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Like to win a 5D Mark III?

BorrowLenses is celebrating their 5th anniversary with a contest for a brand new Nikon D800 or a Canon 5D Mark III.

Given my history of having the delivery date of my 5D Mark III postponed over and over again I might stand a better chance of winning one instead :-)

(Too) cheap Canon zoom lens

Too good to be true - and it didn't last more than a few minutes.

I have a price agent monitoring when this 70-200mm  lens drops below a certain threshold.

And this morning I got an email that the price had dropped below my threshold.

So I went to check it out, and was very surprised to see the lens for the extremely low (and obviously wrong) price of DKK 77 - the equivalent of $13.

It only lasted for a few minutes before they corrected their price.

The price at this store is now back to DKK 19462 - or $3285.

This price is roughly $985 higher than the current prices at both Amazon and Adorama - it absolutely sucks that the prices of camera gear is so high in Denmark.

Smiley nospeak (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Talking about how close I am to getting my 5D Mark III delivered is a sure way to have the delivery date postponed - again.

When I checked my order a few hours ago the date had changed from June 22 to July 7.

So naturally I contact the store again to get some info on the believability of this new date.

First reply I get is that they expect it to arrive on June 22.

So I call them on the fact that my order page was changed from June 22 to July7.

Not really fair because the changes had been visible for a few minutes when I contacted them and the poor guy in customer support had no way of knowing this.

Anyway, the reply now is that they will receive a limited number of units on the 22. and that they will go to the first people in the queue.

Obviously I don't understand this - if the date on my order in June 22 how come I'm not one of those people who are first on the list?

And more importantly, how can I now put any trust in the new delivery date? I have no idea how many people are ahead of me in the queue so any number of units could go to someone else.

So I ask for his best estimate (not a guarantee) based on his experience with how Canon delivers on their promises and adheres to promised delivery dates.

And this is where it starts to get really interesting.

He says that if they start delivering (which they haven't so far), then there's a good chance. And then he adds that they are behind because of the big demand and that they've only delivered to their official partners so far.

So now I'm pissed at both the store and Canon Denmark.

The store could have told me the first time I contacted them that they are not official Canon partners and that they don't really expect to receive any unit from Canon before their official partners have been served first.

And Canon Denmark could have told me when I contacted them that they are only shipping to their official partners so far.

Since when have keeping important information from your paying customers been a good way to run your business and improve your reputation as a trustworthy company?

frustration (Photo credit: Sean MacEntee)

I'm driving people crazy.

My 5D Mark III should arrive in 4 days, but it wouldn't be the first time they pushed the delivery date - and sadly, I'm beginning to expect them to postpone it...again

It's so frustrating that nobody can give me solid and permanent delivery date - it's more like a Letter of Intent than a true promise.

Is this the usual way Canon launch new cameras?

A few weeks ago Peter Kent pointed me in the direction of a video by The Camera Store

And one would have thought that they shot this video - a battle between Canon 5D Mark III and the Nikon D800 - just for me.

The "battleground" was an indoor riding arena and they were shooting a cutting competition.

Indoor arenas usually have horrible lighting conditions.

• The lights are usually placed high up in the air and are far from sufficient to light up the arena properly
• The lights are not one type of light but several different types
• The light is far from uniform across the arena
• Sometimes you have streaks of daylight coming in through the roof
• And once in a while the port isn't closed so you'll have streaks coming in there as well

Yesterday I contacted the shop where I've ordered my 5D mark III to find out some more about this continous postponing of the delivery date.

Historically they have postponed it 1 week exactly - every time they got near their previously promised date.

So I wanted to know if these dates where actual dates where they genuinely expected to have the body delivered by Canon or if they just added one more week when they got close to the deadline.

The answer I got was that these are the dates set by Canon, but that Canon have been extending the shipping dates every week and that Canon wont make any 100% promises.

So, armed with this info I contacted Canon Denmark to hear if they just set arbitrary dates or if they actually believed that they would ship a unit to the store on the promised date.

The answer I got back from Canon Denmark wasn't really helpful.

They started by saying that they don't have access to the stores selling their gear - duh, please tell me something new.

Then they ask me to contact the store for a delivery date - and this is after I told Canon that the dates the store gave me was supposed to come from Canon themselves.

The followup paragraph is a useless - "we deliver on a first come, first served basis"

Yeah, but you still haven't answered my question: Are you promising the stores that are selling your gear a specific date on when they can expect to receive the gear from you(Canon)?

Wouldn't it just have been nice if Canon had said "no, we never supply delivery dates to any store - it must have been something they made up" - then I would have known it was the store making up the dates. Then I could cancel my order and find another store.

Or better yet "We expected to receive X number of unit on Date Y, and based on this we notified each store with an expected delivery date. On date Y-3 we unfortunately got news that the units got delayed; we now expect to receive them on Date Z and we've notified the stores about this delay"

Also, if the delay is because the first units had to be sent straight back to the factory to have the light leak issue fixed, then please tell the stores that this is the cause for the delay, so they can notify their customers.

And please put a big fat sign up on your website if you have delivery problems - or at least put it on the support page for the 5D Mark III.

This is not A Few Good Men you know - I actually CAN handle the truth.

Some would call it being impatient - others would say obsessed or compulsive.

Whatever you call it I'm checking the delivery date of my new camera every morning right after getting out of bed.

Today is a good day because the estimated delivery date of the Mark III is still June 15 :-)

I just checked the order on my Canon 5D Mark III today and the estimated delivery date still says June 15.

If I'm really lucky the estimated date will be correct, and the camera will be at the shop on the 15th ready to be shipped to me.

If the luck continues then I can pick it up at the post office Saturday the 16th.

If the "usual" pattern repeats itself, then they'll change the delivery date to June 22 within the next day or two.

I don't mind waiting (that much), but if they don't have a confirmed date from Canon for the delivery, then I'd rather not see any date at all - be upfront and I'm one happy camper.

When I asked for camera bag recommendations over at dpreview.com I was first recommended the DH 50 V2.0 holster type bag from Think Tank.

Next next suggested bag was the Sling-O-Matic 20 - also from Think Tank.

The third recommendation I got was for the Tamrac 5788 Evolution 8.

While the Sling-O-Matic is a sling bag that can also work as a backpack the Tamrac is the other way around - it's a backpack with side access which means it can be used as a sling bag.

It doesn't look like it will hold my 70-200mm with the hood attached, so I wouldn't be able to use it as a sling bag, but it looks like a very rugged bag that I would feel comfortable keeping my gear in.

I've added the Tamrac to a page with the other camera bag recommendations

It's beginning to be a little bit tedious.

When I ordered my 5D Mark III on the 15th of May the estimated delivery date was May 23.

On May 22 the estimated delivery date was changed to June 8.

On June 4 this date was once again postponed - this time they claim June 15.

I know I've said I'm not in a hurry, but now I'm also beginning to see other camera shops in Denmark list the camera as being in stock - and that annoys me.

It puzzles me that they can have the Mark III in stock while the one I ordered 3 weeks ago looks like it won't even arrive at the store until sometime next week.