grey market for nikon lenses

hello all. i was just wondering if ordering grey market nikon

lenses/bodies would be ok. i know they only come with the 1 year

worldwide warranty, vs. the 5 year us warranty for non-grey stuff.

i wonder if that is a problem, though. that is, are there many

problems with lenses that show up after a year of use? i imagine

the better nikon lenses will be of pretty high quality, so . . .

the specific lenses i am considering are the

 

24mm f/2.8 AFD

 

105 f/2.8 AFD micro

 

70-300 f/4.5-5.6 (??) AFD ED (not the G)

 

60 f/2.8 AFD micro

 

i was also considering trading in my n80 body for either a used or

grey market fm3a. i am sick of the meter on my n80 limiting my

choices so much. thanks a lot.

thanks a lot. i am still considering which lenses i am goign to

get, and i wont get any for a while, i just wanted to elaborate on

the general quality of the lenses i was considering getting

greymarket. thanks a lot.

 

David.

"i am sick of the meter on my n80 limiting my choices so much."<br>

<br>

Sorry to ask a question of your question, but I'm curious in what way the metering on the N80 is limiting. I use an N80 and would love to hear its limitations so that I can be aware of them and/or do what I can to avoid that type of situation.

<br><br>

Thank you!<br>

- Brian<br>

<br>

<a href="http://gallery.dotestudios.com">My Gallery</a>

B&H (and, I think, Adorama) offer extra cost third-party warranty service for their grey market items through Mack in New York.

David,

I'm with Brian here...if you find the meter on the N80 limiting you're going to be really frustrated with the FM3A. Do you mean the fact that some older lenses are not compatible?

 

The N80 has spot, center weighted and matrix metering, A-priority, S, M, & P modes, the FM3A has only M & A and only center weighted (I think) metering. The N80 auto-brackets (@ 1/2 stop), the FM3A doesn't. I think, by almost any measure, the N80 would be considered a more flexible and more advanced (if not more accurate) metering camera. You're gonna have to clarify that statement.

 

Regarding your question. Yes, you accept some element of risk with the Grey Market lenses, but not as much as with the cameras IMO. If it's faulty you'll find out fast, if the cost savings is worth the risk to you then go for it...I've had several Nikon Grey purchases and no bad experiences. I've also gone with Nikon USA warrantied stuff on big dollar items or when the savings was minimal. My F5 was grey and at the time, in combo with 2 Nikkor lenses, it saved me well over $1000--I felt the likelyhood of a problem with more than one of the 3 items was small enough to justify the risk for a savings like that.

 

The grey market is made in the same factories the same way and is the same quality, so there's little risk there.

to clarify, i was speaking of compatibility issues with the n80's metering system. i am very happy with the metering through my 50 1.8D lens, but i would like to be able to buy a used 105/2.5 AIs. alas. maybe when i have more money, i can buy a used fm2n or something like that. thanks everyone.

I have no qualms with the simpler lenses going gray market. But I recently bought a fancy image stabilization lens, and wanted the USA Nikon warranty on that. Yes, a defect (in my mind) with the N80 is its lack of metering with older manual lenses. I did have the chip put into my 105/1.8, because it's one of my favorite lenses, and now it meters fine with my N80. Gives time and temp, too. ;+)

Phil- What chip?

My philosophy has been to buy the bodies with USA warranty and the lenses grey market (There is very little that can go wrong with them.) I might make an exception of the VR lenses until we have more experience on their reliability.

Yaron,<br>

Here is a link to some info on 'chipping' older lenses: <A HREF="http://www.photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=004n5E">http://www.photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=004n5E</A>

Hi David,

 

I would be cautious with Grey Market lenses. I recently bought a 24-120 afs vr g Nikon

lens and it is apparently grey market. I won't belabor you with the sad story of how this

happened unintentionally (don't buy from Best price cameras though). Well as luck would

have it, I have a problem with the lens in just a few months, sent it in to Nikon for repair

and they informed me that they would not repair the lens because it was a grey market

lens, and not intended for sale in the US. I do wonder if there is a difference between grey

market as this forum is discussing it and what I purchased. I have a 105 mm I bought

from B&H listed as "import" and it came with a Nikon worldwide warranty card, so I assume

Nokon would repair that one? Are there shades of grey?

 

John

John, at B&H, "imported" means gray market.

 

Go to their web site. Find a product with an imported (gray) version and click on that link, you'll see this page with their explanation:

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=product.jsp&A=getpage&Q=GreyMarketStatic.jsp

 

We did some checking last year. In the US, only Nikon USA can fix VR problems. Therefore, you assume more risk and trouble if you buy a gray-market VR lens.