Purchased a D810 and lenses (Grey Imports)

gohan2091

Senior Member
Owning a Nikon D7100 already, I was often tempted to jump to an FX camera. When the Nikon D810 was revealed, I decided that’s the camera for me. The only problem was cost. Being in the UK, the D810 was only available in a handful of places with price tags of around £2500. I have purchased grey market gear before and had no problems doing so for the D810. After looking around the Internet, and reading reviews, I narrowed things down to two websites. HDEWcameras and Cotswold Cameras.

I emailed HDEW who offered me the D810 for £1865 but they don't sell Tamron lenses unfortunately. Cotswold Cameras had a slightly higher price tag for the D810, but their lenses were very well priced. I was impressed with the communication I received via email from David at Cotswold Cameras. They didn’t sell all the lenses I wanted but they were willing to acquire these lenses and gave me a price for each. Apart from the D810 body, everything else was the cheapest I could find (ignoring SLRHut due to some poor comments on forums). I mentioned on email that HDEW sells the D810 cheaper and wondered if they would price match. They agreed so I ended up buying the following:

Nikon D810 body = £1865
Nikon 24-120mm lens = £755
Tamron 70-200mm f/2.8 VC lens = £740
Tamron 150-600mm lens = £799

At the time, they offered a free Hoya Pro1 D UV filter for each lens purchased. Before paying, I asked since I am buying so much gear, could they discount me on anything. They said they couldn’t due to tight margins, so I asked if they would throw in a free second battery which they agreed to do. I get 3 year UK warranty on the body and all the lenses too. Half a week later, my gear arrived from Hong Kong (in 2 packages). One Hoya filter was missing, and also the hotshoe cover for the D810 was not there. I emailed Cotswold Cameras to ask them about the two missing items, and they refunded me £40. Everything else has been great, very happy and I can’t really praise them enough.

I’m not working for Cotswold Cameras, I am just a happy customer who wants to share his experience with other photographers here.
 
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J-see

Senior Member
Those price differences are insane. If I compare the D810 body with here, I'd pay almost 1/3th less for the grey market.

That's worth considering next time I buy gear.
 

gohan2091

Senior Member
I must have saved over £1000 from buying grey market but I haven't really lost anything. I get the warranty from Cotswold Cameras directly and all dealt with in the UK so it's a no brainer to me.
 

Deleted

Senior Member
A DSLR does not need a UV lens filter. UV light is already filtered in front the sensor. An additional UV filter may introduce a colour cast.
 

aroy

Senior Member
I never received hot shoe cover with my D3300. So I cup a thick card (just the right thickness) and put it there.

Do Cotswold Cameras repair the Nikon body and lenses themselves or do they send them to a third party repair shop?
 

mikew_RIP

Senior Member
I never received hot shoe cover with my D3300. So I cup a thick card (just the right thickness) and put it there.

Do Cotswold Cameras repair the Nikon body and lenses themselves or do they send them to a third party repair shop?

We obviously have some crap grey sellers in the uk but we also have some that offer a great service,we also have repairers that are nikon approved that will repair under these company's warranty,how they get over the spares part i dont know,in the UK its not is it grey that matters as much as where did you get it from.
Not sure i would spend that much on grey gear but have bought cheaper,my 55-300 was grey and had no problems with it.
 

Deleted

Senior Member
.....my 55-300 was grey and had no problems with it.

Mike, I think that the issue with grey imports is not that there is more likely to be a problem, but what happens IF you have a problem. Something to remember is that a guarantee is only as good as the company that underwrites it. As an example, a £100 company could wind-up tomorrow & any guarantee it had given would be worthless. It's the reason that I went with a Nikon UK approved supplier.
 

mikew_RIP

Senior Member
Mike, I think that the issue with grey imports is not that there is more likely to be a problem, but what happens IF you have a problem. Something to remember is that a guarantee is only as good as the company that underwrites it. As an example, a £100 company could wind-up tomorrow & any guarantee it had given would be worthless. It's the reason that I went with a Nikon UK approved supplier.

Couldn't agree more but mine came from an established uk seller with a good reputation and worth the gamble at the price i paid,thats why i say where you buy it from is the most important factor and i wouldn't gamble more than a couple of hundred quid,grey imports have been around for a lot of years now and not just photographic gear.
 

gohan2091

Senior Member
This is what Cotswold Cameras told me when I originally asked about the warranty:

The warranty for both cameras and lenses is 3 years. It mirrors the manufacturer's warranty in that it protects against defects in materials and workmanship.
Should you ever need to make a claim you simply contact us and we will advise. We use service centres here in the UK, Nikon authorised ones so that the work is carried out to the same standards as Nikon themselves.
We cover the cost of courier delivery both to and from the service centre.
 

gohan2091

Senior Member
Wanted to update you all on tax charges for international orders. Around 2 weeks after receiving my order, I got a bill from FedEX asking me to pay for Duty/tax charges for the amount of £35.07. I contacted Cotswold Cameras who asked for a photo of the letter. Once sent, they refunded me £35.07 to pay for the charge. I've now paid FedEx via bank transfer.
 

wornish

Senior Member
I have just taken delivery of a D810 from Cotswold. Have to say their service has been superb. I ordered it on Thursday and it arrived this morning.
Be interesting to see if I get the duty charge.
 

gohan2091

Senior Member
Congratz wornish! In my experience, duty charges are random, sometimes I get them, sometimes not. But It's good to know that if I am charged, I don't have to be out of pocket to pay.
 
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