What's going on with amazon's lens prices??

[anubis]

I've had my eye on two lenses for a while: the Canon 70-200mm f2.8L IS and the Canon 24-70mm f/2.8L. I've bought all of my camera equipment from amazon up to this point because they always manage to have by far the lowest prices on new equipment.

Within the last week or so, I've noticed a price explosion on Canon equipment from Amazon. For example, the 70-200mm f2.8L IS was $1449 on January 12th. Now the price has skyrocketed to $1699. That's a nontrivial increase of $250. The 24-70mm was $1028.99 in November. Now it's up to $1199. Both of these new Amazon prices just so happen to be the exact same price as both Adorama and B&H. Does anyone know what is going on here?

 

[luminosity]

Nikon raised their prices by 10%, and Canon may have done the same or more.

 

[IxWiNdxI]

Canon's instant rebate ended on Jan. 17th. Therefore the price increase.

 

[jbernie]

As much the prices were tempting, i didnt have $1100-1500 free in the budget to take advantage of the rebates. Though it wasn't overly clear if the Amazon prices were before or after rebate, maybe I missed the fine print somewhere?

 

[SchneiderMan]

You should have bought a few days ago, all lenses will go up in price this month. i got a good deal on my sigma from amazon.

 

[rogersmj]

It's not just the lenses. The D90 body, for example, has gone up almost $70 in the last few weeks.

Lots of camera and lens manufacturers are raising their prices due to the crappy economy. Their costs are going up; we have to pay more.

 

[wheelhot]

So it seems, this year is not a good year to buy camera gears?

 

[NuclearBiscuit]

I've read that the increase corresponds to the relative value of the Yen. Since this is a highly volatile currency at the moment, it's possible price will change rapidly. A poor economy does not ipso facto imply that consumer goods will increase. In fact, there is a surplus at the moment of many consumer goods. But since high-end camera gear is manufactured in Japan, if there is a large margin between currencies, it could drive prices up. It would be interesting to see what the relative cost of camera equipment from China is right now.

 

[pprior]

Also I've bought stuff from amazon that was really Adorama ("ships from"). in the past the prices were generally the same, so I typically bought from amazon instead of adorama directly because of the easier ordering. Now it seems the adorama prices are lower than those at amazon, so maybe adorama is not wanting to sell that way anymore unless they get more out of the price.