Archives for November 2017

(OLDER POST) Samyang 24mm T1.5 VDSLR II sale

The Samyang lens deal went live… Check the prices and latest action in the Gold Box at the Gold Box Yellow Brick Road of posts

[Read more…]

(ENDED) Samyang 24mm T1.5 VDSLR II Cine Lens for $545 (Sony E) and $623 (Sony A) [ends Fri 2:19am ET]

This particular lightning deal expired, but Samyang/Rokinon lenses are occasional guests of the Lightning Deals…

[Read more…]

AmazonBasics DSLR Backpack for $22 [limit 5]

One of the first AmazonBasics branded “blockbuster” products for Amazon is this AmazonBasics DSLR Backpack and it is currently on sale for the very specific price of $22.37 with up to five units per customer. The usual free shipping terms apply. It’s not a price-match since they are the only ones offering it. Unless they are price-matching Amazon from The Mirror Universe.

Some other AmazonBasics bags on sale as well:
+ Trekker Camera Backpack for $44 in three color options, so you can color-code them by task/event

+ Hiker Camera and Laptop Backpack for $64; only the black color scheme is on sale

+ Convertible Rolling Camera Backpack for $112

+ the Orangina AmazonBasics Large DSLR Gadget Bag for $20
++ Orangina as in orange interior, not the real Orangina

Amazon Prints Coupon: Buy 1 Get 2 FREE Books/Calendars

There’s a new promotion running at Amazon Prints. Yes, Amazon sells photo prints too! Coupon code 2FREE entered during the checkout process activates a “Buy 1 Get 2 FREE” promotion running until 12/2/17 (that’s not that far away – Saturday night). The promotion only works on Custom Photo Books and Custom Photo Calendars. Additional pages do not get discounted. See complete terms/conditions for this offer.

Canon 7D II Body & Wifi & Pixma PRO 100 & Paper for $1199 after $350 MIR (prepaid AMEX GC)

The Canon 7D II body only goes for $1500 at authorized dealers (eg B&H Photo and Adorama) or for $1550 bundled with the Canon Wifi kit (eg Amazon itself and B&H Photo).

The body only went for the same price of $1500 when I posted the APS-C DSLR Price Charts three weeks ago. A “smart” way by Canon to increase the price by adding the Wifi to the kit 🙂

However, if you are not afraid of mail-in rebates, you can get a much better deal. Adorama has a Canon 7D Mark II + Pixma PRO 100 printer bundle. You pay $1549 at checkout, receive the order, make sure all is well, file the mail-in rebates per instructions and deadlines, and a few weeks later you’ll receive a $350 prepaid AMEX gift card by mail if all is well. This makes it a $1199 after $350 MIR promotion. For that, you receive:

  • Canon 7D II body only
  • Canon Pixma PRO 100 printer
  • its sidekick, the SG-201 50pk 13×19″ photo paper
  • the W-E1 Wi-Fi Adapter Kit is included as part of the 7D II kit

PS: if you are interested in the 7D II with the 18-135, there’s a parallel offer for $1599 after $350 MIR.

Canon 7D II w/18-135 & Wifi & Pixma PRO 100 & Paper for $1599 after $350 MIR (prepaid AMEX GC)

The Canon 7D Mark II with the 18-135mm lens and the Wifi adapter kit goes for $1950 at authorized Canon USA dealers. Without the Wifi adapter kit, you can get it for $1850 at Adorama in new condition and with a free extra battery.

If you are a fan of imported grey-market cameras, you can get the 7D II with 18-135 in new condition (without the Wifi adapter) for $1409 with free shipping by 6ave on eBAY which includes a 1-year warranty provided by 6ave (not Canon USA).

If you wanna split the difference in terms of price between the two, and yet get more gear, then check out this Adorama 7D Mark II bundle. You pay $1949 at checkout, receive the order, make sure all is well, file the mail-in rebates per instructions and deadlines, and a few weeks later you’ll receive a $350 prepaid AMEX gift card by mail if all is well. This makes it a $1599 after $350 MIR promotion. For that, you receive:

  • Canon 7D II with 18-135mm IS USM lens
  • Canon Pixma PRO 100 printer
  • its sidekick, the SG-201 50pk 13×19″ photo paper
  • the W-E1 Wi-Fi Adapter Kit is included as part of the 7D II w/18-135 kit

PS: if you are interested in the 7D II body only instead, there’s a parallel offer for it for $1199 after $350 MIR.

Many Udemy Classes for $10 each

If you are a fan of Udemy, they are currently offering most of their online classes for $10 each. Not everything is $10 however. Search for your topic or instructors of interest. Of the photography classes I searched, 3 out of 4 of them were at $10, the rest at higher prices. There is no coupon code to enter. The price you see is the price you pay. Check individual class for details and terms/conditions.

