The $2000 CAD price appears to be a mistake--or a mythological MSRP
that is substantially higher than the actual selling price. Both
http://www.cameracanada.com and
http://www.henrys.com list the price as $1600 CAD
for the kit and $1500 CAD for the body only, which is more-or-less
in line with the US prices.
Bob
More or less in line? Are you on crack? $899US = (aprox) $1265CDN
Unless I REALLY suck at math.....$1265 is nowhere NEAR $1500 thats
still $235 CDN more than getting it from the US. With taxes at the
border the price will be around $1500. If you buy in Canada at
$1500 your looking at almost $1800 with PST/GST and thats without
the lens. (unless you live in Alberta the you would save the PST)
--
As of today, according to the Acu-Rate foreign exhange listing
http://www.accu-rate.ca/ratecard2/GRIC.htm , $1000USD sells for
$1513CDN. So, yes, I'd describe the local Canadian price of
$1600CDN for the Digital Rebel kit to be more-or-less in line with
the price in the US. Unless you smuggle in your camera, you
still have to pay GST and PST, so there are no savings there, and
if you buy it from a retail store in, say, New York State, you also
have to pay the state sales tax. If the camera is shipped, there
are customs brokerage charges (as well as GST/PST). So while I
would very much like the Canadian price to be lower, the price
difference is not that significant (If Canon Canada was serious
about the selling price being $2000, then it
would have been.)
Bob
Anyway, USD charges in my August MasterCard invoice were converted at 1.41, which still means that a legally-imported Digital Rebel will come in at a price not-too-far from the price in local stores, and, to give Canon Canada the benefit of the doubt, their pricing strategy may be intended to have sufficient cushion to accommodate a possible drop in the value of CND. I think CND1400/1500 for the Digital Rebel body/kit would be closer to the pricing of other Canon cameras, but another $100 does not make it so outrageously high that I would want to give up the convenience of buying locally.
Stanley Allen
