Exciting and unexpected news: we hear that Canon is instituting yet another permanent price drop tomorrow, December 11th. Unlike their September price drop which was wide-ranging on 26 lenses, this price drop is very focused — only two cameras and two lenses — but they are the most popular ones.
This is a permanent price drop, not an instant rebate or mail-in rebate. This is extremely unexpected, especially in the middle of the busiest time of the year for camera retailers.
Below are the reductions in the MAP or (Minimum Advertised Price) that we’ll be seeing as of midnight tonight. (Note that the full reduction may not be seen in the street price, which is already more closely aligned to the true product cost.)
- $300 Price Drop on EOS 5D Mark III to $2799 AR (B&H, Adorama, Amazon)
- $100 Price Drop on EOS 6D to $1499 AR (B&H, Adorama, Amazon)
- $100 Price Drop on EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM II to $2049 AR (B&H, Adorama, Amazon)
- $100 Price Drop on EF 24-70mm f/2.8L II USM to $1849 AR (B&H, Adorama, Amazon)
Another benefit of the price drop would be another reduction in the refurbished price, as refurbished prices are usually pegged at 80% of the MAP price. This means a $240 drop on the refurbished 5D Mark III and a $80 drop on the refurbished 6D, 70-200 II, and 24-70 II, as if they weren’t rare enough already.
We think the major reason for this price drop is due to competition from unauthorized dealers selling imports — as seen during the Black Friday / Cyber Week deals, authorized dealers were unable to compete with imports, who were undercutting their prices severely.
two enormous benefits I see here:
1 – street price, especially on the lenses
2 – this is going to be fire when the 20% off refurbished kicks in
@niko- when does that 20% kick in ?
We see on average one to two 20% off sales per year. Mostly it’s been 15% off (like the current one running). I don’t see a need to have a sale anymore, the lenses mentioned above have regularly sold out at “regular” price (which will be $1759 for the 70-200 II and $1599 for the 24-70 II).
So the $2799 price for the 5diii is that with current rebate or without?
AR = after current $300 rebate.
Some dealers have now jumped the gun and are putting in the lower prices. So this is confirmed. (Or maybe they learned about it from here, too.)
Samuel Sosa
How will this affect your street prices? Do you anticipate those dropping accordingly?
As noted in the post, the full reduction may not be seen in the street price, which is already more closely aligned to the true product cost. We’ve already adjusted the street prices downwards for these four items according to what we know as of now.
Rachana Son
70-200 2.8l v2 is still too rich for me.
You don’t wannabe awesome like me
There would be nothing to aspire to if I were.
I am looking at the 24-70mm 2.8 II, but also considering the 24-70 f4 IS. I currently have the Tamron SP 24-70mm VC, this Tamron works great with my 6D, but it has issues with my 5DMIII and apparently I am not alone on that so I am considering selling the Tammy and buy one of the Canons mentioned above, by the way, the new 5D had zero actuations and all is perfect, happy with the purchase so, thank you CPW.
I will keep an eye on this 24-70 2.8 II lens, in the mean time, there will be a good deal on my Tammy at eBay soon I think…
what are your issues with the tamron on a full frame?
How were you able to determine the shutter actuations?
I used EOSinfo shutter counter. It would read both of my Canon 40D’s, but it will not read my 5DM3.
JUST bought the 70-200. crap. I have the worst timing.
return it, then buy it again!
If the refurbished lenses drop in price as well, then would Canon be likely to offer a price adjustment for a lens purchased earlier today?
Yes. Call them tomorrow.
Looks like the price of the refurbed 24-70 is holding steady, but I’ll keep an eye on it. Thanks for the tip.
They might only effect that price drop after the current 15% off sale. Last time, they effected it immediately, but there was no sale running.
Is this an indication of a 6Dmkii being announced 1st QTR of 15?
To be honest they are probably going to drop that model. 5D mk4 1dx mk2 and perhaps the “3D”
Do you have a source on that? Just curious. All the rumor sites I follow have been very quiet on new camera bodies. However, the mythical 3D seems as likely to appear as a unicorn. The 6D II looks to be the logical choice based on strong sales of the 6D.
Why don’t they drop the price on the 24-105? It’s grossly overpriced.
The street price of $629 brand new from an authorized dealer is just about where it should be.
http://www.canonpricewatch.com/blog/2014/12/street-price-drop-ef-24-105mm-f4l-is-usm-for-629-authorized/
They are still overpriced…..
At MAP, yes. At streetprice, it’s a downright steal.
yeah, i agree that canon l glass is overpriced in general but they’re correcting that now and probably trying to take back some of the $$$ lost to tamron / sigma.
Jon Higgins
Andrew Kumar
Roger Helman
Have been on the fence about buying a used 24-70 mk I since getting a bad one with the 55mm+ decenter issue last year…..might be able to swing a mk II now though, which I’ve used before and is a wonderful lens.
Any predictions for new cameras coming out next year?
I just checked the B & H website and the 5D Mark III is listed at $3,099 with a $300 mail-in rebate. B & H is offering a 2% reward as well which means they’ll send you a gift card for $61.98.
Yes, the price drop is now active.
Thanks again for the heads up CanonPriceWatch.com. I was going to wait until February to pick up the 5D Mark III, but now I’m going to pull the trigger earlier. Thanks again!!!!
Checked the Adorama website and their pricing is almost identical. Instead of offering 2% cash back, they are including the following: Battery Grip, 2 connecting cords, STV-250N stereo video cable, replacement battery, Sandisk 8GB CF card, memory card wallet, and a screen protector.
Daryl Peters
Mariano Cardenas
Neck those lenses are still to expensive lmao I’ll stick with my amateur ones for now
Dennis Felix Dennis Felix SecondPage
Yuliya Ryvkina
awesome deal… I have both of them and I paid full price for the 70-200 II. This is a total steal, if you ask me.