4TB WD Elements Desktop HDD for $88 [limit 3]

The Seagate storage party is over, but here comes Western Digital! Their new condition 4TB Elements Desktop Hard Drive with USB 3.0, model WDBWLG0040HBK-NESN, is on sale for $88 with free shipping at Amazon by Amazon itself with a limit of three per customer at the sale price. This is not a lightning deal.

Refurbished GoPRO Karma with Grip, Controller, Case, Harness for $399

Back to the eBAY Deals we go, where the official GoPRO eBAY Store is offering the manufacturer refurbished GoPro Karma with Karma Grip+Karma Controller+Karma Case+HERO5/6 Black Harness bundle for $399 with free shipping with up to three sets per customer at the sale price. One year warranty is included.

Note that a GoPro HERO 5/6 action camera is NOT included. You get the Karma drone with a grip, a controller, a case and a harness for the HERO cameras, but not the actual HERO cameras!

Lowepro Shoulder Bags for $8 or $10 with free S&H

On the utilitarian side of camera bags, two of three Adorama Black Friday Lowepro doorbusters remain available below, but the Scout SH-120 sold out and is no longer purchasable (no longer an active listing at Adorama)…

+ Lowepro Scout SH 100 Shoulder Bag for Mirrorless Camera with Lens and Smartphone, Slate Blue for $8 w/free S&H at Adorama

+ Lowepro Adventura 140 Shoulder Case for $10 w/free S&H at Adorama

The Thrifty Way To Kindle with Full Warranty: there are $40 or $80 or $120 options

If you like to read a lot of text-only fiction, non-fiction and longform web articles, but don’t want to break the bank on a brand new Kindle e-book reader, but you still like the idea of having a full warranty like a new condition product, we have three bang for the buck options for you. All three below are certified refurbished by Amazon, with the same 1-year warranty as new condition:

+ entry-level Kindle with Touch Screen for $40 in Black or White color scheme
+ no built-in light, so mayhaps good for daylight readers

+ Kindle Paperwhite for $80
+ with built-in light but no physical page-turn buttons; in black or white color scheme

+ Kindle Voyage for $120
+ with built-in light and physical page turn buttons

+ NOTE: you may be able to find the entry-level Kindle and Paperwhite as online or B&M doorbusters for similar prices in new condition during the holiday shopping season…

CRACKPOT THEORY SEGMENT

Some speculate some of these certified refurbished may be new products sold as refurbished so as not to impact the price range expectations for the new condition products. I have no way to prove or disprove this. The one certified refurbished Kindle I bought (Paperwhite) looked pristine as if it was never used or opened. But I did not bring in a CSI team to analyze 🙂

SanDisk Extreme Pro SDHC/SDXC UHS-II USB 3.0 Card Reader/Writer for $20 w/free S&H

Fast memory cards are more common but are you still using that USB 2.0 Flash Drive card reader? Another doorbuster sale at B&H Photo can fix that, the new condition SanDisk Extreme Pro SDHC/SDXC UHS-II Card Reader/Writer (USB 3.0 full size) is on sale for $20 with free shipping with no minimum purchase required. But if your order total is $49+, you get faster free “expedited” shipping instead. This is model SDDR-329-A46, designed for UHS-II cards but compatible with UHS-I and non-UHS cards as well. Limit up to 20 per customer at the sale price.

Lowepro StreamLine 250 Shoulder Bag for $20 w/FS

Black Friday and Cyber Monday often results in new gear purchases, and then one realizes, “not enough bags for all the new equipment”. For cases like this, B&H Photo comes to the rescue with a bag doorbuster, the new condition Lowepro StreamLine 250 Shoulder Bag is on sale for $20 with free shipping without a minimum purchase amount required. Limit four per customer at the sale price.

25% off VPNs with Stacksocial coupon

If you are a fan of using VPNs, Stacksocial is having a new 25% off VPNs coupon promotion using promo code SECURITY25 in the shopping cart there. You can test the coupon without logging-in or signing-up for an account. As to what, when, where, and how to use VPNs, that’s a whole blog in its own right.

NOTE: some of these may be eligible for coupon code CYBER40 that is 40% off select software/app-related items.

Olympus Outlet Store Watch: Empty Again BUT New Condition Sales Continue!

The Olympus Outlet store (the refurbished section) has achieved Emptiness once again! “There are no products matching the selection” says an error message sandwiches between the website’s header and footer.

However, the good news is that their Black-Cyber Friday-Monday sales continue on their new condition products, including the two $100 lenses, the expected 40-150mm and perhaps the surprise $100 lens, the 30mm f3.5 MACRO.

