Would you buy a grey market Nikon camera or lens?

[haring]

Have you ever bought a grey market Nikon camera or lens? Currently all my Nikon stuff is USA not grey market. The price difference is close to $1000 between a grey market Nikon D4s and its USA Nikon counterpart. It is just too tempting....

Did you have any problems servicing your grey market camera or lens? Did you find a third party service center after Nikon had refused fixing it? Are those third party service centers reliable? Are they more expensive than the Nikon USA Service center?

I just want to find out whether it is worth it to save $1000 now and service a grey market product in the USA.

Thanks so much!

 

[Paul2660]

I would consider a MAC warranty if you get one. The body from US only has a 1 year Nikon warranty, and the MAC warranty I believe can go to 3 years. They are sold in the US by B&H and like vendors.

I have several MAC warranties, (all were on Canon gear), used them 2x and both times no problems. Takes a bit of time however.

Paul

 

[Guy Mancuso]

I would never buy a body grey market especially Nikon as there is zero USA warranty on them and a body is much more prone to a repair than a lens. Now I have bought grey market lenses with never a repair involved. If its a bad lens you will know almost immediately anyway and covered under a 14 or 30 day return policy. So you really are much safer on a lens since unless dropped typically don't need repair. But also you have to look at the price difference too and sometimes it just may be worth the extra 100 dollars to be US warranty.

Really comes down to personal preferences.

 

[Sparky16]

Most Nikon Authorized Service Centers charge less and faster turn around than Nikon LA/NY.

That said, many NEWER Nikon bodies, like D4s, can only be fixed at NIKON, and they refuse to work on grey market bodies, for warranty or for fee. So, if you bought a grey market D4s from B&H, and needed some warranty repair, you have to send them to BH for one year warranty work, BH then send it to Japan to get it fixed. If you can live with this possible future headache, go for it.

Oh, keep in mind it will be almost impossible to resell when the time comes for the same reason. The reason why would be buyers always ask if it's a Nikon USA model.

 

[glenerrolrd]

I was looking at that exact deal as well. I have always intended to replace my now sold D4 with a D4s . The price difference is over $1000 between 6th Ave Photo (grey market ) and B&H . I have a friend ,my former Nikon source that owned a small camera store, so I checked his thinking . His POV was to avoid the grey market Nikon stuff because Nikon USA has in the past …refused to repairs even when you paid the cost . This is well known by the Pros and at a minimum might affect resale .

 

[mark1958]

i thought that Nikon would not even repair a grey lens at a USA center?

 

[Leigh]

i thought that Nikon would not even repair a grey lens at a USA center?

That's correct, nor will they sell parts to an independent repair shop.

I've been shooting Nikon since 1960, that's 54 years (wow).

Never bought a gray market product, and never will.

B&H offers both, plainly marked, although recently there appears to be no price advantage to the greys.

- Leigh