Don Laureano for Joanthonette Laureano
Hehehehe
Chad DeVlieger
Joanna Acosta Enrique San Roman whoa!
Ughhhhh if only I had the money…look Antonio Rillera the 5D is on sale
..Christmas gift?!?! 
lmaoo
lol! Sucks we didn’t get to meet up on Saturday. Dude, it was crazy out there with waaaay too many people.
The 6D mk II as the only Q1 release will be a sign from the gods that Canon is done for years.
I would think Nikon’s aggressive price strategy has something to do with it too.
http://nikonrumors.com/2014/12/11/new-nikon-price-drops-d810-300-off-d610-another-100-off.aspx/
Drew Anthony Smith
Great for folks who will be stepping up into bigger systems but horrible for those of us who were Canon loyal and payed a premium when they had and held value and are now being screwed by Canon themselves devaluing their own product. So glad I’ve left them.
So a company is never allowed to reduce or drop the price on aging products at any point in that product’s lifecycle otherwise they’re screwing their customers? By that logic no company should ever release a new product so as not to devalue the older model. Completely illogical. Clearly you hold a double standard for whatever company’s equipment you choose to buy now because they absolutely have reduced prices on current models and released new ones at some point. Don’t visit this site just to bash Canon. Bad form.
Looks like pricing changes driven by the weak yen/strong dollar. A 5D3 costs the equivalent of $2450 and the 6D the equivalent of $1332 USD in Japan today, shipped and sold by Amazon Japan. Still some gap in pricing but more in line with what it should be.
Yes, weak yen / strong dollar is likely the driving force behind the US market being flooded by imports (which in turn is what Canon USA cared about and likely effected this price drop).
Probably both that and price pressure from Nikon with their new $300 instant on the D810.
I wonder if Canon will follow Nikon and start refusing to service imports altogether. Because of that policy, Nikon has an even bigger gap between Japan and U.S. pricing (even with today’s price drops).
It’s possibly on their roadmap. Prior to this year, unauthorized dealers would advertise with impunity that their items came with Canon USA warranty. Now, unauthorized dealers are careful and only say items come with store warranty, even though we know word on the street is Canon will service anything.
I don’t know if it’s just a semantic change that Canon USA forced them to do, or if Canon USA is really planning on shutting down the grey market repair, and wanted to make sure there was adequate lead time so no customer is caught in a policy change.
When this happened, we updated all the verbiage on our site to say, “A Canon USA warranty is not guaranteed”, and “Canon USA will service this today, but it can change at any time as it’s an unwritten policy.”
cpw, my understanding is that – according to thom hogan and others – that nikon is responsible themselves for the very flooding of the grey market that they will in turn not service. pretty cynical. i hope canon doesn’t follow suit.
I’m not sure how I follow, re: Nikon flooding the grey market themselves.
All cameras from Canon/Nikon anyway; “grey market” pieces come from resellers who buy the cameras in a different region, then imports and resells them, arbitraging currency and regional price differences.
Longer explanation: http://www.canonpricewatch.com/blog/authorized-unauthorized-dealers-and-grey-market-explained/
Issues with grey market are generally caused if a retailer is slow to adjust pricing due to currency fluctuation, or doesn’t use “region-locked” pricing strategies such as consumer mail-in rebates or enforcing local-consumer-only instant rebates.
For example, Canon USA has pretty much stopped people from exporting *out* of the USA (to Europe and the UK) by instituting USA mail-in rebates, so Europeans shopping at B&H no longer see great prices, as you need a US address to do the mail-in rebate.
Doesn’t look like permanent price drop to me. Still mail in rebate and the offer ends Jan 3, 15.
The new $300 price drop that just happened overnight is permanent. The $300 rebate component is still temporary. That means, even after the rebate expires in January, 2015, the price will be still $300 lower than when we started this season.
refurb price still hasn’t dropped, maybe need some more time…
Yeah, we’re watching it. They could be waiting until after this sale is over. Or, they might finally unpeg the refurb price from 80% of MAP, although that’s never been done before…
then what’s the time window to do the price adjustment? 1 mon? 3 mons?
I think it’s as long as you’re in your return period.
and no price drops for the 40mm
I was holding out on a price drop on the 70-200 2.8L IS II. But my washing machine broke and flooded my house last week. Going to have to wait even longer :/
Steve Morris
Daniela GS
Refurb 24-70mm II is now $1599 (1359 after 15% off). Just got off the phone from requesting my price adjustment from my order earlier this week.
Thanks for the heads up. Didn’t see the drop until just now. Going to call myself a bit later.
I wish I had known I could purchase and then get a price adjustment for a refurb. I had a rare opportunity to buy a refurb, but it sold out while I was considering it.
Trying to snag the 24-70 II on a refurb deal.
Adorama will NOT honor price adjustment. On 11/27, I called adorama regarding some questions i had regarding the package, 5d3 w/24-70f4 with printer/paper. On the day, the price was $4149 with freebies slinger bad, 32GB SD, LP-E6. I had to do some more research, so I said I will think about it, but the guy said if you place the order over the phone now, I will give $300 discount. So, I purchased the package for $3849. 2 weeks after on 12/11, canon dropped $300 for 5dM3, now adorama package is the smae as I purchased $3849. SO I called adorama(sent emails with $300 drop proof), saying that I need to get the $300 price adjustment. But they are saying that the price is the same now so we cannot give you $300. I have hard time dealing with them, so just packed everything to return the package back to them. Ethically, I think I am right by requesting the $300 drop, but it is going nowhere with customer service. This is my first purchase at Adorama and learned the lesson.