CreativeLIVE Up To 60% Off SiteWide

Creative LIVE is back with another site-wide sale, this time the promotion is up to 60% off all their classes. The “up to” is the crucial part since it is the maximum discount, not the minimum. I do not know which classes are at the 60% tier.

As always with Creative LIVE the classes at their ON-AIR SCHEDULE page are free to stream during their broadcast window. Among those running today is an “Introduction to Large Format Photography” class with Daniel Gregory.

Black Friday & Cyber Monday Postmortem

After a 16 hour detox we are baaaaack with a Black Friday – Cyber Monday post-mortem post before we return to our regularly scheduled programming.

We posted a record-breaking 272 individual deal posts here during the last seven days (ending Cyber Monday night)! The high was 50 on Thanksgiving Day. It averages to around 39 posts per day for the last seven days. This was made possible because I fell behind on updating the “Situation Room” deals summary that I used to do in previous years. Then the waves and waves of deals hit and I simply didn’t have time to post all the new deals, let alone maintain the rolling summary of the latest deals. So the Situation Room was not updated since before Thanksgiving Day. And that allowed for a lot more individual deal-posts to be posted.

So what do you think for next year’s Black Friday / Cyber Monday coverage? Do you prefer the way of this year with even more individual deal posts without a rolling summary? Or the other way around? Please leave a comment or use the online contact form to opine!

One developing item is how to deal with the daily Amazon Gold Box lightning deals. During the Black-Cyber week, they reduced the “visibility window” from the usual 20+ hours to just 4. When I checked during lunch today (yes, I’m even blog-working during lunch) the visibility window was seven hours. So before I make any further decisions, I’ll wait for a couple of days to see where things settle.

In the next few hours I will go through the various posts and try to update / (ENDED) any of the expired offers, but given the volume and chaos, there are reasonable chances I may miss some of the expired deals or expire some still running deals.

This is also a good time for general purpose blog-related feedback! Please leave a comment or use the online contact form to opine!

(ENDED) Thursday’s Early AM Gold Box: PowerExtra, 16-slot AA Tenergy charger, Graphy bags, Etc

The Samyang lens deal went live… Check the prices and latest action in the Gold Box at the Gold Box Yellow Brick Road of posts

[Read more…]

(ENDED) Thursday: Lensbaby Composer Pro w/Sweet 35 Optic for $200 (C/N/X/E/m43), Lowepro Echelon for $400, Dracast, Quantum, Datacolor Spyder5, Flash Deals, Etc

These offers expired but for more action, check the B&H Featured Sales

It’s a loaded round today of B&H Photo Daily Deals are here until Thursday 11:59pm ET (the Daily Deals), with free shipping regardless of price:

FLASH DEALS

+ ends 9am ET: Miktek ProCast SST Studio Station USB Microphone for $129
+ this either sold out or got rescheduled: Watson Chroma AA NiMH Batteries with 2 Cases (2300mAh, 8-Pk, Multi-Colored
+ 7pm ET to 11:59pm ET: Formatt Hitech 4 x 5.65″ Firecrest ND 1.2 Filter

DAILY DEALS

+ Lensbaby Composer Pro with Sweet 35 Optic for $200 in Canon EF, Nikon F, M43rds, Fuji X, Sony E

+ Lowepro Echelon Roller (Black) for $400

+ DRACAST LED1000 Silver Series Bi-Color LED Light with V-Mount Battery Plate for $210

+ Quantum Instruments Turbo 3 Rechargeable Battery (US / Canada / Japan Plug) for $369

+ DATACOLOR Spyder5PRO Display Calibration System for $139
+ DATACOLOR Spyder5ELITE Display Calibration System for $179

(ENDED) Kata DB-453 Digital Bag for $25 w/FS

This flash sale ended…

The new condition Kata DB-453 Digital Bag is on sale for $25 with free shipping until 7pm ET as the current “flash sale” at the B&H Photo Daily Deals. The daily deals run until 11:59pm ET every day, but the flash sales only run a few hours each (think lightning deals).

