Buy now before March or wait. Canon or Sony mirrorless

doug56hl

Now that the price of the Canon EOS R is down to £1.56K at panamoz I'm wondering whether to buy now before possible Brexit currency exchange rate changes and thus price rises or continueing to wait and see if it drops further in price.  I've seen for example the prices of Denon/Marantz AV gear shooting up £300 to £600 over the last month or so and the £ to yen/dollar doesn't seem to show any signs of getting better but more likely worse.
So buy now and get the bird in the hand or wait with possible price rises the result?

Plus it seems there will also be a smaller EOS RP released fairly soon too.
Canon EOS RP leaks reveal new shrunken full-frame mirrorless camera | TechRadar
Although the rumoured spec isn't exactly setting me on fire it should be cheaper list price than the R but the lower list price may take a while to drop on the grey market. So doesn't seem any point in waiting for that although an even smaller body than the R might be. Depends how soon it will be available I suppose. Announcement is said to be next week but shipping date isn't mentioned

snerkler

TBH this is like asking who's got a crystal ball. Also, you can wait forever and there will be a point when you can get the EOS R for under a grand but how long do you wait?

When I'm buying gear I wait until it's got to a price that I deem to be reasonable, decide if I can afford it and if so I buy it. I know that in 6-12 months it will be markedly cheaper, but that's the joys of tech I"m afraid.

AMc

If you need/want it now and can afford it then I’d probably buy it now before he Brexit deadline.  

I think it’s a safe bet that the pound will be very volatile for the period immediately before and after the end of March.   It might strengthen making imports cheaper but that seems less likely to me.

I know that supplier covers import duties and ships some things from the uk. If we crash out without a customs agreement with the eu and the rest of the world I think that’s going to be a nightmare too.
I imagine the customs people will have so much to do that a lot of non urgent stuff will pile up in warehouses.

No one really knows what’s going to happen but I’m not optimistic at the moment.

The new camera might be better cheaper etc. But it’s not even official afaik so I wouldn’t factor it myself.

doug56hl

EOS R seems to share the around 67% grey market vs normal retail price although it's newer than the other Canon FF models (and thus it's current price is still at release list price).

EOS R Lowest £2348 Panamoz: £1560 66.43%
5DIV Lowest £2789 Panamoz: £1670 59.87%
5DS  Lowest £2349 Panamoz: £1575 67%
5DSR Lowest £2499 Panamoz: £1690 67.62%
6DII  Lowest £1452 Panamoz: £965 66.46%

Even if it dropped to £2K normal retail, assuming the same percentage difference, it might go for £1340 grey market. 10% or higher price rise might be on the cards around Brexit and for some time after so £1475. Pricespy who aren't very reliable prediction wise are showing lowest estimated price around £1650 by June.

Post referendum I remember all Canon lens prices went up around 25% to 33% or more so am a bit jittery that something similar might be on the cards again.

The thread for the EOS R has been dead for months and one of the main complaints then was that it was so much higher cost than the A7III. Now at panamoz they are almost on parity
A7III lowest £1879 Panamoz £1530 81% (i.e. much smaller discount saving) and if you include the bundled lens adaptor for the R vs the need to buy an EOS-->FE adaptor for the A7 (roughly £200 to £400) it's actually much cheaper.

So I suppose the question might have been better phrased as has the EOS R now reached a enough good price for the model?

snerkler

I guess this will depend on who you talk to. Is the EOS R ‘decent’ value at £1560? Yes IMO. Is it great value? No not imo. The reason being is that, IF you were buying for good value you’d look no further than the D750, at around a grand. Also, the 6DII can be had for under a grand and this is basically an EOS R is DSLR format (give or take the odd spec). Also the A7III is very slightly cheaper than the EOS R and is all round a better camera (except the ergonomics).

Still, it’s certainly better value than the Z6.

newbie1

What type of photos are you taking or want to take? That and how you find the camera handling, and budget, should drive your decision, no?

doug56hl

Sorry I should have put the previso: for an owner of Canon lenses. Thus Nikon not a lot of attraction to me due to high switch cost to get like for like Nikon lenses, with similar applying for Sony. So neither are good value when the system costs are considered. Also A7III still has the same 2MP EVF as my A7 which doesn't cut it for me. It's OK but not equal to an optical viewfinder.

