I am going to purchase the Canon 300f4 IS soon but I'm a little confused about the "Gray vs. U.S.A." market thing. From what I've read here at this forum and on the net I believe it's just a warranty issue. If Canon will honor a gray market lens the same as a U.S.A market lens why would anyone pay several hundred dollars or more for the latter one. Has anyone here had any experiance with this particular lense in the gray mkt. version. A rep. from Canon told me the lenses were made the same. I find it hard to believe there can be more than a thousand dollar difference on certain lenses due to a warranty issue. Thanks for any advice. Tom Sanders

-- Thomas Sanders (tsanders@ev1.net), February 17, 2000

Answers

It's just a warrenty issue. If you do go grey make sure it is with a reputable dealer like B&H or Adorama otherwise you may find that items like the lens hood and case that should be included are not.

-- Peter Foiles (lightcatcher54@hotmail.com), February 18, 2000.

The only difference is the warrantee. It is hard to believe the price difference, but the lenses come off the same line. Since Canon honors the international warrantee, it's really a non-issue. Not the same story with Nikon, though...

-- Scott (bliorg@yahoo.com), February 18, 2000.

If you live outside of North America but decides to mail order a Nikon USA F5 from B&H, you will be buying grey. The idea is the same if you live in Kansas and mail order from Hong Kong.

-- ray tai (razerx@netvigator.com), February 25, 2000.