Buying abroad?
 

Ok, so the money is now in for me to buy an EX-1, but after seeing it for an average of £1000 cheaper in America (I'm in the UK) im wondering if its cheaper in any other countries, especially European countires as i really am willing to travel and try save me at least half a grand. Anyone know of any foreign retailers selling cheaper than the UK?

Daniel

Two minutes ago I paid for an EX1 in New Zealand. Not Europe, and not cheap. Total, including tax and freight: $11,822.29. I doubt you would want to come all the way down here for that price, although we are talking NZ Kiwis here.

On the plus side as we speak the temperature is 32.4 C, that's early 90ies F, and the relative humidity is a dryish 37%. Almost perfect, and probably nicer than anywhere in the UK right now!

The EX1 is due Wednesday. So we shall soon see if this beast is as good as they say. I expect it is.

Cheers

Congrats on your purchase!!! Not only do you have a killer camera but you have sun and sand lol oh how i hate you right now. I'm quite tempted to catch a plane to america to purchase then try and unpack the cam and make it look as if its my everyday hand held so that i can avoid paying taxes etc. I cant imagine them being able to distinguish between a new and used camera during checkout.

Daniel, in case these are your intentions,don't forget to snail mail some friend or relative with a different name and adress than yours all related paperware, e.g. invoice, manual and the likes. Don't carry that stuff with you unless you want to give inbound customs a good argument that it is a brandnew camera you bring into your country. They might even ask you to present an invoice of your assumed new camera or be charged normal customs fees.

Daniel I know your frustrations. Why we have to get continually shafted on everything is beyond me. The difference on the Canon H1 is nearly £1.5k and I have gone through along similiar lines of thought myself. The best I have found in the UK (EX1) is £4.5K inc vat with 2 free 8gig cards.

This is almost the same "best" price I found in France. I doubte you will find any better. But at this price you have local support. If you buy in the states, you may get "caught" at the customs, and you will have to send the EX1 back to US if you need support.
Make your choice.

But how much are the duties vs. the price difference? My guess it that it might still be favorable.

Thanks for all the feedback. Mat, £4.5 is still cheaper than the £4.6 i've found, would be interesting to know what retailer this is. I am soooooo tempted about buying in the states tho, im actually flying out there next month anyway for a film project so it's not like id even be paying extra cost, but like Sebastien said i would be sacrificing local support and with so many issues im seeing people have with their camera i'm not sure im willing to take this risk. Also, a little off topic, has anyone ever seen a short film made with this camera yet with its stock lens? I've checked out Phil Blooms stuff, amazing, but i'd love to see some projects from other users too to see what other people are producing with this machine

check here http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/forumdisplay.php?f=163

I have a "test clip" on my blog at http://www.lecentre.net/blog
My first short shooting with EX1 will be by the end of february... wait for it :)

Your footage looks really clean and crisp.

OK I have done a fair amount of reasearch on this and I know where the best price is, but I have decided to buy in the UK after all.

Abel Cine tech in New York has them at $6695. Add to this 8.4% tax, which you have to pay. So the price is $7257. For this price you get one 8 gb ss card. You can't get the other one because, although you have purchased the camera in the USA, the mail in other card has to be sent to a USA address. Unless you know someone to send it to, who will post it on to you, it's lost. So anyway it comes out at about £3,700

Now a cheap flight from Heathrow to JFK is about £500 for three nights. Add in train fares and extra expenses etc and thats another £150. I am not including food as you would eat anyway. So add another £650 to the £3,700.
Thats £4,350. Only £150 cheaper than the UK, with one card less. Plus add on the 4 days out of action in the UK. You could say its a free holiday. Or a costly time off work.

Also, as its anow a grey import, if customs stop you, theres 21% import duty! Also if it breaks, you might have to send it back to the States rather than the UK silver service.

I weighed it up and pick my EX1 up this week. 12 months interest free credit, two 16 Gb cards (upgraded paid the difference) Hassle free and no long waits at airports.

Hope that helps.

That's made it alot clearer to me now. I'm with you on buying in the UK. The best price i've found for the camera with two cards is £4,641.25 inc. VAT, how does this compare to your findings? Also it seems that the Z7 will be significantly cheaper so i may even see what the reportings of that will be. I like the idea of not being limited by memory cards but i also like the idea of how big the ex1 chips are in comparison