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Message: <blockquote data-quote="TedG954" data-source="post: 101635" data-attributes="member: 9701">"The black market is the trade of illegal and/or stolen goods.The white market is the trade of legitimate goods.The gray market falls somewhere in between.In photography, gray market goods are those imported by anyone other than the authorized distributor or agent.Gray market goods have no factory warranty, and receive no customer support from the legitimate importer. In the case of digital cameras, you probably won't be able to get software and firmware updates, and may not be able to get service for it no matter how much you are willing to pay, because the very specialized parts and service jigs, firmware and software are only available directly from the legitimate importer, or the manufacturer back in Japan.Lenses should never be bought gray market either, because they all are loaded with autofocus motors and IS and VR systems today. I've sent my Canon and Nikon lenses in to have their autofocus motors (Nikon 17-35mm AF-S) or IS systems replaced (Canon 28-135 IS) for free, under warranty when they broke. If I had tried to save $50 buying gray-market, I'd have been screwed."[SIZE=+3]The Gray Market[/SIZE] "Gray," also called "import" and "direct import," is when a big camera store just emails the foreign manufacturer or some other source in some foreign country and orders a huge container load of gear shipped straight to them. The big camera store sells this themselves, and depending on the foreign exchange rate, can get us a screaming deal since the camera store obviously does not have to bear any of the costs of repairs, employees, advertising and having to support reasonably stable prices as exchange rates fluctuate that the legitimate US office does. Gray market is OK when the dealer identifies it as such, but criminal when shoddy retailers pass-off gray-market as USA to save themselves a few dollars, and cheat you out of product support and warranty service in the process. Misrepresentation with felonious intent (profit motive) is called fraud.Gray market product is exactly the same, although it may have a different model number or manuals included with it. For instance, Nikon calls cameras one thing in the USA and something else in the rest of the world, so you know any F80 or F65 you buy in the USA is gray market since the legitimate camera is called N80 or N65 in the USA. Many Nikon USA lenses have the letters "US" as part of the serial number. The D1 cameras have little USA stickers inside the battery compartment. On other products like many manual focus lenses there is no way to tell unless Nikon looks up the serial number the hard way.Gray market products are obviously not supported by the legitimate importer, so you are on your own if it breaks. If Adorama or B&Hoffer you the choice of gray, they usually back it up with their own warranty, so if it dies you can send it to some non-factory service center at their expense. After the store's warranty expires, the US importer may not even touch it even if you pay them. Nikon usually says that even if you pay them they will not work on gray products, although if you ask them they sometimes have no way of knowing."</blockquote>

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