buying camera lens online

I now buy my lens, accessories from amazon.in

Price wise it is cheaper than the USA!!! Forget about Qatar prices which are daylight robbery. Ship it with Aramex or request any friendly Indian to help you out for free.

What about used lenses from someone else do you also get customs duty?

I'm off to KL next month. If it's light, you don't need the box, and you give my cash in advance I can bring it back for you.

Only once I was slapped with a customs duty of QAR 400 approx for camera equipment worth USD 1200. Aramex had paid the customs, had the item released and ready for me to pick up as usual. They added the duty to the shipping charge and provided the customs receipts. It's all about luck. If your item is above USD 500 you risk getting a customs duty of 7% approx slapped on it. Very rare though. Just break your purchases into USD 800 or less per shipment.

There is no Aramex service from HK/JAP, but, I had eBay purchases shipped from HK seller to US Aramex box. My eBay shipping address is the Aramex USA box, and payments done via PayPal Qatar.

0.6 kg should be QAR 70 to 100

Cameraguy,

Thanks for the explanation and link. I never thought purchasing an item could be cheaper in the UK compared to tax-free sales in the middle east. Is there a similar shop&ship service from Hong Kong/Japan?

Once the item arrives via Aramex to Qatar, is there any more custom charges? Also, how much does approximately Aramex charge for shipping from UK/USA, say for a lens weighting 0.6kg?

@cameraguy

Thanks so much for the recommendation for Adorama Camera - BTW, if you ever need advice or after-sales support with an order from Adorama, please don't hesitate to email me directly!

Helen Oster

Adorama Camera Customer Service Ambassador

http://helenoster.blogspot.com

[email protected]

Deepblu - Aramex has a mail/parcel forwarding service called Shop n Ship. They give a US and a UK mailbox address for a one-off fee. One can use these addresses to ship stuff from online merchants. Aramex will then forward it to Qatar (weekly), and charge by weight.

http://www.aramex.com/shopandship/

What is Aramex?

Well actually 2 words - amazon.com

I have bought over 6000 dollars worth of SLR lenses. No problems yet. Use trusted sellers on Amazon like - Adorama, 17th Street Photo, Cameta Camera etc. Their stores are in NY and they take no more than 2 days to ship to your Aramex USA address.

WARNING: LBA (Lens buying addiction) is a deadly disease with no known cure. Welcome to the club :D

ddwani,

if you have it delivered to US address you still have the added shipping charge to get it to Qatar. Is it worth to just go to Taiwan or Tokyo and get it from there if I have few big purchases?

B&H Photo video has good service, also you can sign up with DHL for US address and they can deliver goods locally.

Photography accessories in Qatar are expensive, you may want to compare the prices there in UK.

I'll be moving to Qatar in few months, aren't there any photography retail stores in Qatar and what are the prices like? Would it be cheaper to buy in Qatar or get from UK?

Thanks

Hey! Sorry... It is 55-250mm Canon Telephoto lens. Unused one.

What you buying is an expensive, fragile, sensitive and long worthy, astounding piece of equipment. Better, buy on store physically checking. Similar to you, did lot of analysis and just yesterday grabbed Canon 18-200mm Lens from Salam.

I have a brand new 70-250mm Canon telephoto lens. Let me know if you interested in that.

Thanks.

I bought cameras and lenses from http://www.bhphotovideo.com/, good services, reliable , cheaper and normally I received the goods within 5/6 days of working days. They use UPS and deliver to your door.

I tried Aramex, they charged me for air freight and took the time of sea freight. Oh and it was delivered broken as well.