Purchasing from Robert White Photography

I am about ready to purchase a 645 format system. There have been many

mentions of Robert White Photography ref price, but that seems about

all. A search yielded many post but only passing comments. I would

like to hear if anyone has actually bought from R.W. and how the

transaction went. Also price,where there any hidden cost that ran the

price up that weren't know ahead of time. At this point any comments

pro,con or neutral would be appreciated. Just a little nervous sending

that much money any where.

I bought a Schneider 6x aspherical loupe from Robert White and a hard

to find acessory sleeve for it. Price was about 50% of that from B &

H. They were very helpful. Shipping was faster than they estimated.

Product was exactly what i ordered. I personally wouldn't hesitate to

buy any camera equipment from them. A lot of people on the large

format forum,

http://www.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a.tcl?topic=Large%20format%20pho

tography

have made purchases from Robert White (at huge savings) and I've only

read positive comments. There's no search function for that (great)

site, but you might try looking through old threads in the category

called "Resources."

I second thje above. Very polite, very professional, excellent service.

 

Shipping was about $56 for a body and two lenses. I received the package in two days. Customs duty (by check, to the driver at delivery) was about $52 (?) on a $3,000 order.

 

No hassles. Only complexity was a credit card company block on the charge and a "fraud prevention" call from them, even though I called and informed them before I ordered.

Nice people to deal with. Everything I've had from them has been "no surprises" and delivered quickly. I'd recommend them.

Hi Frank

Robert White is a safe place to do business. I just bought a hard to

find Contax T2 black paint model (demo) from them a couple weeks ago.

I got it for a great price, very curtious service, and it only took 3

days to arrive at my door 7,000 miles away on the Pacific coast (might

be less on a great circle route). The only down sides are that

shipping is a little higher because of distance ($30 via UPS) and you

will not get a USA warranty. I have Robert White bookmarked alongside

B&H, Cameraworld and KEH. The only caution I have is if your 645

system is Mamiya. I have read on this NG that Mamiya USA does not

support equipment they have not distributed and asks customs to deface

the Mamiya name on that which comes in via the gray market. I would

ask RW how they deal with that, I know that Mamiya owners do buy from

them anyway and post that to let us all know.

Doug from Tumwater .

So what's the URL for Robert White, please?

<a href="http://www.robertwhite.co.uk">Robert White - photographic equipment and sales</a>

I bought an Arca Swiss 6x9 camera and several lenses (Schenider and Rodenstock) from Robert White Photography. As easy and reliable to deal with as B&H (but more friendly on the phone and e-mail). The camera and lenses were delivered by UPS 2 days after they left Robert White in the UK (he will give you the tracking number, so you can exactly follow were the package is using UPS website).

I've spent a fair bit of money with Robert White and recommend them without qualification. Every retailer should be so good.

I just bought a mamiya 7 system and lenses from Robert White and the service was excellent. Only problem was from my credit card company thinking someone was using my card, but that was resolved with one phone call. I will definately order from them again. I also saved a lot of money by ordering from the UK.

I bought some Hassy lens/body caps from them and had to make several phone calls to chase them up (conflicting stories about being in/out of stock). So they are not perfect and this was in the UK. The price quoted was correct and they are a respectable business. Just couldn't let you think any business was faultless - but buy with confidence.

Another good reason for buying from Robert White. The US$/British Pound exchange rate has dropped by 15% since January (and about 7% in recent weeks) making their prices even better. Check out their prices on large format as well, such as Schneider lenses. Why would anybody buy in the US for these items?

I have purchased multiple items from Robert White on a variety of occasions. He is a thoroughly reliable, totally professional dealer.

 

A friend who purchased something from Robert White had a problem with the equipment, so he returned it. Got an immediate response and the equipment was returned fully repaired under warranty within about 4 days. And, Robert White paid the shipping.

 

Before purchasing, you should call your credit card company in advance and tell them the charge is authorized. The only other wrinkle is that there may be some duty. But none was charged on any of my purchases. Moreover, even if there were duty, you would still be saving so much, that it wouldn't matter much.