Adorama On Instant Savings of Many Brands

UPDATE 11/28/17 PM: some of the individual offers within the various manufacturer instant savings promotions expired, some continue, I have no way of remembering which is what…

The clock is ticking on Cyber Monday but if you a last minute shopper, here’s a list of the various brand-centric Instant Savings promotions, nicely organized at Adorama:

+ NOTE: there are multiple pages of options for most brands below; you can increase “Per Page” to 30 or 60 if you want to reduce “next paging”

+ Zeiss Lenses (3 pages)

+ Sigma Lenses (3 pages)

+ Tokina Lenses (1 page)

+ Tamron Lenses (1 page)

+ Fuji Cameras (3 pages)

+ Panasonic Cameras (2 pages)

+ Olympus Cameras and Lenses (2 pages)

+ Canon Cameras and more (5 pages)

+ Nikon Cameras (2 pages)

+ Sony Cameras and Lenses (3 pages)

+ Microsoft Surfaces (1 page)

Propel Star Wars T-65 X-Wing Starfighter Quadcopter for $99

Star Wars Mania is coming back and until 11:59pm ET tonight, $99 will take you a step closer to The Merchandising Force! The new condition Propel Star Wars T-65 X-Wing Starfighter Quadcopter with Collectors Edition Box is on sale for $99 with free shipping at Adorama and Amazon itself.

These prices went up as of recheck: the same price but shipping is extra at B&H Photo.

Prima Photo Small Travel Tripod for $70 w/free S&H

The Search Box at the top of the blog is now very functional, so that’s another way for you to check for things if you don’t want to go into Pages #2, #3, #4, etc. Whatever WordPress did since the last time I checked, their search engine improved considerably! It’s not shaky at all. As if it is standing on a tripod…

… which brings us to the new condition Prima Photo Small Travel Tripod in the red or black color scheme, on sale for $70 with free expedited shipping at B&H Photo.

Rokinon 12mm f2.8 Fisheye for $349 [C/N/K/E]

If you are a fan of fish and eyes, you may also be a fan of fisheye lenses! The Rokinon 12mm f/2.8 ED AS IF NCS UMC Fisheye is on sale for $349 with free expedited shipping and 2% promotional rewards (around $7~) at B&H Photo in the Canon, Nikon and Pentax SLR systems, and the Sony E mirrornyet systems.

Massive Apple Sale at B&H Photo

The Massive Apple Sale at B&H Photo features lots of MacBooks, iPads, iMacs, desktops, and other Apple products. Some of the offers expire tonight at 11:59pm ET, while others run until Thursday night 11/30/17. There are too many of them to list here individually, but if you are interested, check them out! Don’t forget to also hit “Load More” at the bottom of the page over there because there are more than one page-load-full.

Free Battery Grips with D500, D750, D810; Free $80 Rewards with 24-70/2.8E for $2197, Etc

There are plenty of Nikon Sales at B&H Photo, including the professional Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 24-70mm f/2.8E ED VR Lens for $2197 with free expedited shipping and 4% promotional rewards which are about $88 to be spent in future purchases at B&H.

A variety of DSLRs and lenses are participating, including the free battery grip promotions for the Nikon D500 kits and the Nikon D810 kits and the Nikon D750 kits.

No free battery grip for the D850. I suspect some photographers would be willing to give Nikon a battery grip for a chance to get the D850 🙂 Speaking of the D850, I just rechecked, it remains in pre-order/backorder at B&H and Adorama, and at the all-encompassing and all-frustrating when you are waiting for a new camera to arrive “temporarily out of stock” at Amazon.

Sandisk Extreme SD card sale: 32GB for $15, 64GB for $25, 128GB for $50, 256GB for $100

A party without chips is not a party! No potato chips here, but memory chips! The SanDisk Extreme UHS-I SDXC line on memory cards is on sale at B&H Photo and at Amazon as follows: the 32GB for $15, the 64GB goes for $25, the 128GB for $50, the 256GB for $100. B&H offers free shipping on all except for the 32GB (which gets free shipping if your order total is $49+). Amazon has the usual free shipping terms, Prime or $25+.

Manfrotto 190Go! Aluminum Tripod Kit with Ball Head for $160

The clock is ticking! I can’t post them all! But I’ll post as many as I can 🙂 Thankfully this offer runs until 11/30/17, so you have plenty of time to ponder. It is at B&H Photo with free expedited shipping, the new condition Manfrotto 190Go! Aluminum Tripod Kit with Ball Head for $160! No coupons, no rebates, just add to cart and proceed.

Manfrotto MTPIXI-B PIXI Mini Tripod for $18 w/FS

A tradition unlike any other. No, not the Masters on CBS, but the return of the holiday shopping season sale of the Manfrotto MTPIXI-B PIXI Mini Tripod 🙂 It is currently in synchronized price swimming for $17.61 with free shipping for all at Adorama and B&H Photo. The usual free shipping terms apply at Amazon by Amazon itself (Prime or $25+ order).

Sigma 135mm f1.8 DG HSM Art Lens with FREE Sigma USB Dock for $1199 [C/N]

The new condition Sigma 135mm f/1.8 DG HSM Art Lens is bundled with the Sigma USB Dock for $1199 with free expedited shipping until Monday at 11:59pm ET at B&H Photo in your choice of Nikon or Canon systems.