Do you feel that Canon "price gouged" early 5D III buyers?

Bagged all kinds of shots I would have struggled with over a 6 month period.

No regrets whatsoever.

$2994 seemed too good to be true, and it was. Price is back up to $3499 minus a $200 instant savings at B&H. Seems Canon is enforcing their minimum pricing rules, again.

You are mistaken on that. It was Canon that maintained the early price just like all the others. When the Pentax K-5 came out the early price was somewhat higher than the users expected. As soon as the early adopters grabbed their share and sales started down Pentax (Hoya at the time) dropped the price. Exactly the same thing Canon did. All dealers for all makers use an agreement with MAP pricing these days. When Canon lowers the price to distributers then the MAP goes down and dealers are free to drop the street price. But if they go below the MAP they can lose their rights to sell Canon (or any other brand).

Just in the last few days the UK price for a Pentax K-30 has dropped to around 399 pounds and has a 50 pound rebate available. That was not dealer (SRS) doing it on their own but Pentax Ricoh doing it likely because supplies of the K-5II/IIs are in short supply due to higher than expected demand and they likely did it to have a super deal available for those that can't find the more expensive models (and go somewhere else).

Kent Gittings

They could have justified the inflated 5Dmk3 price if they'd increased the resolution.

Instead they left landscape and studio photographers with no compelling reason to upgrade from the 5Dmk2 but I'm sure Canon have plans to milk them with a new high res model that will cost a lot more (i.e. $5K+).

Don't buy it if you don't like the price. Simple as that. Oh, you must have it? Sorry, pal, that is what good companies do - a "right" product that they can sell at a good margin.

All these threads about the 5D III price really are amuzing. If you don't like the price don't buy...what else?

The original 1Ds cost $8000.




The problem is the word "gouge". What does it mean ? In a market there are buyers and sellers, and they either come to an agreement, and do a transaction, or they don't.

Rick880 said:

Rick880 wrote:

Don't buy it if you don't like the price. Simple as that. Oh, you must have it? Sorry, pal, that is what good companies do - a "right" product that they can sell at a good margin.

Click to expand...

Are you shilling for Canon?

$3499 for a 1mp resolution upgrade and at long last a decent AF system was always going to be a stretch in a market where Nikon was selling a D800 for $500 less with a better sensor, pro AF, weather sealing, etc.

Well,I was willing to pay the premium price and I would do it again,,,I do feel that I paid too much,,maybe about 300 too much,but thats what happens when you get one of the first..I remember when the mazda miata came out in limited supply,,and it happened with the corvette and that is the price you pay for being the first on the block,,but it is a great block to be on!!!!