>>3824039Let me explain "gray market" for you--
If you search around other countries' camera websites and do a little bit of math in regard to the currency conversions, you'll realize that camera prices have less to do with getting camera companies the exact same amount of money per sale and more to do with prices that camera companies set. They do this because they don't want consumers to be put off by fluctuating prices.
The way that camera companies "control" which price consumers buy is limiting their warranty. If you live in the UK and you buy a camera or lens originally shipped out to the US, then most camera companies won't honor any kind of warranty, unless you move to the US and redeem it in the US.
About 10 years ago, I visited Japan and thought that I might pick up some camera equipment while I was there, but when I converted yen to dollars, I realized that I might as well just buy the stuff when I was back in America, as I'd be saving some 5-10% paying dollars, and I'd get an American warranty that way too. Had a better price been available in Japan and I imported it back to the US, then it would have been a gray market camera.
If you search on ebay for new cameras and lenses, you'll find some professional stores, usually located in New York, with prices sometimes hundreds of dollars below the normal US retail price. These are gray market goods, usually imported from some other market as described above. They are normal, new-in-box cameras and lenses made to the exact same standards as anything else from that manufacturer, just intended to be sold at a slightly different price, due to currency fluctuations, in a different market. Some of these stores have shitty customer service, while others are fine. I would say, stay away from 6ave, but the rest tend to be fine. Read the product description carefully, and you'll see that they tend to describe a "1 year seller warranty," which is required because the manufacturer doesn't warrant the item.
