well, just looked up the apo lanthar f2 in vm. us price 1149.00 Yen to US price 800.00 that's 31% diff. then you have to pay for shipping and the tarrif.
ebay has a few from sellers in Japan at around 1000.00 plus 280.00 delivery
I guess if you lived in Japan buying would be cheaper there. Bt what would the salary difference be?
avinash wrote:
crazy high prices in the US compared to JP (on M-mount glass), not sure what the reason is but its way more than any 10-15% tariff
Tariffs havn‘t been consistently at 10-15% this year, they have fluctuated widely. I guess you would have to take some average as a seller. In addition, no one knows if they are 30% or 100% next month if Japan is perceived as being behaving badly of whatever sorts, so prices will include some sort of risk surcharge.
RustyRus wrote:
Can you show what you are talking about?
I was just in Japan and went to multiple camera stores- I couldn't find a single deal on any lenses. Used or new - From LLL, Voigtlander, Leica etc.
So what are you seeing that is cheaper in Japan vs the US?
Checking Map camera, a new Voigtlander 40mm 1.2 II after the tax refund is ~$600, vs $1150 at Cameraquest. Similarly, the Hasselblad 55V is $600 cheaper. Leica stuff isn't likely to be cheaper in Japan now as a lot of the sellers have caught on. It's mostly new, made in Japan lenses where you'll see the biggest savings.
Continue to use what you already have if prices are getting too high. If demand sinks, the manufacturer will quickly change their pricing policy. Where have we seen it recently - with chocolate easter rabbits. Manufacturers skyrocketed this year's prices to above $11 per mid-size chocolate rabbit, and most remained sitting on the shelves. After a few weeks, some manufacturers lowered the prices quickly since customers stayed away, and the company suffered a loss in sales.
But I agree, prices especially for M-based photo gear have risen considerably especially this year so far. I stay away from upgrading gear or adding more.
I haven't done this comparison, but I suspect relative to Leica prices in the US they're still pretty competitive? But yes, the increases have been notable particularly on newer lenses.
I would caution that a 10% tariff does not really mean that every item made in Japan gets a 10% markup at retail, the reality is a lot more complicated than that.
One more thing to add, the newer voigtlanders are considerably better and nearing if not exceeding some leica quality and performance. Thus, the price increase may be in line with you get what you pay for.
.....and the japanese menu RX1R iii is about $3300 tax free - very very tempting since its a quick hack to get the language thing sorted out (there's a post on FM on how to hack it)
$1 USD is about 159 JPY now and it was as low as around 103 back in 2020. In Japan the CV new release lens prices have been pretty stable with only mild price increases for new releases compared to a few years ago and they are priced at a level where they would sell reasonably to locals. I think VM lenses vs. mirrorless lenses from CV have a bit of a pricing bias where VM are priced relatively higher in U.S. vs. mirrorless as well. In Japan the mirrorless versions of same lenses are usually slightly more expensive than corresponding VM but in U.S. it's often the other way around for some reason.
avinash wrote:
Map Camera and Kitamura have the best prices, even lower than Yodobashi. And I'm talking new lenses!!!
for example US list for the 28mm APO VM is $1149 without tax, you can buy it in Shinjuku for $730 tax free
The only catch is that 28mm APO VM is not really in stock in most Japanese stores for long periods of time. It makes very sporadic appearances in major stores every couple of months. It's had very limited availability since initial stocks ran out. Today it's unavailable from Map Camera (they don't accept new orders currently), Kitamura Camera (delivery date undetermined), Fujiya Camera etc.
However, it's an unusual case. Most other recent CV lenses haven't had such highly limited supply vs. demand.
Americans make me laugh, come spend some time in Australia, we don't even have tariffs with most countries, our retailers just convert from the USD price and add 10-20%. Buy from map using buyee or book a trip to Japan like the rest of us.
A lot of things go into price differentials between countries. For lenses being imported to the US from Japan there is the tariffs, currently at 10%, then there is an added fee from the importer to account for additional paperwork, lets say 5%, then there are shipping costs which have risen significantly over the last few years, lets say 10%. Right there we are at 25% mark up from Japan domestic pricing. We also have other factors playing in to this, if you are buying from a brick & mortar store you have increased rent rates. Labor also plays a part in this as we have seen wage rates increase quite a bit in the last few years. It's quite easy to see how prices in the US are much higher without thinking CV is "ripping us off".
cbass wrote:
Please seek help for TDS. It's a brutal disease. Just look what happened to Rosie O'Donnell.
This isn't a case of "TDS", the tariffs put forth in the US resulted in real and observable ramifications among many industries, including the camera segment of the market. Every manufacturer raised prices which was felt by anyone buying new (and even to an extent used) photo gear. I personally paid over $5K in duties related to the new tariffs, with much of that being from products shipped from Japan and me receiving a duty bill 1-3x a month. Prior to the tariffs being implemented I had received a tariff/duty bill maybe twice in the last 20 years.
On eBay some overseas sellers rolled tariffs into the shipping costs and shipped DDP and others shipped DDU leaving the tariffs to be paid by the importer (purchaser).
Voigtlander being made in Japan was/is susceptible to the volatility of the tariffs imposed by the current administration. Now with the tariffs being in legal limbo with being found illegal and then that ruling being challenged, prices are going to stay high. I wouldn't expect prices to come down anytime soon, if ever. This has forced a pricing reset and now that manufacturer's are still selling product at higher prices, why would they lower their ceiling for profit? There may be a few companies that bring prices down, but companies are in the business of making money by extracting the most they can from their consumers.
With regard to pricing, there may be other factors at play such as current inventory being imported for resale during tariffs and now waiting on a refund which may never come. I think some gear may have increased in price globally for some brands even in markets that were not subject to the tariffs (e.g. Sony) and thus there isn't a huge discount shopping overseas aside from the currency conversion rate. When I bought a Safari 35mm Summilux in Japan in January (prior to Leica price hikes in March it was around $300 off US MSRP of $6795 and no tax which would have been another ~$600-700. So even with the weak yen the pricing pre-tax was pretty close. It is very likely that Voigtlander raised prices to the US and kept the original pricing or close to it for the Japanese market. Tariff resolutions are very recent and still unknown so only time will tell if the prices come down for the US market or not.
Voigtlander USA is ripping us off
