Originally posted by onggie Thanks but all I was getting at is that's generally just cheaper to buy off B&H or Amazon even though its grey, as we get ripped off.
OK, if I was going to buy from the USA I'd only do it when there was a sale, and only for a cheaper lens because I'd get no warranty. This is a slightly unfair comparison I'm about to make, but at the same time I wouldn't buy a really expensive lens from CRK unless there's a sale either.
Current B&H price for the DFA 150-450 with postage to Canberra is USD$2362.15. At the current exchange rate not counting the rate my bank would charge or any service fees, that's AUD$2,990.06. I bought my DFA 150-450 at a 15% discount like this weekend for AUD$2804.15 including GST and delivery. Oh yes, if you imported the lens from the USA, you'd also have to pay GST on top of that so it would actually be $3,289.07. But if you take that 10% as a US sale discount, the Australian price was still cheaper thanks to the exchange rate, postage and bank fees.
So if you buy when the lenses are discounted, you'll definitely pay less than a grey import, and you'll get an Australian warranty. Some lenses on the Australian pentax site have been cheaper than B&H even without a discount in the past, but I haven't checked recently. One was the 100mm macro.
Yes, I've been peeved at US discounts in the past, but at the same time it's not fair to say that Pentax Australia are ripping us off. If anything, Ricoh are ripping us off because they're giving bulk discounts to the USA that allow them to undercut even local prices in Japan.