I finally broke down and bought a Canon EOS R because the rental I tried was so amazing for vlogging. It’s $1,799 + tax everywhere but Abe’s of Maine, which is in New Jersey. At Abe’s it’s $1,529 and tax free. Wait, what?

The lens I wanted was $2,999 + tax everywhere except Abe’s, where it’s $2,349 and no tax. Wtf?

So I asked google about them and Google said scam scam scam best store ever. Ummm...

I ended up buying from B&H because they threw in the most stuff. I don’t know why I did; I don’t need more stuff. It won’t even fit in this case with the lens I bought and I have a 100-year supply of lens cleaning gear.

Where do you buy?

B&H, Adorama occasisionally, and Amazon sometimes. But for big ticket items B&H is my goto

I've been considering mpb.com some too, for used gear.

B&H when I'm buying online, Hunt's Photo & Video in Melrose, MA when I'm buying in person.

When I was working I always bought from B&H. Having camera gear shipped to the office made sense to me - it was signed for, and I had to show ID and sign for it when I picked it up.

Now that I am retired and (when stores were open pre-coronavirus days) I am happy to go to Hunt's.

Hunts is great, I've gotten 3 bodies from there in total now and a few lenses and the fact that a local store has basically all the gear in stock is awesome. The smaller stores of theirs are pretty nice too and really convenient. For new gear online I mostly do B&H but occasionally Adorama.

I think it's about 3 years ago that I discovered MPB which quickly replaced KEH as my go-to for used gear. They are usually a bit little cheaper than KEH/B&H/Adorama and the big bonus is that their listings actually have photos of the lenses VS the other sites where you get stock images. Plus they have a 6 month warranty which I've only had to use once but it was hassle free. So they've won me over and I've been recommending it a lot to people looking to shop used.

I had a great experience with Hunts many years ago.

My camera decided to stop working just before I was heading out on a vacation that was supposed to be with camera. The repair wouldn't be back before I flew so I reached out to Hunts in Manchester, NH since I was flying from there. I was able to rent a camera body from them, picked it up on my way to the airport.

Usually B&H or Adorama. I did buy at Abe's as well at 6th Avenue and Roberts camera. These are less reliable if something happens and I want to return, also they often sell gray imports that is not covered by U.S. warranty.

Congrats! I'm usually buying all my gear on Amazon, if they have it I don't ever bother driving to a store. Being cheap, and enjoying risks I recently bought lens from them - international version no warranty - and saved quite a bit. But it took a long time for Amazon to ship from UK. I would have just returned them if they were defective, otherwise don't really care for warranty on lenses. And honestly on much anything else when they offer the "extra" ones. But of course I'm not talking about big dollars items like this.

Amazon isn't really a thing here. It exists and is expanding with a new hub in Brisbane under construction, but Ebay is a much bigger deal.

I do get some stuff off Ebay. I don't mind a 'grey' import if it saves me enough.

But I mostly use https://www.camerapro.com.au

It's a bricks and mortar shop with good service and their prices are usually pretty sharp. Some stuff I still prefer to hold and operate before purchase. I've been there for the last 18 months or so - I was using a similar business prior but they lost their price edge.

I also get a bit of gear from https://www.georges.com.au/ online. Big shop in Sydney. They generally have better stock of harder to get items and offer overnight delivery to Brisbane. I get my Black Magic brand stuff there.

Does your $12,000 lens work on the mirrroless?

As @DangerDave said Amazon really isn't that big here, we use to be able to buy via Amazon in the USA but they set up locally ehre and cut that off, the only thing is the range was substantually reduced so most times its just not worth looking as they don't have most things. I usually by from our local Bricks and Morter store here, Helps that I'm also one of their local ambassador. They are one of the biggest Canon authorised sellers in Sydney so have most of the lenses, in stock less the super telephoto lenses. Referring to DangerDaves comment about the expensive lenses working on the Mirrorless the new 600 f4 mkIII when it was redesigned was designed with the R as part of the specs so yes they all work when coupled with the adaptor, you have a few adaptors to choose form one with the control ring so you can assign ISO to that if you want so that way you have ISO, Aperture and Shutter speed all adjustable without going thought buttons, or you can go with the adaptor with filters so you don’t need the giant filter in front of the big Super telephotos. 

so yes they all work when coupled with the adaptor

Same as Nikon F mounts with a FTZ adaptor on my Z6.

