[shuttertalk]

No, I'm not jumping ship again, sorry to disappoint.

Just wanted to share a little anecdote on pricing. Right before the floods in Thailand last year, my dad was in Malaysia and managed to negotiate a price of roughly 975 AUD on a Nikon D7000 body. (1 AUD ~= 1.04 USD). At the time he chose not to go with it and has been regretting it ever since.

Anyway his birthday is coming up so a few of us are chipping in to get him one. Pricing has been pretty constant at around 1500 locally, but around 1200 if you purchase from an overseas seller (shipping from HK).

Recently one of the major retailers over here started a grey import scheme, but Nikon Australia countered with an initiative to match these prices so you effectively get the same pricing but the advantage of 2 years local warranty.

So today I managed to get a deal of around 1300 still about 100 more than if I bought from overseas, but with all the aforementioned advantages and I don't run the risk of getting stung by customs import tax (10% on goods over 1000).

So moral of the story - if you get a really good deal, don't pass it up otherwise you may not get the chance again.

That being said - I wonder if prices will ever get down to the pre-tsunami/ flood prices? Or will manufacturers and retailers continue to take advantage of the excuse?

[Pavel]

I am looking forward to your photos

[shuttertalk]

Anyway his birthday is coming up so a few of us are chipping in to get him one.

Sorry if I wasn't clearer, but the camera is for my dad.

But I will post about his comments regarding the camera...

[Zig]

Have you told him it's a button, not a trigger?
Seriously though, that's a moral tale with which I concur!

Tricky one about "pre-tsunami" pricing: given human nature, once a company or retailer is locked into being led by profit, there seems to be a self-perpetuating adhesion to this ethic even when the rest of mere mortals are driven by survival. I must say, from what I've seen(and consumed, in terms of cameras and cars/autos), I have found Japan more adherent to quality in the face of economic adversity than some(most) European manufacturers, though of course take this value-judgment with a large pinch.
I've found the occasional UK retailer more ready to hide behind an invocation of tsunami as a justification of inflated prices, with the Japanese manufacturers and their J.I.T. manufacturing process/ethos exemplary at being able to brilliantly improvise, adapt and overcome. Besides, given the amount of what the west considers Japanese product to be outsourced to China and elsewhere, I'm guessing it's western retailer profit-margins and the refusal to see a lessening of profit as anything other than failure, that keep prices high.

[shuttertalk]

I think I tend to agree with your second viewpoint about the western retailer profit margins... reminds me of petrol prices. They hike when there's a crisis in the middle east but then never seem to come down to the pre-crisis prices.

[NT73]

Agree with you on that one. On one of the Canary Islands, petrol, having to be shipped out costs around 1/2 the price in the UK. That has been the case for at least 15 years.