none of this applies to me I'd buy grey market if the discount was steep enough and if the seller had a good reputation.  Problem is I seldom see enormous price differences on lenses (bodies are a different story) and the price differences at a big place like B&H are tiny.  

[RobertTheFat]

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@ScottyP wrote:

If I was a member of Canon Professional Services I would not stray from the USA version. If the warranty was lifetime, or maybe even 5 years rather than just 12 months I would be more into how the warranty works.  If I were a pro and was mort likely to break one in the 12 month warranty period maybe. 

As as none of this applies to me I'd buy grey market if the discount was steep enough and if the seller had a good reputation.  Problem is I seldom see enormous price differences on lenses (bodies are a different story) and the price differences at a big place like B&H are tiny.  

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I believe the reason for the small discount at B&H is that they substitute their own warranty, which is comparable to Canon's. Of course they have to use a 3rd-party repair shop instead of Canon's service arm.

[ebiggs1]

" I seldom see enormous price differences on lenses ..."

Scott you just aren't looking in the right places!

I will tell you that being a CPS Member, a Gold member, has more advantages than just the warranty.  Using grey market and using CPS perks seems a bit disingenuous to me. But that is just my opinion.

[fatcat]

Hey Biggs,

So what is the CPS membership, you pay for that? or whats the buzz on that.?  You buy so many lenses and become a member like best buy?  I know the pro, but would it pay for a hobbyist?  Seems on amazon anyway (roll the dice with who you buy from on there  because they seldom publish negative reviews, I know because they refused 2 of mine (negative reviews) for camera stores) but some of the lenses we discussed earlier were about half price as "international".  So I will go look up what someone else posted regarding the "grey market" lenses. And all the knowledge about this is appreciated. It never seems to fail, when I ask a question on here I really get schooled!  I appreciate ALL the knowledge.  I just hope I don't sound too ignorant sometimes when I ask because I have a million more to come.  lol  All you guys have been around this stuff for a while, and for me, a few months.  Things are VERY different these days.  It's so wonderful to be able to tap everyones knowledge base, and then be able to make an educated decision based on facts.

I agree buying something that expensive w/o a warranty is risky.  With my luck, it would break 2 days after it expired anyway, lol  Shipping to Japan is NOT cheap either!  I think ALL companies should repair their own products, regardless of "WHO" shipped it here.  Good companies shouldn't care as long as it's their product you're using, they should be the expert that can fix it, in my opinion.  If they loose out on $3-400. per item say, in the grey market, it's worth it to them to try and protect that profit margin and discourage that.  So I understand their reluctance to warranty also.  But if the warranty only lasts 12 mo. you're outta luck after that. anyway, unless, one has the "Gold" membership.  Guess I'll have to go look that up too.  Do allot of ppl here have that?

Okay thanks, L.