Only the A7RIII has a similar res EVF to the EOS-R (ignoring Nikon). I've considered it multiple times as I'd get 18MP crop using my APS-C E mount lenses although buying a 42MP body to use mainly in crop mode seems a bit insane. Also the required EOS-->FE adaptor to allow use of my Canon FF glass adds another £200 to £400 to the cost bringing it to around £2150 to £2350 or up to another £790 over the EOS R. And that £790 is enough to get an 80D or 7DmkIII to update my Canon APS-C body.

Same as with my current FF Canon 6D (landscape, macro, general). It's now long in the tooth and it's single usable accurate focus point makes it like a dinosaur. Couple that with wildly inaccurate metering. I have to mainly shoot in manual using Liveview to see the histogram, dial in the settings, and then go back to the viewfinder to take the photo; or chimp all the time to try and get a decent exposure, or aperture priority using 5/7 spread exposure bracketing. Otherwise it's having to raise underexposure on post and the 6D sensor isn't the best for that Handling wise, though heavier than my Sony A6000 and A7, it fits much better in the hand.

EOS R appears to be basically a 6D on steroids with 5K focus points and the EVF giving ready access to the histogram in the viewfinder and WYSIWYG visual exposure plus adds the flippy LCD I like on my APS-C Canon bodies. So fixes the problems I have with the 6D while retaining similar ergonomics and menu systems etc. Also crucially allowing my Canon EOS lenses to work the same albeit via an adaptor (free). Everything I've read says the EOS-->R adaptor gives native lens results on the R mount.

If it wasn't for Brexit exchange rate uncertainties I'd probably continue to wait for the R to drop a bit more. However it seems fate has now taken the decision out of my hands. Checking Panamoz today shows the EOS R is now out of stock so could possibly be costing more when it comes back in stock.
It's available at HDEW at £1599 so another £39 than I could have got it a day or two ago.

Although Panamoz still has the R with RF 24-105mm available at £2150. I had been considering getting a Sigma 24-105mm so the lens range is something I 'need'. Cost wise they are similar: £590 extra for the bundled lens vs £549 for the sigma. But the sigma gave the advantage of being able to be used on my 6D, Sony A6000/A7 plus a possible R vs just on the EOS R for the R mount lens. Whether I actually would use it on all the different bodies is another matter but it's nice to have the choice. Reviews though for the RF 24-105 seem decent so perhaps the body/lens bundle is the option to go for?

Any suggestions as to other trustworthy grey sellers?
I see Onbuy also has it at £1599 but I haven't read any feedback on them and they also only have a two year warranty vs the three year one at Panamoz and HDEW. Onbuy cost for the R plus RF 24-105 is £2475 so £325 more than the same bundle at panamoz. HDEW doesn't do the bundle, just the body.

snerkler

I've used Panamoz and always been happy with them. I was going to buy from e-infinity this week as they were considerably cheaper and get good reviews, but I found out that warranty repairs are sent to Hong Kong and so turnaround times are long. I've gone with HDEW in the end as they were somewhere in between for the two items I wanted (EM1-II and Panny 100-400mm) and when I emailed them this week they advised me that all repairs are carried out in the UK, like they are with Panamoz I believe.

doug56hl

Interesting, the EOS R is only £1359 with e-infinity (although doesn't come with the mount adapter but that is available seperately at £76.90, so £1435 or £164 cheaper than HDEW)
But sending repairs off to Hong Kong is a turnoff especially when they say "Within the warranty period of 12 months, customers will need to bear the postage for returning the product back to us". Insured postage for a £2K item to Hong Kong may easily eat up any price savings.

Panamoz covers that in their info "Most of our competitors require you to send the item back to far east for repair, which is expensive and time consuming. We certainly don’t want our customers to wait for weeks and months to have the item repaired. Since our warranty is local, the wait time is much reduced."

snerkler

From what I can gather from the emails is that with e-infinity you send back to their UK headquarters and then they send it to HK. Don't take that as gospel, but that's how I understand it