gray market camera's

cgw · Jul 21, 2014

'is there any nikon dealers which would be selling the D5300 refurbished? or do student discounts"

Bro, that's far easier for you to scope out. C'mon...

Designer · Jul 21, 2014

mike455555 said:
is there any nikon dealers which would be selling the D5300 refurbished? or do student discounts

Same here only more verbose.

We are happy to answer the easy questions such as the meaning of life, whether you should enter the field of professional photography, or the latest hot stock tips, but to recommend an actual dealer? NO WAY!

The simplest reason is that what if we steered you to an unsavory character who ends up cheating you? You would have every reason to be upset with us, and we would feel SO BAD!

Overread · Jul 21, 2014

mike455555 said:
i am in the uk, the main reason i wanted to go for D5300 is because of the GPS, which will come in handy as i'll be shooting wildlife. (my uni course is in conservation so ID and GPS tag is handy) i did start looking at the D5200.

the price difference between the gray imports and the not gray is about £140-150 digitalrev being a difference of £90 compared to places like wex. is there any nikon dealers which would be selling the D5300 refurbished? or do student discounts

Talk to your student union about deals, they'll have the most up to date lists of retailers and manufacturers offering discounts for students. There might even be some specific things that your uni has signed up to which might give you discounts on such items.

GPS though I wouldn't list as make or break. Handy by all means, but not make or break.
As data uploaded automatically to the photos meta-data it might also be data that you might wish to strip at certain times if you are uploading them with meta-data to online hosts - you would not wish to reveal the location of some highly endangered wildlife should you be fortunate to photograph such animals in the wild.

Otherwise a good OS map will give you the GPS you need manually. Personally for wildlife I'd save on the camera and sink as much money as you can into the lens. A good long focal length lens is a must and they get costly very quick (unless your uni has equipment on hire)

KmH · Jul 21, 2014

robbins.photo said:
If you own a Grey Market product it will have to be returned to the reseller or importer for warranty service.

In other words you warranty is only as good as the sellers word. Very bad idea, IMHO - I think the OP will be far better off getting something refurbished through proper channels.

Like I said above, the importer reseller then submits the gear for warranty repair.

robbins.photo · Jul 21, 2014

KmH said:
robbins.photo said:

If you own a Grey Market product it will have to be returned to the reseller or importer for warranty service.

In other words you warranty is only as good as the sellers word. Very bad idea, IMHO - I think the OP will be far better off getting something refurbished through proper channels.

Click to expand...

Like I said above, the importer reseller then submits the gear for warranty repair.

Should the import reseller wish to go to that time and trouble - but of course if they choose not to, well your up a very foul smelling creek with no paddle in sight. And since the reseller in question is already engaged in a business practice that would be considered by many to be "questionable" in that they are selling camera equipment in a country in which the import tariffs were never paid - well frankly me personally I would always think twice about trusting the fact that the import reseller will go through the time and effort of figuring out which country the cameras were originally meant to be sold in, shipping the camera back for warranty work, then shipping the camera back to you after the warranty work was complete - because that's a pretty significant amount of time and effort considering a lot of these guys just bought a container load of these things at a deep discount and are selling them in another country using some legal loopholes.

So as I said, basically the only "warranty" you are really going to have is going to be based on the word of the reseller - if you think they are trustworthy enough to do all that and take that time and trouble well then by all means, me personally I don't think it's an acceptable risk. Far too easy for that reseller to just say no, were not going to do all that - if the camera doesn't work then too bad, so sad.

I also caution folks about relying on "reseller ratings" that are basically internet websites that are open to the public - I've seen more than a few rather unscrupulous resellers use automated systems and macros to post positive comments and reviews on such sites to improve their ratings and give people a false sense of confidence about them and their trustworthiness as a business.

So yes, I stand by my original statements and my original recommendation.

cgw · Jul 21, 2014

"I also caution folks about relying on "reseller ratings" that are basically internet websites that are open to the public - I've seen more than a few rather unscrupulous resellers use automated systems and macros to post positive comments and reviews on such sites to improve their ratings and give people a false sense of confidence about them and their trustworthiness as a business. "

Think I said that above. Shill ratings aren't that hard to spot. My sympathies to anyone who can't. Buying from an authorized dealer seems to be the takeaway lesson for the OP.

mike455555 · Aug 3, 2014

ok so ordered from portus digital, (my dad wanted to get it cheap and said he'd take the risk on it) paced the order monday and it arrived Friday with no problems. all boxed the lens is probably from japan as it was a worldwide warranty in it (in Japanese) the camera its self was unopened besides for the placement of an adapter for the charger.

the camera was new and works fine as dose the lens, so one happy customer here

just thought i'd let the web know