Or as I like to say ... No. :-)

Not sure about the Nikon and the F mounts on the mirrorless, Canons not to bad and the later EF lenses were designed with the mirorless in mind, especailly the 600 f4. the moved the weight about to balance for the mirrorless bodies, so one of Canons ambassators told me when they redesined the 600mm. I've used a couple of EF leses with the R body and didn't find any slowing down of focus or image loss. Chris will be able to update us in a couple of days no doubt. I currently don't have a Canon Mirrorless R body to play with, still waiting on the R5 to see price and avaialbilty but I may wait a few months till the inital price drops once avaialbilty comes on line. Canon Rumors had an artical on possible leaked princing this morning, getting up around 1dX range here converting from Euros over the 7K mark Aussie.

Canon EOS R5 pricing in Europe may have leaked [CR2]The obvious number 1 question I get about the Canon EOS R5 is "how much will it cost?". We have reported in the past that the EOS R5 will sell below $4000 USDwww.canonrumors.com

I was being a bit obtuse. F mount Nikon lenses work OK with the FTZ adaptor.

They don't work as well as the native Z lenses.

The bigger hole in the front of the mirrorless body makes a significant difference to the amount of light reaching the sensor. By using a F mount you lose that difference.

As we've said some time before. Adaptors is adaptors.

For that reason I have this on order. July deliver expected.

Yes!!! I rented an adapter from Borrow Lenses (they are close to me and I can pick up) and the adapter worked like buttah.

Somehow I got an Amazon jinx and my AC adapter I ordered from them two weeks ago with Prime shipping still hasn’t arrived, but I keep getting we’re sorry emails.

I ordered the camera on Monday afternoon from B&H and it arrived Tuesday morning. 👏

Ugh, this is my constant jinx on Amazon:

I am not sure how that works.. I mean I can see there are many seller's "stores" on Amazon, but who ships the product in each case, and what is Amazon's involvement is a mistery to me.

I can't remember ever having an issue with a purchase that was directly FROM Amazon, and delivered via Prime, but purchases that are NOT DIRECTLY FROM Amazon seem to get less and less satisfactory - either in delayed delivery or maybe not exacty what they were represented as, or just not functional.

Amazon's prompt delivery has fallen off a cliff too, since the pandemic. That at least I can accept for a bit longer, but will get old as 2020 progresses.

B&H has really upped their game too, that has been my experience as well.

I try to make certain that I am only ordering from Amazon's warehouse anymore....

I also try to make sure my Amazon orders are shipped from Amazon warehouses. I'm usually good with the products being supplied by another company as long as they ship from Amazon.

B&H almost exclusively for film and major purchases. I've always had great customer service and they ship exactly what you purchase.

I have bought photography consumables from Amazon, but, as others mentioned, only if shipped from an Amazon fulfillment center and not a third party reseller.

I tried Abe's once years ago (before the proliferation of internut information). A horrible experience that resulted in my credit card issuer getting involved on my behalf. Abe's reeled me in with their really low price compared to B&H and others..

internut

😂 Why haven’t I heard that term before?

It’s funny, I tried purchasing from Abe’s too before I realized who they are and my credit card company didn’t authorize the charge.

It’s so odd; I have lots of problems with Amazon Prime shipments, but can’t remember a shipping problem from third-party sellers.

For some stuff I'm fine with Amazon but for popular media like SD/Micro SD cards I've moved away from them to B&H mostly. And searching for a link on this showed up counterfeit B+W filters also being an issue:

Buying through Amazon Prime does not offer any guarantees either; with the way that Amazon warehouses its products, just because a product is “by SanDisk” does not ensure that the card you receive will be from the manufacturer. It’s possible that Amazon regards the products as fungible, meaning that an SD card made by SanDisk is the same regardless of who is selling it. If a warehouse runs out or if another warehouse is closer to the buyer, the customer could receive the product from another seller, even though the customer deliberately chose a product marked as “by SanDisk.” Amazon is very quick to replace counterfeit good,s but this does little to make up for images that are lost as a result of using the fake items without realizing.

https://fstoppers.com/gear/counterfeit-goods-amazon-still-huge-problem-even-when-buying-prime-323401

B&H looks to have been caught up in this once with Nikon batteries but was proactive about getting replacements to customers:

https://petapixel.com/2019/05/22/bh-is-replacing-a-subpar-i-e-fake-batch-of-nikon-batteries/