dgdg wrote:
i priced out the 600 II and did the math with all the fees. It came very close to the lowest offers I found in the usa (not major retail stores, but still canon usa dealers). If I had a credit card that did not charge a fee, I might have saved a little. YMMV
Yes, you have to watch those credit cards. Some of them charge 3-4% exchange transaction fee which is ridiculous on such a large purchase. I believe Capital One offers some credit cards that do not charge any exchange fees over the normal rate.
thedutt wrote:
Be careful that the lens is classified correctly at customs. When the UPS person calls you to get customs clearance information (they need social / taxid for items over $2k), ask what is the expected duty. My lens was miss classified and it would have been 5%+ if not corrected. Took only a few minutes on the phone to get it fixed prior to the lens being delivered.
With regards to duty, the breakdown for me was as follows:
2.3% Duty
~$30 govt paperwork charge (this was unknown to me)
~$50 UPS brokerage fee
Total to be paid to UPS driver was ~$285, higher than I was expecting.
For posterity sake, your breakdown was exactly right. I only got the bill from UPS. Also, the initial price came out slightly higher than expected. It's possible that the exchange rate fluctuated or else there was a currency exchange fee somewhere in my payment. In any case, the actual total came out to something like $9016. That's still nearly $1400 in savings compared to B&H, but a little more expensive than I had originally hoped.
I have no regrets and absolutely love the lens though. Having an effective 700mm f/5.6 with the 1.4x is fantastic compared to the 400mm f/5.6 that I was using.
