Lens prices (Esp. Canon 600L). What are your thoughts?

stylgeo

stylgeo

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Have finally managed to save the money for the Canon 600mm L IS, well, at least I thought I did. Have saved around £6000, which would leave some money for a better tripod and the Manfrotto 393 head. The last time I checked its price was around the £5000 mark. Until today that is.
This is the chart from camerapricebuster.
Canon_EF_600mm_f4.0L_IS_USM_graph.png

December 20 2008 price: £5150
February 11 2009 price: £7346

What the heck is wrong with the whole situation. I know all about the credit crunch, I know all about the currency exchange etc etc. I'm a political economist, and trust me, I HAVE to follow the news, but this is ridiculous.
Oil prices have plummeted, gone to 2003 levels, meaning lower costs in general, transport costs, material costs, production costs etc etc.
A 50% increase in product price in 50 days is unheard of!
I could just go for the second best alternative and get the 500mm but I've shopped long and hard, and trust me, it wasn't an easy decision to make to get the 600mm over the 500mm. But now that I've made up my mind, this happens.
Haven't really followed the camera market recently, but if all the prices for the high end camera products have gone that way, well it's just something for the books. In times of economic crises, prices of luxury products have always gone DOWN due to the lack of demand. This is just stupid.
Anyway, I didn't want to rant but I was either going to buy it in the next month, to use it during easter holidays, but now I'll have to wait for summer to come and see. Between easter and summer I'll be way too busy and it is uneconomical to have it sitting there gathering dust instead of having the money in the bank gathering interest.
 
Even the "cheaper" stuff has gone up ridiculous amounts - flashguns etc...

I guess they are "making up" for the general downturn of the exchange rates over the year?
 
Just don't buy it. They'll soon get the message when sales drop.
 
RRP in Japan is about the same.

Its worth bearing in mind that even when we had a strong pound (235 yen to £1 when I lived there) or £1 = $2USD we will STILL more expensive than many other places.

So its not entirely currency, as even when things were good, we were - bluntly - shafted compared to our US based friends.
 
I guess that is our fault, as consumers that there is such a price difference between here and the other markets, like japan and US. The price is much higher because we are willing to pay it. But for this day and age, for the post-credit-crunch era, if there is the demand to justify a 50% increase, then by all means, I'll tear my degrees and start a new school of economic thought, were nothing makes sense :cuckoo:
I'll definitely follow Brash's advice and wait. I am just a bit frustrated by this whole thing, it's like they've taken my candy out of my hands, and it doesn't make sense to me to be honest, I just can't grasp it in any economic terms. As explanations, the exchange rate doesn't make that sense, extra costs doesn't make sense, demand either. The only explanation I can give is a delayed price rise due to increased costs 6 months ago when oil was $150/barrel, compared to $36 now, along with the pound depreciation.

Joe, you've been quite lucky mate! :thumbs:
 
Does this effect equipment insurance :shrug:

At new for old prices my kit has gone up 25-35%.
 
BRASH said:
Just don't buy it. They'll soon get the message when sales drop.
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Best post you have ever made Brian.

Wise up guys.
 
Richard Peters said:
Maybe try and source a second hand one? Although I expect the second hand market has gone up too now!! :(
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There is practically no second hand market for these lenses. I've saved the search for both Canon 600mm and 500mm on ebay, and I get daily mails for new items posted, but there's never a second hand one. In the last 8 months that I have been looking for a second hand supertele, there has only been ONE second hand Canon 500mm L.
I've searched on ebay for new ones, just now, and the prices there seem more reasonable. But I would prefer to buy it from a reputable store and collect it myself, paying there, instead of trusting ebay for such an investment.
I have decided to wait for summer, to see how prices go, and if the price is still the same, I will order it from the US to come to Cyprus where my parents live and pay in Euro. Imports to Cyprus are only checked at random (they only go through the sniffing dog for drugs and explosives) so I may have the chance to avoid customs as well. But even if I do pay customs and do the purchase now, if I buy from the US it will cost me 6675 euro, but if I buy it now from the UK it will cost me 8180 euro. That's 1505 euro savings. And if I avoid paying import taxes, which is very likely, it will cost me 5890 euro. That's 2290 euros saved.

