letus and hidden import charge

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Daniel Alexander

Active member
Hey people, does anyone know of any suprise import/tax charges I should be worried about when buying a letus elite package to be shipped to the UK? It seems no one from the Letus team can give me a specific answer to what i will be charged after I have already paid for the package and I'd hate to learn i was yet to be stung buy hundreds more.

The reason I ask is because I know of people who have bought lenses from the states to be delivered to the UK only to find that they have to pay extra money towards import tax (or something). Would really appreciate some input as my budget is so tight and an unexpected surplus wouldnt be good, Thanks.
 
My guess is that customs has added VAT to overseas orders. I do not know for sure, since I live in the US and only visit the UK ever year or so.


J
 
Thanks guys, see now thats whats bothering me. There seems to be only one UK distributor for the Letus and their price is litterally hundreds more than buying it direct (if i recal right nearly £800 more)
 
I'd check a like priced lens in the states (B&H) and in the UK. If the price difference is around the same I'd say its the duty.
 
In Finland you pay about 6% duties and 22% VAT on top of the price you pay to Letus. I believe its about the same in most EU countries.
 
as Essami said:
It's the same all over Europe...Here in Germany customs fee is between 10 -20% (depends on the goods...) + VAT 19% (on the whole price incl. shipping charge and customs fee) So the price goes up by 30% at least here.
 
To the OP, yea, you'll probably be stung by Customs, 15% VAT, plus the Customs charge, not sure of the exact amount, and TBH, it varies for each individual, it would be nice if Letus could mark down the value of the Elite, so not to get taxed as much, but that would be between you and the guys at Letus to discuss, not in the public domain ;-).
 
I'd been asking the same question...I bought an elite and support bracket(already have another adapter) from a uk shop(the only one that sells it)....when I looked into it there was only a couple of hundred £ difference between importing and buying here (once you add postage duties etc), I considered that worth the extra for having someone in uk to deal with in case of a problem.
 
Ok there goes my letus plan out the window for now haha. I mean I cant complain (well i can but i wont) that i have to pay so much extra seeing as its the same all over Europe but I just cant justify paying nearly a total of 50% extra right now which is a huge dissapointment.

Ok so to think out loud, my options are:

save for months and months AGAIN until i can afford the unconfirmed price of shipping

Pay £2524.25 plus postage for the Elite bundle from the only UK vendor which still EXCLUDES ring/lens mount. With the extras including packaging thats near £3000.00 - $4,328

buy second hand and risk faults that the user swears wasnt there before shipping and void myself of any customer support

Buy an SG BLADE which i really wish i could feel comfortable with but after hours of searchin on vimeo I have only ever seen one video (phil bloom) that i thought looked good (in terms of clarity, bokeh, film look) on an ex1. Im praying someone will convert me. Some one please convert me :dankk2:
 
I'd by from Miticorp and get on with it! They're going to be cheaper than shipping from the U.S. I'd say. Now if you plan on coming here in the next few months, maybe that's a plan?
 
I have an ex1 and had same thoughts...I got mitcorp to give me a price on elite adapter and ex1 ring only...this worked out cheaper as you can buy cheap rails from ebay....i think it was around £2k inclusive.


btw...
I love it.
 
Daniel Alexander said:
Buy an SG BLADE which i really wish i could feel comfortable with but after hours of searchin on vimeo I have only ever seen one video (phil bloom) that i thought looked good (in terms of clarity, bokeh, film look) on an ex1. Im praying someone will convert me. Some one please convert me :dankk2:
Click to expand...
If you're in the UK, why not arrange a visit to Wayne and crew at shoot35? Maybe they can convert you? At least you'll get to see for yourself.
 
Thats a very good idea, I may really do that actually if its ok with them anyway. Other than that I can confirm that I've been in contact with letus again and advised them on my problem and they have given me an option which allows me to near enough cut out alot of the added import costs but of course with some compromise which im still considering.

el presidente you managed to get the adapter, ex1 ring, lens mount and rails all for 2k? How you finding it all anyway? any clips?
 
Finding it great...
only really had a chance to test it with issues that annoyed me with the other adapter I owned, It is sharp, yes anything more than f4-5.6 gives grain(but on my previous adapter I couldnt get rid of it at all)..It marries so well with the ex1, Using peaking to focus is a dream. I do have vignetting on my 24mm canon fd..but little on my 50mm...zoom in a bit.
As for footage I havnt posted any as other than those hideous generic test shots around the garden I only film for work that belongs to clients(and usually i film with youth projects...thats a can of worms as far as child protection goes).

ps...interested in how the import duty is lowered....wish id known before I bought mine!!!
 
Glad to hear your having luck with it. Thats a bit of a coincidence as Im a youth worker and I find a lot of my work is orientated around that field. What letus did for me was remove the insurance on the delivery that works out to be good enough for me to feel happy about the price, however it means that those few days waiting for delivery is going to be a. anxious time as I'm kind of screwed if anything gets damaged. I plan to to risk it though so I shall be buying next month and in the meantime I'm trying to get as much info about the adapter as possible.

Whats shocked me is the actual prices of lenses on ebay, Im always used to hearing 'you can get cheap second hand nikons' now i agree they are cheap if your looking for a 50mm, but as soon as you venture for a 28mm or 135mm etc the price quickly passes the £300 mark (unless i go for a really slow lense). Maybe I'm not looking right, or maybe Canons are cheaper (all part of my research). I see the common advice is to get as fast as possible, but im very tempted to get something in the f2.8 range to start with but its hard to find examples from people who are using slower lenses (maybe everyone is just richer than me hehe). what set do you have?
 
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