 

Go for it. You won't regret it. In fact, I wish he had a branch here in Los Angeles. I would patronize him regularly.

 

Good luck.

A few quick comments. The reason Robert White is able to give such great deals is because you are buying in a foreign country and bypassing the official U.S. importer (and the prices that you pay do not reflect their costs and profit structure), thus you will never see "Robert White" in the U.S. As for Mamiya's trademark restrictions they will not have any affect on a "personal" transaction overseas - from what I hear customs never has defaced any equipment and may only inform the importer if a "commercial" shipment comes through (ie. multiple bodies or lenses of the same focal length). As far as warranty service is concerned, you will be covered by the "International Warranty" of most manufacturers by having a sales slip from an overseas store - I believe the problem is more applicable to buying "gray market" goods in the U.S. from a U.S. -based dealer and having no proof of personal foreign purchase. From reading customs regulations it appears that duty (if and when it is assessed, my shipments haven't had duty applied) can range fron 0% - 3.2% on most goods.

 

Check the following site for more info. Also check the U.S. Customs Tariff site - it's a 6M Acrobat download. The section/paragraph relating to camera lenses is 9002.20 on page 1401 (1884 pages total). From what I gather there is no duty on cameras (a lens is duty free if shipped with a camera body also), 2% or 3.5% on lenses (there are two mentions of lenses @ 9001.90.40 and 9002.20, but in the index on or around page 1814 it lists 9002.20 for camera lenses). Tripods are listed at 9007.91 as 3.9%

 

http://www.smu.edu/~rmonagha/mf/hongkong.html

I echo that the Robert White folks (whom I found out about through photo.net, thank you) are very courteous, speedy and wonderful. Because Mamiya of America Corp. charges such outrageous prices compared to what the rest of the world pays, they are quite used to dealing with U.S. customers. MAC has rattled sabres in RW's direction, but since it is absolutely legal to import one of each item for personal use, there is nothing MAC can do.

 

No hidden costs -- they'll tell you what the shipping will be, and their best guess on what customs will charge (but of course, they can only guess).

 

No cons that I can think of. They even included an all-day sucker with my order.

I wonder, where does Robert White obtain its goods? Does it bypass the official U.K. importer? If not, why are its prices lower than a U.S. dealer that does not bypass the official U.S. importer? These are real, not sarcastic, questions; I don't know the answers.

Mamiya's US importer charges more for the same item than Mamiya's UK importer.

And its not just Mamiya, Sal.

 

A number of high end photo equipment manufacturers price products very differently in different markets, i.e. what they think each market will bear. In the jargon of economics, this is a strategy known as discriminatory pricing, and it is far from uncommon. The arrival of e-commerce has just allowed us to efficiently hunt down these discrepancies and profit from them without getting out of our chairs. It works both ways. UK residents always complain of "Rip-Off Britain", their term for the phenonmenon of high prices they pay for many things that are much cheaper in America, such as cars and clothes.

 

In general, check out Robert White's (or other, say, Hong Kong based distributors mentioned in the archived threads such as Cameron photo)

prices on Large Format Schneider lenses or Rollei equipment or Gitzo carbon-fiber tripods. You can save quite a bit-in the case of the LF lenses, over $1000 a pop for some lenses.

 

Lightmeters are quite a bargain overseas too, typically listing for 50-60% of the US price. I can get a Sekonic 308 Bii from the UK for less than US$150. B&H charges $250, and the US list is over $400!

 

I expect that if people like the respondents to this thread diligently profit from the possibilities of international e-commerce (and there is a supply of honest dealers like Robert White), these price differences will begin to disappear over the next few years as U.S. prices come down.

 

Meanwhile, why look a gift horse in the mouth?

>>As far as warranty service is concerned

>> you will be covered by the "International Warranty

 

Wayne...

 

In the case of Rollei, do you know if Rollei Fototechnic in New

Jersey (Marflex) will do warranty repairs on items if the purchase

receipt comes from RW, rather than send the equipment back to

Germany?

 

Do international warranties entitle me to have the camera

repaired under warranty in my country of residence, and

essentially obligate the local distributor to do the warranty

repair?

