Where do canon make their cameras?

I'm looking to buy a canon 5d body and have found a site that seems very cheap, but I know they get their

camera stock from China in bulk then ship them out to customers. Can anyone tell me if all Canon

products are made in China and if not is there a difference in quality?

 

Thanks.

All canon bodies, especially exensive ones like the 5D are made in Japan, only the cheapest consumer grade lenses are made abroad, so there should be no difference in quality. Be careful of "cheap" deals, they are often a scam.

Not sure where else, but my 350d is made in China but my 5D is made in Japan. L lenses are also from Japan, from the ones I have.

Canon has plants in various countries, but you have been misled if you believe that they make DSLRs in China: yes, in Japan (all the high end models including the 5D), and Taiwan. Some EF lenses are also made in Malaysia.

 

http://www.canon.com/about/group/list04.html

 

It's likely you are being misled by "a site that seems very cheap". That raises the suspicion that they are a scam operation. Have you checked them out at resellerratings.com?

The company wanting to sell you a cheap Chinese 5D wouldn't be based in Brooklyn, would it? Just from your brief description, it sounds like one of those rip-off places that advertises really cheap gear but when you try to order it, they inform you that the cheap camera being advertised has all the menus written in Korean, or the lens mount is made of plastic, or you have to pay extra for the battery and charger, or some other absurd line designed to get you to go ahead and order the American-spec camera with the metal mount and comes with the charger and battery and in the end costs more than everyone else charges instead of less.

 

As a rule, if a dealer offers equipment for slightly less than everyone else, it's a good deal, but if they have it for significantly lower than everyone else, shop elsewhere.

"All canon bodies, especially exensive ones like the 5D are made in Japan"

 

Smiling here. If all Canon bodies are made in japan, then how does the 5D get "especially"

made in Japan?

 

BTW, my 350D is made in japan and my Elan 7 is made in China.

Oops sorry, my Elan 7 was made in Taiwan not China.

 

Someday..... p.net WILL add an edit function....

Robert, stop looking for cheap deals. Digital cameras

are quite a bit different from, say, apples - which may vary greatly in price depending on who and where produced them. If you are buying a DSLR which has been made in the same factory as all the others delivered to the market (all 5D's for instance) - what makes you think that by some miracle one of the suppliers, all of a sudden, is able to sell it to you at 2/3 of the normal price or less ?

 

I know, the desire to save some serious bucks is well and alive in most people - and that's exactly what all the scam artists prey upon. Do not let yourself be blinded - you can only loose. Go with one of the reputable vendors like B&H or Adorama and save yourself a lot of grief.

Generally if a company like Canon were to contract out to other countries to help pick up the slack, there's still a certain degree of quality control invested at all the factories to ensure all products are up to the company's specs. Thus either all the 350Ds should be equally good or equally sucky, and purchasers shouldn't have to concern themselves with which factory produced theirs.

 

Therefore if a retailer is suggesting that a 5D was made in China and thus might be inferior to other 5Ds, even if there actually are Chinese 5Ds out there, that still sounds more like a rip-off con artist trying to sucker some unsuspecting buyer into choosing option B for twice the money.

Get used to it......I can remember when we thought items "Made in Japan" were cheap and inferior. Now it means quality. Take a look at the economy in China and you can see that it's happening all over again. Canon will build at a lower price if the quality is good. It's just pure economics. The design and programing may stay in Jaopan, but the assembly and labor will come from China.

The difference between the Japan story and the Chinese one is that, 50 or so years ago, the Japanese knew they had a reputation for cheap junk, and carefully set about reversing that image. The Chinese are doing no such thing. Some camera gear that is built in China is fine...but these are factories owned and overseen by Japanese companies.

When my Nikon D70's battery was recalled, it was a Chinese-built unit. Nikon replaced it (free of course) with a Japanese one.

I see a lot of hardware of various kinds, and the Chinese is by far the worst. The Koreans are far more likely to follow the Japanese model; I've seen a lot of good stuff from them, and don't know why more camera gear isn't built there. Labor rates?

 

--Scot

<p><i>Someday..... p.net WILL add an edit function....</i></p>

Someday..... I WILL become a trillionaire....

Odd timing: Just minutes after I posted my anti-Chinese hardware rant (above), my Nikon 70-300G failed; the zoom ring quit, after no abuse. I can still pull the lens out and extend it, so it still works. But to have it fall apart like that after less than 2 years of use without ever having suffered any impact is a bit irritating.

Place of manufacture? Guess.

 

--scot

I agree, I try to buy things made in America but things I bought 5 years that were made in America are now made in China. Being an American born Chinese, I believe USA products are excellent. My mom, who immigreated from Hong Kong 54 years ago still tells me buy American, European, Japanese, Taiwan, Korean, Indonesian products (no particular order) but stay away from stuff made in china. That's hard to do these days but some day China will catch up and rise to the ranks of producing quality made goods.

 

That said, the 5D is still made in Japan and if offered otherwise, it's a fake.

"...but I know they get their camera stock from China in bulk then ship them out to customers..."

 

No you don't know that. You only think you know that.

 

It's a bait and switch tactic. You call, they have a great price - but it's on an inferior quality 5D made in China. For only an extra $500 you can have one made in Japan.

 

If you want the cheap one, they will be out of stock forever, because it doesn't exist.

 

They'll also probably quote you a really low price on an "L" lens with a plastic mount. The metal mount version is, of course, much better and only costs an extra $350.

RobertHarper, ScotSteele, & DelwynChing. It is all economic.

