Warranty for a Canon?

[danbob6]

I'm a new member to this site and like most newbies I'm hoping to get some straight talk about a digital camera purchase. I’m interested in a Canon A540 which I’ve been checking out at Circuit City for $260. As part of their sales pitch they are pushing a ‘special’ extended warranty which, for $115 for 4 years, they state will cover me against ‘accidental’ damage, such as dropping the camera or scratches to the LCD screen or lens. This warranty is $45 more than the standard 4 year warranty they offer. So my question is-does this sound like a reasonable deal? I’m usually reluctant to buy extended warranties, but with accidental damage included it sounds really attractive.

Separately, I’m wondering what others think about purchasing a San Disk SD-Ultra II memory card (1.0GB) instead of the regular SD memory card. My plans are to mainly take photos, but there will be some times where I’ll want to record little snippets of action, where the movie function will come in handy. Is there a significant different in the capability of a Ultra II? Also, anyone know how many minutes of action a 1.0GB card can store?

Sorry for the all the questions, but it’s nice to finally have a place to raise these issues.

Dan

[Liz]

Welcome to PR Dan! I hope you find all the help you need. Let me give you just a little information.

I’m interested in a Canon A540 which I’ve been checking out at Circuit City for $260. As part of their sales pitch they are pushing a ‘special’ extended warranty which, for $115 for 4 years, they state will cover me against ‘accidental’ damage, such as dropping the camera or scratches to the LCD screen or lens.

Here is the same camera for $229 at B&H - one of the most reputable stores.

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/cont...goryNavigation

Regarding the warranty, I wouldn't pay $115 for a warranty for a camera that costs only $229 or $260. You can get an extended 3 year Mack warranty at CompUPlus for $17. It won't cover accidents or scratches, but I wouldn't spend $115 for this coverage.

http://www.compuplus.com/i-Mack-3-Ye...xh70s6nl7hku2i

I can't help you with the SD and/or video question. I do know that you won't get great videos on a still camera, but it depends on what you're looking for. The videos are very short and the pics aren't so great.

I'm sure others will come around to give you more information and/or suggestions.

Liz

[danbob6]

Thanks for the response, Liz. When you put it that way you're right, paying $115 for a $260 camera doesn't seem like a good idea. I checked out the Mack warranty and though it looks good (and cheap), there's a lot of negative comments about the value of their warranty. Nevertheless, for the price it's probably a fair risk.

Thanks also for pointing out that it's possible to buy on-line. I haven't bought very much on-line before and then, only from Amazon.

Dan

[Liz]

Dan,

Just for your info, when you buy from B&H, if you don't live in NYC, you don't get charged for tax. So that saves you $30 on the camera plus tax. UPS ground isn't that expensive for shipping.

Here is a link to the Mack website itself, but you can't buy it there. However, most dealers sell Mack, but for different prices, usually more than twice what you can get the warranty for online. They do a huge volume of business, so they can't be that bad. I always buy their warranties for my cameras, but have never had to have any repaired, thank goodness.

Good luck.

Liz

Thanks for the response, Liz. When you put it that way you're right, paying $115 for a $260 camera doesn't seem like a good idea. I checked out the Mack warranty and though it looks good (and cheap), there's a lot of negative comments about the value of their warranty. Nevertheless, for the price it's probably a fair risk.

Thanks also for pointing out that it's possible to buy on-line. I haven't bought very much on-line before and then, only from Amazon.

Dan

[TLovern]

Typically, the extended warranties at circuit city, best buy, and others is purely a money maker for them.

Electronics, if they are going to fail will do so in the first 90 days or so (typically). With that in mind, I rarely will pay for their warranty.

There are exceptions, like I have bought the warranty for large ticket items that I probably couldn't (or would not be willing to) spend the money to replace within the lifetime of the warranty.

And as others have pointed out, B&H is hard to beat price wise.

I'd still do a google on the camera and use one of the price comparison sites to see what deals are out there. Sometimes you can find free shipping or other incentives from reputable vendors.

Tim

[danbob6]

Thanks for the suggestions. I think I'm taking the B&H route (their prices and shipping costs were very competitive). As for the warranty issue (my original question), I'm probably going to pick-up the 5-year Mack warranty since it's relatively cheap. It'll help me sleep at night.

Thanks again.
Dan

[deckcadet]

Separately, I’m wondering what others think about purchasing a San Disk SD-Ultra II memory card (1.0GB) instead of the regular SD memory card. My plans are to mainly take photos, but there will be some times where I’ll want to record little snippets of action, where the movie function will come in handy. Is there a significant different in the capability of a Ultra II? Also, anyone know how many minutes of action a 1.0GB card can store?

Sorry for the all the questions, but it’s nice to finally have a place to raise these issues.

Dan

I don't precisely know how much action a 1GB card can handle, but I will say this. The weak link in the card chain will be the camera- not the cards. I think most people who would really see a huge benefit from them are shooting Digital SLRs which have high write speeds. I am not in the know with the precise details for that particular camera, but basically the difference is this: with the ultra-II, the maximum write speed and read speeds are faster. Thus, images can be recorded or viewed or downloaded with faster access times. However, this speed advantage will *only* come into play if the camera's write speed is faster than a normal card. The main limitations you will run into with action shooting are going to be the camera's buffer and max write speed.

[paulnj]

As for the card.. The ultra II is a few $$ more than a standard card , so buy the better ULTRA II

2 of these 512's is cheaper after rebate
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/cont...goryNavigation


Or

The 1GIG ULTRA II
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/cont...goryNavigation


I highly doubt you will need more than 1GIG per outing, but everyone is different.

Here's a 2gig card, but I would suggest staying in the 512/1 gig card range as to not have a gazillion files on one card that could crash some day
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/cont...goryNavigation

You can get 7.5 minutes of highest quality video per 1GIG CARD or 320 images at the highest quality(that's an estimated average file size # because every images is a different size due to the information required to record sceens differing )

Being as it runs on 2- AA batteries, get yourself some rechargable AA's because normal AA's don't last long and the cost will add up quick!

batteries w/charger

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/cont...lue=425441_REG

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/cont...goryNavigation

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/cont...goryNavigation