AndyC, IanW, any other Canon folks.....

Before I log back on to BHphotovideo in NY and give them $1299 plus about $60 shipping for a Canon 100-400 L IS USM, has anyone got any good, recommended places to buy in the UK for a similar(ish) price?????

Would even be tempted by a good 2nd hand one - but they seem like rocking-horse on the 2h market.

Can do circa 840 quid from HK (colleague is there at the moment, and has offered to bring one back for me). Not sure if I'd get hit for VAT on the BH deal, but if I do it'd be a similar price - if I don't I'd be saving a bit....

Still, cheaper than my 16-35 L i guess...

All help, and gifts of spare cash towards the L series cause, much appreciated...

Shades

Not found anything cheaper, but be warned that when ordering something that expensive from the states, you will get hit quite badly by the import duty when it comes into the country, (and customs seem to check every parcel these days, so there's not much chance of sneaking it through).

Cheapest uk price I've found is 1169.00 at www.warehouseexpress.com (http://www.warehouseexpress.com)

Iain

They are like rocking horse sh*t 2nd hand, and for good reason - there's no reason once you've bought one, to ever sell it!

That said, I got mine s/h from B&H, but although described as being in 9/10 condition it was actually very much dead on arrival and I had to immediately send it to Fixation for repair. After that and other experiences, I'll never buy s/h again.

B&H were quite good about it, though - they did at least pay for the repair, so I wouldn't be too worried about buying new gear from them.

Your total cost from B&H is looking like $1299 + $60 + duty (3.5%?) +VAT, which equals $1653, or about £940. Park Cameras (http://www.parkcameras.com), my current fave supplier, is asking £1169, same as Warehouse Express. I doubt you'll do much better.

Your colleague in HK might be able to bring one back, but he'll still have to either pay VAT and duty on entering the UK, or smuggle it through and hope for the best. I for one wouldn't take the risk.

Also if you get it from the states, it's serious hassle if it arrives not working for some reason. Seeing as you'll only be saving around a hundred quid, I'd buy it in the uk personally....

I've had similar problems to Andy in the past buying lenses s/h, so I tend to avoid it if at all possible.

My first (and last) attempt to buy a lens from the USA was a shambles. I bought it from B&H and from that point on was a total mess up. It didn't arrive, then when they resent it they charged my card twice, i.e. all sorts of trouble. To give B&H credit though, they sorted everything out very quickly, but I ended up not getting the lens after all that.

I usually get my lenses (and other stuff) from WareHouse Express if my local London Camera Exchange cannot match their prices, which incidently they sometimes do.

I bought my 100-400 IS L from my local London Camera Exchange for only £20 more than Warehouse Express. But I saved another £350 by chopping in my old Sigma 50-500 against it, something that Warehouse Express obviously do not do.

Yes, I would agree with Andy, you will not see this lens s/h very often as I don't think I'll ever sell it as it is that good. :)

Cheers

Ian

Hehehe.... got it!

Ended up buying from B&H and having it shipped to corporate HQ in NY (so had to pay NY state sales tax), and then a colleague brought (OK, smuggled) it back.

Ended up paying around 830 for it. Used it at Japfest last week for the first time, seriously - and am very impressed.

This serious photography lark isn't cheap is it? I can't walk past LCE without spending money (monopod, beanbag and UV filter for the 100-400 last weekend!). I reckon I've done around 4K+ this year so far.... worse than the Scoob!

Any suggestions on Canon grad filters/mount systems? Is it easier and quicker to use grad filters or is it better to Photoshop for similar effect.... Any views? Fed up of washed out skies, and feel a grey grad coming on....

Shades (keeping an eye on the photocomp, but can't get close to AndyC's entries..... yet)

Shades,

Glad you got the 100-400, it is the dogs danglies. :D

Grey grads ? The Cokin system is fairly cheap and works OK for everything else, but I find their neutral density grads are not neutral at all, they do something nasty with the colour which I can't seem to fix in Photoshop and I've been trying.

Contrast of the whole image tends to drop with any of the Cokin filters, but you can tweak that back up a bit in Photoshop.

However, I do a lot of landscape shooting and couldn't stand the lack of contrast anymore, nor the wacky colour shifts so invested (and I mean invest rather than buy) into the Lee filters system. Better quality filters, better quality mounts and great accessories. Oh, and their ND grads work real well.

Yes, you can shoot the same scene and exposure bracket to get a well exposed sky, well exposed foreground and then combine later in Photoshop. However, in most cases I don't think it looks natural afterwards, but I've have had a few sucesses.

Although it is more costly using grads (and I sometimes combine with a polariser), you get the shot in a single exposure with no need to spend ages post processing.

Cheers

Ian

Thanks Ian...

I see what you mean - the Lee system does look good, with a very good (though costly!) range of filters. The best part of 100 quid for 3 NDs - Hmmmmm..... and that's without the 'system' to mount the things!

Oh well - it looks like this weekends purchase is starting to pan out...

Aren't you fairly local Ian (Glos/Chelt)? Perhaps we could meet up - I'll let you try my 16-35 F2.8 L if you'll let me try your filters....!!!

Here we go - w-w-w-.-w-a-r-e-h-o-u-s-e-x-p-r-e-s-s-.-c-o-m....... Hmmmm...

Shades

Damn.... warehouseexpress don't seem to offer much.

This looks interesting though, if you want filters - international shipping very cheap also:

www.2filter.com

Shades