Toronto Photography Meetup Group

I'd love to know who the local shops are as I'd certainly like to buy from a Canadian retailer if possible. If that isn't going to happen, I'll give Adorama or B&H a try.

FWIW, my favorite retailer is http://www.photocreative.com/ in Mississauga.

I just bought my fisheye lens from B&H The only thing was that Henry's has to special order it in and B&H had it in stock - ill have my lens in a couple of days as opposed to a couple of weeks.

I still don't understand how there can be huge price differences between American & Canadian retailers for the exact same items though. My camera batteries cost $80-$90 (not including taxes) here in Canada & the same one will cost me $58 including taxes, duty & shipping costs if I order it from B&H! That's a huge price difference!

NY taxes are better than ours. On that note, here's a post I wrote for the Canon Rumours forum that has some info some of you may find helpful regarding buying from the US in general. Before anyone asks when i am making my next run down I do not still have a box down there. Perhaps again soon though. Anyway, here's the post:

I realize this does not work for all Canadians BUT if you live near the border there is a workaround. Rent a US mailbox at somewhere like Mailboxes Etc. It costs about $100 a year. Now that you've done that you have an American mailing address. Guess what that makes you eligible for? An American credit card! Oh, and you also have an American address to claim warranty work too. Plus there are a lot of sellers on big forums like POTN that will only ship CONUS (lazy buggers), now you have a CONUS address. If you do enough shopping the mailbox can easily pay for itself. If I've bought something that I want to keep the packaging for, the retail box of a camera for example, I just fold it down and take it to the USPS and have the packaging shipped home. The gear is packed as if it's mine. Cause it is. Yeah the hassle of the drive blah blah blah-make a day of it. For example, I live about 45 minutes from the Buffalo/Niagara border. In an evening after work I can go down pick up my stuff at the mailbox and then hit the Anchor Bar for much better wings than I'm gonna get this side of the border and be home in bed by 9. Sometimes I'll hit the Galleria for some shoes and wear them back across with the old ones in the trunk. Shoes are WAY more in Canada than they are in the US. That's just one additional way of making the trip worthwhile with very little risk at the border, there are several more - many grocery items are cheaper (diapers) so pick up one or two things. When at the border and you're asked what you did - "took pics of the kids on the US side of the falls (thus the camera gear), had dinner at the Anchor Bar(wherever) and bought some diapers." They'll wave you through. Remember to fill the gas tank on the US side. Between the principle of being screwed around by retailers/manufacturers and their greedy distribution practices that I do not agree with, plus saving a considerable amount of money and making it an enjoyable day in grand ol' Buffalo it's well worth it to me. Don't give me any crap about supporting local retailers until I see evidence of them supporting me by fighting the price discrepancy across arbitrary lines.

That said, camera prices are getting better in Canada as retailers/distributors/manufacturers appear to be realizing people are wising up up here. Plus Sigma's Canada warranty is great and Gentec is a peach to deal with.