Quotes from camera stores who's the one you use?

Chris Johnston

Chris Johnston

Veteran
I need to get 3 quotes for various pieces of equipment. I've got a quote from B&H, and Adorama (the only 2 I've purchased from) Are there any other reputable bigger camera/equipment sites that you can recommend?
 
Well there is BandPro and AbelCine and lots more. Also check out all the sponsors here.

But don't forget your local stores, they often match and I have found sometimes beat big store prices and my local dealer AccessAV in NH gives me loaners when I have a problem, and I always know the persons I speak to. Not to mention supporting local stores means you don't have to go to the big shows to physically try out new gear.
 
Thanks, I should have been a little more specific... I checked several sites but most didn't have ALL of the things I needed. Called Texas media, they didn't have some things but could get them from other dealers, so I went with them.
 
I work at a camera rental house so I deal with this stuff a lot.

First thing I need to know before anything is what it is you are buying? Be a bit specific. The cheaper it is prices will vary. The more it costs from a big manufacturersr like Sony (especially cameras) prices are fixed. No I wont try to sell you anything haha. Just trying to educate you!
 
Chris,

Playing catch up now. Sorry I missed this opportunity. I would welcome any opportunity to serve you at some point. Do you work for a school or university / government agency thus the 3 quotes? Are you always driven by lowest cost as deciding factor.
Like Olof says some facilities may offer loaner / demo gear for in the field testing.. We do that sometimes as the best showroom might actually be your production location.

We we would be pleased to offer our services if you ever need other product.
 
Yes HD, I am ordering for Gov. (thus 3 quotes) Not ALWAYS lowest quote, bus most times. When I order (and I've ordered 50-60K worth of stuff over the last couple years) the equipment is usually varied. This time just some minor "fix it's" while I compiled the list for the major purchases. Sont ptz cameras, sony rb-br300 controller, 512 convergent design ssd's etc etc.
 
I have found that once you get beyond the big box operations like B&H and Adorama, just because something is not on a website doesn't mean that the company doesn't sell the product. It is easiest to contact the seller and then send them your list for them to bid. Everyone is usually upfront about when it is a 3-bid order and if a company knows that it will have to 2-step a significant enough amount of the order for gear it does not normally represent, it may recuse itself from bidding because it would end up being a lot of work for either not much money or a realization that the company would likely lose out on the bid.

Of course there are many more levels of complication to this, such as other secondary values a company can supply (provides training, systems integration, extended warranty or equipment refresh) and sometimes there are extenuating circumstances (drop dead date on fulfillment of contract, municipality mandate on local business / minority business, etc.).
 
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