 

Almost all top-of-the-line Canon cameras are made in Japan. As technology ages, Canon moves the production lines oversea and leaves room for newer products. Some of these 2nd class production lines may be in USA too. To compete in the market with price cut, Canon may lower the quality of components inside. If there is no change in the components, the quality of the original Made-In-Japan and Made-In-China are basically same. Any mature production line will not let individual human error affects the product quality.

 

China is a huge country with some world-class skilled population and a large pool of poorly skilled population. You'll see China will continue make lousy quality low-cost products to feed these large pool of poorly skilled population until the pool gets smaller and smaller in the future. On the other hand, you'll see China will export some extremely high-tech sensitive technology in the near future. Japan and Korea have different social & economic background from China. Don't you see Japaneses make better TVs, automobiles, cameras, ... than Americans do. But their space, rocket, ... technologies are way behind than Americans'.

So, my point is ... If you like that model, you don't need to worry about where it is made. They are basically same. Whenever you see a Japanese products made overseas, including USA, these are no longer state-of-the-art product anymore. So, any American products made in Japanese, it is no longer state-of-the-art product. It will be years, if not decades, before you'll see Chinese outsources their products to Japan or USA. to save production cost.

funny about this thread, my wife came home with groceries the other night, and I picked up the garlic I asked for, it was in a three-pack, and had a label, "produce of China"....wow I wondered how that happened...I'm two states away from California, and QFC is buying garlic from China? Really? Yeah I know bananas come from way out, but I wonder what is next. I can also say that yesterday I got another Olympus Stylus Epic camera, a nice little fixed lens film point and shoot, it says China on it, whereas the previous model I got for my wife 12 years ago (that is still working) was not made in China, and has a whole different quality feel to it.

W T said "it says China on it, whereas the previous model I got for my wife 12 years ago (that is still working) was not made in China, and has a whole different quality feel to it."

 

The lack of quality in the camera, is that a matter of design or assembly? Because most of those electronics, regardless of where they're shipped out for assembly, are all still designed in the same place (Japan), and the HQ is still responsible for quality control as it's their good name on the line if crap is being cranked out with their label on it.

 

BTW, I think most of us here would probably agree that the products being churned out today, regardless of where they're put together, don't feel nearly as solid as those put out a decade or more ago. Plastics and lighter metals are being used in place of steel, and as such, today's electronics just don't have that confidence-inducing solidity that they used to. They probably still are just as solid, they just don't feel it.

Thanks for the responses, the information has really helped. You are right when you say if

it seems too good to be true it usually is. I was pretty concerend (hence my question) and

am now totally satisfied.

 

Checked out the ressellerrate.com (thanks to Mark U) and they have an AWFUL reputation,

never seen anything like it, most of the people there are saying its b*****ks and they try to

scam you into buying extra crap etc etc aswell as not providing the goods.

 

If anyone wants an interesting read go to:

 

http://www.resellerratings.com/store/Banana_Boat_Camera

 

It may be sound advice for anyone else looking for the same cheap deal I was.

Robert, Banana Boat isn't the only company doing the sort of stuff people described on that page you linked to. There are a bunch, and most, it seems, are based in Brooklyn. It's amazing these guys are able to stay in business, as their practices are clearly in violation of law (bait and switch, etc.). Sadly, I guess this shows how slow consumer protections can be in kicking in, and thus we as shoppers need to do our own selves a favor and get educated before making any big purchases. Otherwise, a fool and his money are soon parted.

Yeah it's very easy to fall for something like that. From what the previous consumers were

saying I'm suprised they've not been closed yet.

 

It pays to do your homework.

This is one of those situations where a great deal of myth can be created on the basis of a much more limited truth. It is certainly true that many large companies manufacture at a number of locations worldwide, and are not always forthcoming about where a particular product is manufactured. It is also true that even if it is company policy to maintain a consistent level of quality across all their manufacturing operations, that can be hard to achieve. This all creates an open invitation to dubious dealers to exploit the FUD (fear, uncertainty, doubt) factor long recognised as one of the most powerful marketing tools available - it used to be a commonplace that nobody ever got fired for buying an IBM computer.

 

Example. I have an EF-S 60/2.8. It's perfectly well made (not L class, but more than adequate) and optically outstanding. I'm very happy with it. It's made in Taiwan. But I learn that only from the small print on the box. The lens itself simply fails to have "Japan" on it. Playing into the hands of the FUD-mongers?

Many people still do not know how the some factory business works.

 

Facts: For a large % of products that is "Japan Branded", "Made in Japan"....their products are usually INSPECTED and GRADED, and all the grade A or A+ items are sold in Japan...thats why Japan always have the reputation of great products sold IN JAPAN...the other grades might go to other countries down the line thats where the reason for the prices to go cheaper for other countries...

 

For particular parts that are made and assembled in China, it also depends on the factories too. Every company brand that has their factories in China or other third world countries, there are also outsourcing factories. Those factories comes in when the estimate time for the production of products for the main companies are not going to meet the dead line in production...thats where the problems usually starts....

 

The problems are usually at those cheaper outsourcing factories for assembly or parts production....and thats also where the extra parts or extra items made that are left over will be exported for cheaper costs, or made into "OTHER BRANDS".......and even "COUNTERFEITS"..

 

*So the question for quality difference for products? Not really a difference if you get it from a reliable source.....Yes, there will be a difference if your unlucky and get a lemon...

Today I was shopping online for a canon EOS 5d and discovered a site that sells this camera for $1299. After placing the order I received an email from the vendor informing me that at this price I can get the made in China version which is not the magnesium-alloy body. I was unsure about the quality of the Chinese version, in particular the lens attachment ring for a large telephoto. Does anyone have an idea as to the quality difference. Or should pay the higher (almost double the price) for the Japanese version?