I'll wait for summer to come. I would hate to wait for such a parcel to come from the US, I just wouldn't sleep at nights. If prices go down to their December 2008 levels, I'll get one from the UK, otherwise, I'll go through the US route and never look back.
 
fracster said:
Best post you have ever made Brian.

Wise up guys.
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how can u say wise up? its economics if the £ drops against the $ ( 9 months ago $2 = approx £1 now $1 = £1 then obviously if u buy something for $300 the the price fluctuation is going to mirror this its not a con or a rip off or anything else like that.................. its simply economics/trading between the $/£/ yen etc
 
It's going to be interesting to see how this situation shapes up, the way things are going with the collapsing value of the pound importers are going to have no choice but to keep increasing prices, but conversely the worsening state of the economy will mean that retailers will have to either absorb the increases or even cut prices to try and generate revenue from an ever-shrinking market.

Unless our economy picks up soon it's all going to end in tears :shake:
 
The fact is that most amateurs will make the decision that they can't afford the new lens and go 2nd hand or do without. Wages aren't going up, interest on savings has dropped through the floor and people are fearful about job security. It would be interesting to know what kind of demand there is for Canon lenses now the prices have gone up.
 
It is mainly down to the currency, the Great British pound has gone south as the Yen has gone north. To maintain their profit margin they have had to raise prices...
 
Hang in there a bit stylgeo, and prices will start to come down again.

Obviously a big factor in the increases is the pound/yen exchange rate, and I'm not predicting that's going to change. But another thing that's happened is that the range of prices offered by different retailers has compressed, and that will change.

Look at the graph from CPB. Last summer the average price on CPB was around £5900, but the lowest was around £5400. Even when the lowest price was £5150 in December, the average price was about £5600. The spread from low to average was around £500, so the spread from low to high was probably £1000.

But now, import prices have increased, and retailers don't know how to respond to those increases, and they've all made pretty much the same decision - everyone's selling it at £7350-£7400. There's no spread, and no price competition. Soon somebody will realise that they can actually afford to offer it for £7350 and undercut everybody else, and someone else will respond with £7300 ... give it some time, and the lowest price will be between £6500 and £7000 even without any movement in the exchange rate.

But I agree that's still not funny compared to £5150.
 
stylgeo said:
I'll be way too busy and it is uneconomical to have it sitting there gathering dust instead of having the money in the bank gathering interest.
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Interest? what is this of which you speak?

Times online yesterday reported that savers are being sacrificed as interest rates are due to hit 0% in the next month or so.

Be better off with a biscuit tin under the bed at this rate. Personally I'm looking to get my money invested elsewhere, a return of 0% is actually depreciating as prices of just about everything is going up!

Sod that for a game of soldiers.

It's a shame you missed the posts about the price increases here, we did have a few weeks warning about it and that's when it would have been right for you to buy, even if you had to finance it, with the plunging interest rates you could have financed it for about 1%!

sorry mate :'(
 
StewartR said:
But now, import prices have increased, and retailers don't know how to respond to those increases, and they've all made pretty much the same decision - everyone's selling it at £7350-£7400. There's no spread, and no price competition. Soon somebody will realise that they can actually afford to offer it for £7350 and undercut everybody else, and someone else will respond with £7300 ... give it some time, and the lowest price will be between £6500 and £7000 even without any movement in the exchange rate.

But I agree that's still not funny compared to £5150.
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As this is a price rise by manufacturers and not retailers I fail to see that there will be that much flexibility for retailers to make huge drops.
I wait with great anticipation to see if prices drop once the exchange rate improves but I don't hold out much hope
 
AliB said:
even if you had to finance it, with the plunging interest rates you could have financed it for about 1%!
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But that is the flip side of what's going on now... the decreases in BOE rates aren't being passed on at all (unless you are lucky to have a tracker rate loan that doesn't have a lower ceiling...) . The banks are using this time to recover all the money their morons lost buying worthless *****.