 

Thanks,

Doug

I purchased a new PME-45 Hasselblad viewfinder in England, from Robert White, with Hasselblad international 1 year warranty, and Hasselblad UK 2 year warranty. If I had purchased it in the US, which I could not since it is not available here, I would receive the Hasselblad USA 3 year warranty. with the international warranty, Hasselblad USA said I can send it to New Jersey, the UK, or Sweden.

 

Robert White is an excellent source of photographic goods. I saved $1100 on my Schneider 110mm XL, and was able to track its journey from Poole to Portland, Oregon via UPS website.

 

sadly though, no sucker.

Daniel - I'm getting a 110XL and a 150XL this week - savings ~$2,700.00.

Doug - In most cases the local distributor is obligated to honor the manufacturer's warranty. I do not know about Rollie specifically - call the distributor and ask as to the requirements (if asked you could say that you purchased the equipment while in England, it shouldn't matter to them anyway). Legally, they may be liable for much more than they're willing to tell you. Kind of like the disclaimer about "implied warranties" on goods purchased in the U.S. - the stated period is practically irrelevant in most states if the failure is due to an inherent defect of any kind.

Sal - Sorry, forgot to respond to your question. In Europe quite often there are no "official importers" - camera dealers buy directly from the factory, bypassing the middleman. The U.K. dealer that I use buys directly from Schneider in Germany. U.S. dealers are forced to buy through a distributor (for "official goods") who adds another level of advertising and staff overhead (as well as a profit - which may in fact be dismal). I suspect that in some cases you could get equipment from German dealers at a cost roughly equal to what the U.S. Distributor pays.

We have distributors here in Europe too. The best take care of issues

like making sure instruction books are comprehensible in the local

language, and will act as a supportive big brother when you need to

hassle a remote foreign manufacturer for service or information. The

worst are lazy parasites who make life difficult for both users and

manufacturers.

 

One of the reasons why US customers get a good deal from Europe is

that the prices dealers pay are calculated on the assumption that most

buyers will be paying (or at least handling) European sales tax (VAT

in the UK, other names elsewhere). This ranges from up to 25%

depending on the country, and can dramatically change the price point

at which a particular model is aimed. Sales outside the EU don't pay

VAT, so foreign buyers get an immediate saving, even if their local

distributor isn't as rapacious as MAC.

 

I buy a lot of equipment for my research lab, and have to deal with a

whole spectrum of suppliers from the wonderful to the incompetent.

Very few photographic sources get my top grade, but Robert White is

one of them. I'm sure they do slip up occasionally, but I am also

confident that they will do what is necessary to make amends. If you

buy from them in the USA your biggest problem is likely to be UPS

screwing up the delivery.

I exchanged a few emails with Mr. White and then purchased a 90mm lens for my Rollei. This is probably the first time when purchasing a piece of camera equipment that I felt totally at ease. This is even more amzaing when you realize the retailer is 5,000-6,000 miles away. Would buy from Mr. White anytime and would recommend them to anyone. He and his organization are a FIRST CLASS act. I sometimes think that more than the money saved the most important element of a purchase is to know that the retailer will stand behind his merchandise and not leave you in the cold. Robert White Photography would not drop you cold should something go wrong. I sent a bank draft via Fedex and they confirmed receipt. Told me when the lens was ordered, when it arrived in their shop and when it left for my office. I can't think of anyone in this country who does that kind of "hand holding". Plan to buy from them again in the near future.

Robert White is a pleasure to deal with. I saved a considerable amount

of money on a Gitzo CF tripod. The only hidden charge (not RW's fault)

is UPSs $20 customs brokerage fee (in the noise for large purchases)

which is in addition to the 2-3% customs. RW is very professional and

the current 1 pound = $1.40 exchange ratio makes it very worthwhile.

 

Also, for those interested in Schneider and Rodenstock lenses (as well

as LF and MF equipment in general), take a look at Badger Graphic

Sales. My Schneider 110 XL was $1,195 plus $15 2 day air. Very

competitive with RW after you add in shipping and customs.