jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

I wonder if recalls for gray market are disallowed.

EDIT: "When products have major issues out of the gate (e.g. D600 dust, D800 focus, D750 banded flare, etc.), NikonUSA has been somewhat inconsistent about whether gray market is dealt with or not."
Tom Hogan

Excellent article -

http://www.dslrbodies.com/newsviews/gray-market-is-changing.html

travisdeland Loc: deland, FL

My new Canon 7D2 went back for warranty work 3 times in the first 6 months, before things were finally right. The camera store(whom I will not do anymore business with) where I purchased it wouldn't exchange the camera with me, so I was very thankful for the warranty.

dcampbell52 Loc: Clearwater Fl

It isn't totally about the service in the first year. With Nikon (and a lesser degree Canon and others) it is difficult to repair a camera after the 1st year. Nikon will not touch MOST Grey Market period and typically does not allow their 3rd party authorized repair facilities to either regardless of age of the equipment. Personally, if I buy a piece of equipment, I'm going to make sure that I can get it fixed or sell it if I decide to replace it or get rid of it. If I sold $1000 of used equipment to someone and didn't tell them that it was grey market and they couldn't get it repaired, it would probably be leaving me open to lawsuits. While I might win the suit, it would cost me way more to fight the litigation than the difference between the cost of doing it right the first time and trying to work around the system. I think of it as being similar to buying stolen property. It may be a great deal in the beginning, but if it has to be fixed or you ever want to sell it again, it isn't worth the issues.

spdmn54 Loc: Avon Lake, Ohio

I agree, all my "real" Nikon gear has been trouble free, even the refurbished equipment.

whitewolfowner

You can file a dispute with your credit card and get your money back if you do before 60 days after the end of the billing period of which the purchase was made.

Szalajj Loc: Salem, NH

I've been shooting since the 70's with SLR's (Minolta 101, Nikon 6006, and a Sigma), and since 2015 with a Canon Rebel T5 DSLR.

At some point after the manufacturer's warranty had ended, all of my cameras have needed some kind of cleaning or repair.

It wasn't until 2015 with my Canon Rebel T5, that I purchased an extended warranty. I've already used that warranty to have my sensors cleaned, and I sent the camera back to Canon to evaluate a problem. The problem ended up being an issue that the camera just wasn't designed and built to handle what I was trying to do. The T5 won't handle long bursts of shots without buffering. Only 4 when shooting in RAW, or 5-6 when shooting in JPEG.

On the question of is it worth the extended warranty, for me the answer would be a resounding yes. For others, it might be no.

I tend to shoot under some adverse conditions from time to time, but not intentionally. These conditions could result in needing the sensors cleaned more often than the casual user. I still have one more year left on my extended 3-Year Warranty!

I would never knowingly buy a Gray(US spelling) or Grey(UK spelling) Market Camera or Lens.

OddJobber Loc: Portland, OR

Gray market is equipment that is imported by sellers other than the factory authorized distributor. It is legal and prices can be much less than "USA models". The problem is that the gray market imports will have only a seller's warranty, if any. After that Nikon and Canon will never ever service or repair gray market.

rmalarz Loc: Tempe, Arizona

My D700 needed service within one year of purchase. I was advised to send it in, which I did. It was returned and has worked perfectly every since. This warranty work carried its own warranty for an additional 6 months, if memory serves. Additionally, the person with whom I spoke at Nikon USA, advised me to send it in for a cleaning very near the end of the end of the warranty. That cleaning would be free and add an additional 6 months to the existing warranty. I took advange of that and got a clean camera in the return shipment. No service has been needed, other than a sensor cleaning, since.
--Bob

n3eg Loc: West coast USA

For what it's worth, JK Kodak has been very responsive with warranty issues regarding the S-1 and its lenses. The bad news is that they had to be responsive four different times in the first eight months.

Selene03

I had a Nikon D600 with the oil/sensor problem. It was a nightmare. Nikon eventually recalled it and fixed the problem, but I was constantly having to clean it, get it professionally cleaned, get Nikon to clean it, etc. Switched to Canon because I couldn't get one day's worth of pictures out of it without the spots reappearing (and on mine, they showed up even using apertures like F8). By the time they fixed it, I decided I preferred how Canons worked although I loved the image quality on the D600. I also had to have Nikon repair a lens. I would never buy anything Grey market from them because of the warranty issue.

I did have a dial fall off the top of my Canon 6D twice, once out of warranty and when it happened again, it was repaired under warranty from the first repair. Canon also cleaned and checked out the camera both times, and it has worked fine since.

Given what I have purchased, the use the equipment gets, etc., I would say that I don't really worry about camera repairs very much (except for that one D600 with the oil spots). Everyone I know that had the D600 had the same problem; it was probably a weird exception, and I don't know whether or not they repaired grey market copies or not given how widely known the problem was.

So, I don't think cameras fail very often. But, sometimes they do. I've thought about this--I can get something much cheaper grey market, and the likelihood of it failing is very low. But do I have the money to replace it again if it turns out to be a dud? I think I would be more inclined to take the risk if it wasn't a Nikon product because they seem worse on the warranty issue than most manufacturers.

Peterff Loc: O'er The Hills and Far Away, in Themyscira.

Same here, a Russian Zenit E, and then all Canons since 1976. I'm sure that most other vendors such as Pentax et al. are similar.

If only vehicles were the same! Since I moved to the US in 1991 I have owned 4 vehicles, still have three of them. All Japanese, 3 Hondas, 1 Subaru. The only one that caused significant problems was the Subaru, and they wouldn't honor the extended warranty. One of the Hondas was built in Canada, the other two in Japan, and the Subaru in Indiana.

Maybe we're going to need all our cameras built in the US for the next few years!

photoman022 Loc: Manchester CT USA

I've purchased 3 gray market cameras and none of them ever needed warranty work in the first year or any years since purchasing them. (the oldest is 6 years old, then 5, then 3 -- kind of like children!) I've never had to have any repair work done (within a warranty period) on any of my digital OR analog (film) cameras. Some of my film cameras worked 20 years after purchasing them. My Nikon D40 still works without a hitch and it is the oldest DSLR that I have.

Dan De Lion Loc: Montana

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Wrong whitewolfowner - Nikon does their recall repairs (which you are referring to) regardless of the source of purchase.

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boomer826 Loc: Florida gulf coast

I have owned ten cameras in the last 30 years. I still have Six of them, both digital and film. One of them was a grey market Minolta film camera. Out of all of these cameras(mostly Nikons) I have never had any of them require any kind of repair. In fact, out of all the equipment I have owned I have never had to have any of it repaired. I did have a problem with two flashes that I owned. That problem was from my own stupidity. I left the batteries in both flashes after using them. The next time I went to use them, both of them were fried. The batteries had leaked very badly and destroyed the circuit boards. Living in Florida, I should have known better , humidity kills damn near everything down here. Live and learn, sometimes the hard way.

NikonCharlie Loc: Kansas USA

I've had a D2H repaired, it was the exposure meter. Otherwise no camera repairs. I buy USA lenses, at about 4 years old I send in complaining about this or that or something I dream up for a free rebuild before the warranty runs out.