Many other sites were posting a “last chance” deal, the 5D Mark III body-only for $2999 at B&H (now expired) or Amazon, claiming that prices were going up this week. We don’t think they told you the whole story.

The reason why prices are going up is so they can come down again: we’re suspecting a new Instant Rebate to start on EOS 5D Mark III and EOS 6D really soon, by the end of the week. We don’t know at this time if the Instant Rebate comes with an enforced MAP (where retailers are forced to sell at a certain price). But our guess is we’ll see the price on both bodies float down for the holiday season. Last night’s BuyDig 6D + PIXMA PRO-100 for $1499 deal is another sign of the new instant rebate and prices to expect.

We’re also seeing activity at the Canon Direct Store: They’ve posted a landing page with a timer counting down to “Pre-Black Friday Deals Starting November 24th”. We’re seeing a lot of refurbished items get restocked, and the pattern is this happens before a big sale or deal, so we’d be surprised if we don’t see a refurbished sale within the next week or two. As usual, browse the refurb stock tracker and set notifications for items you’re interested in.

Black Friday is coming up very soon! This post summarizes all the (known) Canon deals on Black Friday, and gives a bit of the history so you know what you might be able to expect.

Note, we are focusing on the higher-end Canon items. Most of the traditional discounts on Black Friday are on consumer-grade bodies and lenses — there will be too many Rebel kit deals to track. For the purpose of this post we’ll focus on the higher end lenses and prosumer/professional grade bodies.

2013 Confirmed

• EOS 5D Mark III for $2445 at eBay
• Likely from unauthorized dealer BigValueInc.
• Set a notification to be e-mailed when this deal is live.
• This deal sold out in 4 hours from 3 AM to 7 AM last year!
• EOS 6D for $1400 at eBay
• Likely from unauthorized dealer BigValueInc.
• Set a notification to be e-mailed when this deal is live.
• The Canon Direct Store has a refurbished sale from November 24th through December 2nd: 15% off lenses and up to 25% off select bodies. This sale covers Black Friday and we’re not expecting to see any additional sales at this time.
• We’ll update this post as more deals are known.

2012 History

• EOS 5D Mark III for $2499 at BigValue Inc via eBay
  • This deal started at 3 AM ET and sold out by 7 AM ET. 500 were sold; this was (and still is!) the lowest price for this body-only new, although this was an unauthorized dealer.
• A Canon refurbished sale (25%-30% off) on select EOS bodies started on Black Friday.
  • The best deals (at the time) were the EOS 5D Mark II refurbished for $1319.40, or the EOS 60D refurbished for $599.99.
• A Canon refurbished sale (20% off) on refurbished lenses started on Cyber Monday.
  • The site was overwhelmed and crashed all day, the first day of the sale — but those who got through got a great deal.
• Some L-lens sales in the first week of December — but nothing compared the double-dip deals we’ve already seen in 2013.

2011 History

• Canon started a three-day Thanksgiving instant rebate on lenses, featuring up to $200 off.
  • Most notable was a $200 rebate on the one year old 70-200 II.
  • These rebates were doubled with the purchase of a 5D2, 7D, or 60D.
  • The three-day rebate was extended to cover the entire Holiday season.
• B&H cleared out the 24-70mm f/2.8L (mark I) for $1199.
• On Cyber Monday the price for the 70-200 II was $2074 at B&H or Amazon.
  • This was the lowest price that we’d seen, and remained the lowest until December 2012.

Did we miss a deal? Let us know!