Is there a difference in Gray Market Canon EOS lenses

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Is there really a different in "gray market" and USA Canon lenses or is the only difference the lack of a Canon USA warrantee?

-- William Vickers (Vickfam@juno.com), January 21, 1999

Answers

There is NO difference. None. Canon even currently offer warranty repair on grey market lenses, though they are not legally obligated to (see the original EOS FAQ for more info).

Some of the worse mail order stores will simply lie to you about "grey market lenses". They will tell you that there are plastic mount "grey" L series lenses, or lenses made with substandard optics. These are lies. All they are trying to do is bait you in with low "grey" prices, then get you to switch to full price "USA" lenses by telling you the "grey" lenses are no good. If a store tries this, hang up. Don't deal with them. Don't even argue. If they can't get your money this way, they'll find another, like a $75 shipping charge or a $45 battery or a host of other creative rip-off methods designed to part you from your money.

-- Bob Atkins (bobatkins@hotmail.com), January 21, 1999.


Being from Germany, on a one-year stay in the U.S. of A., and having purchased my EOS50e in Germany and my EF 200/2.8L in Canada, I recently queried Canon Germany about warranty. They told me that Canon offers a one-year, worldwide warranty - if you have the "World Wide" or "international" warranty card. I suspect that all this fuss about "US warranty" is just a big marketing ploy. They probably don't give you the "International" warranty card if you buy a "US" product, do they? I guess that if you are traveling extensively - internationally, that is - you are probably better off with an international warranty, because that'll be honoured all over the world.

Manufacturing-wise? I think it simply doesn't make business sense to set up different manufacturing lines for different markets for photo lenses. Sure, it would be relatively easy to have quality control sort them into multiple buckets, but why bother? They can sell them for whatever the market bears in different places even without differences in quality.

-- Helge Wilker (hwilker@uos.de), August 04, 1999.


USA warranties are honored all over the world too. Basically if you buy in the USA with a USA warranty, or if you buy outside the USA with an international warranty, you are covered everywhere.

You only run into problems with some companies when you buy a product with a warranty not intended for the country in which you purchase it.

-- Bob Atkins (bobatkins@hotmail.com), August 04, 1999.


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