Shawn,

I have another thread about this over at the EX-1 forum. The deal is this, the EX-1 is a CineAlta camera and thus subject to Sony's restrictions on their approved retailers...which means I can't buy from B&H as I am supposed to buy from my 'local' dealer. As you and I both know, there is no dealer in Alaska....hence the problem. When I tried a couple dealers I was told they couldn't sell to me as they were restricted by Sony from selling outside the 'continental' US.....funny because last I checked we were part of north america. So I called Sony to ask them where I COULD buy one from. They seemed mystified by the whole thing and told me to go to my local dealer....I tried to explain but they didn't get it.....one of them even hung up on me! I finally got a very helpful Sony rep. He told me I needed to buy from my local dealer. I asked him if he could tell me who that was. He asked for my zip code. I gave it to him. He did a search. "Hmm...that's funny. Here, I'll expand the search area to within 500 miles. Hmm......that's really strange. Just a sec I'll go out to 1000 miles......Wow...that's really strange."
Which is where I cut in saying..."And THAT is my problem!!" He finally referred me to 2 companies...one in Washington and one in Oregon but said he couldn't promise anything. I called them and they both told me they were allowed to sell to Alaska......big relief. I was about ready to have B&H ship to my father in law and have him send it up to me, but that would have been a big pain in the butt. So that's kind of the deal with the EX-1.....seems Sony is kind of protecting the 'turf' of local broadcast/professional dealers, but since we are so far away from any local dealer, most Alaskan's just buy online and I've never run into this before so I had no clue what was going on, and I wasn't getting much help with my phone calls, I spent about 4 hours calling different places trying to figure it out. Hopefully that will help anyone else who runs into this from Alaska. See my other post in the EX-1 forum for names of companies you can buy from (assuming they don't get pulled, they aren't sponsor's of this site after all, but I thought I'd post them as it seems we aren't allowed to buy from the sponsors.)

Thanks Gabe,

I found your other thread in the EX-1 forum, and your explanation from Sony makes things quite a bit clearer. I know exactly what you mean though when you talk about "local" dealers! Shopping for equipment- or for most things becomes slightly more challenging in such a "small-town" style state.