And its not even as though the money pumped into the banking system is just making the loans available (ie ignoring "cheap" loans, just any loans at all) - a report I read the other day showed there were only 1500 mortgage products on the market this week, compared to 15,000 only 18 months ago...

Carnage!
 
scraggs said:
As this is a price rise by manufacturers and not retailers I fail to see that there will be that much flexibility for retailers to make huge drops.
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There will be. The retailers have all over-reacted. Street prices have gone up by 40% but the manufacturer's prices haven't gone up by anywhere near that much.
 
StewartR said:
There will be. The retailers have all over-reacted. Street prices have gone up by 40% but the manufacturer's prices haven't gone up by anywhere near that much.
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So the retailers are shafting us then ?
 
Looks like your prices are the same or close to the prices over here now :(

Shame as I was hoping to get a few lenses this year from back home, I may have a plan B though :)
 
markta said:
stylgeo, http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/NEW-CANON-EF-600mm-f-4L-IS-Lens-USM-IS-600-mm-f-4_W0QQitemZ360129501501QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_CamerasPhoto_CameraAccessories_CameraLensesFilters_JN?hash=item360129501501&_trksid=p3911.c0.m14&_trkparms=72%3A1683|66%3A2|65%3A12|39%3A1|240%3A1318
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i brought from these guys last year - 70-200 f2.8is - no problem at all - based in mid wales - if you ask nicely and pay in cash i think you can pick it up from the guys house for a bit cheaper (takes off ebay costs)
 
Have you tried kerso i got mine a few months back for a really good price :thumbs:
 
Thanks everybody for your suggestions. It looks like the guy from ebay has stocked up waiting for the price rises, and can now undercut everyone else.
I have decided to wait for summer. It is a bit hectic now and I will only have a couple of weeks during April when I will be able to go out and about, and one of those two weeks I'll be travelling (Barcelona, Nice, Monaco, Milano, Chamonix, Lyon, Paris :clap::woot: , Oh, Stewart, I'll be needing a lens for that week, do I PM you here or go through the webpage?) and I wouldn't take it with me anyhow. If the price was right I would definitely get it now, but this price increase made me think!

As for the interest rate, I've actually done something quite smart. I have sent the money to Cyprus where my father works at a bank, when the pound was still strong, managed to buy euros in quite a good price, with no fees and at the staff-rate, and it's getting 4.5% interest because it's a 3-month-notice. I have noticed the bank that I would withdraw the money as soon as the pound begun to plummet, and the difference in exchange rate would mean that I would actually gain close to £1000. BUT, since this is the situation, I think I might chose a different route. Stewart is right. Competition will eventually force retailers to lower their prices, and the ol pound sterling will eventually stand back on its feet. There are signs that this is happening as we speak. On early January, there was a parity between the euro and the pound, but now it's gone back up to 1.115 euros per pound. I'll probably convert those euros to pounds now that it's still quite low, wait for it to go back up, send it back to earn the 4.5% and make the purchase in summer.

Richard, I do look around for super-teles in various second-hand shops on the internet, Mifsuds etc, but they never store the 600mm.
 
Hi,

have PM'd you regarding one that I found for sale S/H.

:thumbs:

Mike.
 
BRASH said:
Just don't buy it. They'll soon get the message when sales drop.
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fracster said:
Best post you have ever made Brian.

Wise up guys.
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craigieboi said:
how can u say wise up? its economics if the £ drops against the $ ( 9 months ago $2 = approx £1 now $1 = £1 then obviously if u buy something for $300 the the price fluctuation is going to mirror this its not a con or a rip off or anything else like that.................. its simply economics/trading between the $/£/ yen etc
Click to expand...


There is certainly a lot of truth in the currency fluctuation as a reason for the huge price increase, but I too think don't buy as it will force price to drop.

They will just have to cut profit margins, as an example there is a radio advert from VW say you can save up to £17,000 off a car. Now it must be a darn expensive car in the first place, but they are not selling them at a loss, but can still reduce the price by £17,000, that's because we WERE willing to pay the over inflated price before, but have now wised up.
 
THanks guys for the replies!
Mike, PM sent! THanks for the heads-up
 
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