My digital camera questions.

[Jahira]

For Christmas I got some money to get myself a digital camera. I have pretty much decided to get the Canon SD400 or SD450 digital elph.

My problem is that all the stores around are completely sold out. I can get them off the internet, but I have had some success with the extended warranties because all my items seem to break.

So if I get them online with no warranty other than the manufacturers warranty, what do people do with their cameras if they break them? How much do normal repairs cost? Is it worth the wait to get it at a retail store?

[Edited on 12-29-2005 by Jahira]

[kranfer]

Buy it online and bring it into the store with your receipt and ask to buy their service plan. When I worked at Worst Buy people did it all the time.

[Wezas]

I just put the SD400 in my cart at Best Buy.com and there's an option to add a 4 year performance service plan for $60.

[Moist Happenings]

Don't buy it from best buy. Their replacement plan is for shit.

Buy it from an Office Depot, or at the very worst, a Sears. Office Depot's Product replacement plan is the best thing you'll ever need in a warranty. Basically, when you're outside of your manufacturer's warranty, and you've got a plan for at least 1, or 2 years, you call the 24/7, American based, A+-or-better certified tech support, who'll troubleshoot it for you, and if they can't fix it or you give them a "Fuck that I don't want to deal with this", they'll send you out a merchandise card for the exact price minus any rebate prices you paid for the camera so you can come back and get something ultimately 1-3 years newer, and better.

Sears uses the same people for the protection plans but i'm not sure on the details they have.

If you want, I can check to see if the SD400s are going on sale next week.

You should also consider any of the nicer Olympus or Nikon cameras, too. If you're looking for small, the Nikon 7600 will blow you away in the same price range as an elph. It's 7.1 megapixels, can take full video/audio, and supports standard rechargeable AA batteries instead of the lithium ions.

Li-Ion will get you a longer charge on a single outing, but if you're out of juice, you're out of juice. I like the ability to just chuck another couple AA's in there and continue on my way. With the rechargeable Li-Ion AAs I get a great charge on my Nikon. It's got a smaller LCD than the Elph to save power, just as many features, and 2 extra megapixels.

At any rate, i'll look to see what's going on sale next week.

Sincerely,

Chad D. Lippincott
CPS Site Manager
Office Depot #2162

OFFICE DEPOT RULESZZSS!!!!!!!!11111

....PS If you buy the replacement plan put my employee number on it. ::cough::438885

[Stunseed]

< Chad D. Lippincott
CPS Site Manager
Office Depot #2162 >

STFU and make my color copies bitch. :D

James
Store Spt. Mgr
Office Depot #258

[Moist Happenings]

Haha, wow I thought your store number looked familiar. I'm in Brooksville, down by Tampa.

[Stunseed]

Jacksonville/Orange Park, FL here.

[Moist Happenings]

I just can't wait to get my business automated to the point where I can play gemstone at work.

"Can I have 10 copies of this?"
"Go fuck yourself. I'm hunting."

:!:

[TinkerBell]

If you haven't purchased a warranty or your camera yet, I would strongly recommend Adorama for both, or either (http://www.adorama.com/). It's a camera-specialty store in NYC with an incredible inventory. Basically, if it exists, they have it. I've been buying my photography equipment there for years. B&H is just as good (http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home/).

In terms of warranty, I like Mack. You can buy a warranty for a new or used product, get a certificate in the mail and either mail it in or fill it out online. This is a company that specializes in photo equipment repair, and although you have to mail your item in, they do a really good job. Go to adorama.com and search for "Mack warranty." There are several available, based on the price of the camera and its type.



I wouldn't bother with any store warranty, they usually send your item to the manufacturer anyway. Actually, my IPod broke and I had to deal with BestBuy, and it took them 6 weeks. Then they didn't notify me as they were supposed to, and if I didn't call them, I would have lost my IPod due to a "non-claim." Anyway, after 6 weeks, I was told that Apple didn't repair the item and I was given a new one. It was a good outcome, but they could have just given it to me the day I first brought it in.

-TB, once again retreating into lurker mode.