Has anyone imported lenses from the States and can anyone recommend a retailer?

Ive looked into it a couple of times, and every time once you add the various charges the price comes out so close to rip off britain that you might as well go to Jessops.

If you manage to find a way to do it and save significant money, Id be interested to hear about it, Darned yanks can get lenses we can only drewl over for half the price we would pay if anyone here stocked them. GRrr  

Thanks for the links. Kerso has some good prices.

Theres got to be a retailer willing to ship lenses from the states! I buy loads of stuff from the states, so Im not sure why its so hard to get lenses shipped over.

Quite frustrated when they have them so cheap. EVen Amazon sell the Canon 50mm F/1.8 for $69! Cheapest you can get it here is £58



While were on the topic of lenses, Im still trying to decide what to get. I dont have masses of funds sitting around, although its looking like Ill have to nudge my budget up.

Currently all I have is the stock kit lense that came with my Canon EOS-300D (EF-S 18-55mm F/3.5-5.6) and a Canon EF 75-300mm f/4.0-5.6 III USM. The latter I rarely use.


Id like to get a wide angle as Im guessing Ill be taking a lot of shots of palaces and mountain ranges on my trip! So I think Im going to sell the 75-300mm to fund part of a new lense.


Looking at....
Canon 20mm F/2.8 - which is around £250 on eBay, upto £300 elsewhere.

Canon 28mm F/2.8 - 7dayshop have this for £129

Also looking at the following, as loads of people keep mentioning it... although Im unsure about 3rd party lenses.

Sigma 18-200mm f3.5-6.3 DC with Optical Stabiliser - £279 shipped from HK on eBay upto £350+ over here.



Im falling into my usual trap of looking outside of my budget!

The Sigmas range and optical stabiliser certainly makes it look like a decent all-in-one style lense.

given that you already have the 18-55 and rarely use your 75-300, Im going to go out on a limb and say the 18-200 isnt a lens youll find useful.

its optical quality will be little if any better than the 18-55, and you rarely use more than 55 anyway, so why spend money on a range you already have?

The two primes you mentioned will blow your mind in terms of image quality (compared to the 18-55), but wont give you any composition options you dont already have with the 18-55.

if its wide angle you want two lenses spring to my mind

Sigma EX DC 10-20

Tokina ATX 12-24


Both are superb wide angle lenses, the latter has perhaps the edge in optical quality (being a Pentax-Tokina co designed optical formula), the former gives a slightly wider angle. I believe Canon also do a 10-20, though I know nothing about it.

Im seriously thinking of getting the Sigma 10-20 myself when money allows.

Looks like Canon is running one of their rebate incentives again until the end of the year.

EOS 400D body £ 50
EOS 40D body £ 50
EOS 5D body £135
EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM £135
EF 70-200mm f/4L IS USM £100
EF 70-200mm f/2.8L USM £100
EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM £ 90
EF 85mm f/1.2L II USM £ 70
EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 L IS USM £ 70
EF 17-40mm f/4L USM £ 70
EF 70-200mm f/4L USM £ 70
EF-S 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5 USM £ 55
EF 50mm f/1.2L USM £ 50
EF-S 17-55mm f/2.8 IS USM £ 40
EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6 IS USM £ 40
Speedlite 580EX II £ 35
EF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM £ 35
EF 100mm f/2.8 Macro USM £ 20
Macro Ring Lite MR-14EX £ 20
EF-S 60mm f/2.8 Macro USM £ 13
EF-S 17-85mm f/4-5.6 IS USM £ 20
EF-A Standard Focusing Screen (EOS 40D) £ 5
EF-D Grid Precision Focusing Screen (EOS40D) £ 5
EF-S Manual Precision Focusing Screen (EOS 40D) £ 5


Also you can still get the rebates if you buy with Kerso on eBay, as several people on the POTN forum have confirmed.

£55 off the 10-22mm - means Ill be getting a 50mm F/1,8 II for free

for what you save, you can get them cheaper from Hong Kong.
I was going to post the rebates, but decided not to for the same reason.

Cant believe Ive gone from looking at £60 lenses to L series stuff in one night.

Looking is OK, its when you get to spending that your bank manager gets worried.