I'm ready to buy an XL2... I have a friend who told me he was looking at "Abes of Maine" because the price was so cheap. I've been told to avoid those websites that sound "to good to be true".

Is B&H Video and Camera World the best?

I'd love to know who's the best and who I should avoid?

thanks,

wade

I just bought mine through one of the site sponsors, ZOTZ digital. I had some issues with Canon, and Brian at ZOTZ stepped right up for me. That's worth more than any discount you might scare up.

Never, never use Broadway Photo. Heard too many bad stories.
I know that B&H is great! BTW, you know there are sponsors that support these pages, I hear they are all great, if they weren't, you'd read all about it here. Look on the home page for that section.

I haven't shopped in B&H (I don't have a credit card or an account in a bank in USA, it's sad B&H doens't accept money transfers from outside the USA) but I can recommend them though, because I send them once 2 mails with questions at 21pm I believe, and I really got response fast, and they explained a whole technical thing to me.
Customer service seems to be superb, especially after reading these boards.

is the way to go . i have bought at both b&h and zotz . zotz has it hands down very personal service and Brian knows his stuff . b&h is ok for mail order but lacks personal service .i told Brian at zotz what i wanted he suggested something diffrent in the way of a mic . i could not be happier . dp

EVSOnline.com and BHPHOTO.com are superb dealers.

Mainly you want to buy from an authorized reseller, so you get the manufacturer's warranty and don't get stuck with a "gray market" camera. As for which ones to avoid, there are three general rules to follow:

1) if their price is more than 5% different than B&H or EVS, you should do some more research, because it's pretty difficult to beat those guys by more than that. Sometimes it can be done on some products, but overall, that's a pretty good indicator.

2) look up the seller on resellerratings.com. It's not the be-all and end-all of info, but it sure will give you a good overview quickly.

3) if the dealer sells "Sakar" or "Digital Optics" accessories, that's almost universally a tipoff that you'd be better shopping somewhere else. Those products are cheap accessories that some dealers use to inflate the "value" of their "package deals". They make you think you're getting a $3400 camera for $3000, but only if you buy their $800 "Digital Optics" wide-angle lens too... and for you, today only, they'll throw it in for just $400! So you end up spending $3400 for a gray-market camera and a $40 wide-angle lens (which you'll see on ebay all the time), but you don't have a manufacturer's warranty (as opposed to just buying it from the authorized dealer for $3400, warranty included). I've never seen "Sakar" or "Digital Optics" accessories offered by the reputable sellers, so I kind of use their presence as a rule of thumb as to the kind of tactics employed by the gray-market bait-and-switcher sellers.

Wade, call Brian Longley at Zotz; he'll set you up.

The beauty of pricing this site's sponsors first is you reap the experience of this small community (& we all like to save money here, trust me). What's that worth to you in bucks?

The shame factor is huge; if one of the sponsors cut a bad deal, it would be announced here.

JS

For grins, I looked up Zotz, B&H and EVS on resellerratings.com. All of them are very highly rated, EVS and Zotz are at a perfect 10.0 and B&H is at 8.83. Not only are they site sponsors, they also have very happy customers!

I Love my XL2 and I got it at ZGC, in New Jersey.

Chris B. is the Woman! They are a really great company and she has been very helpful and attentive. She also got me the Cine Tech Follow Focus for my Chrosziel Matte Box & rods.

I got my Vinten Vision 3 tripod and head at B&H, plus a bunch of other stuff. BTW I think that the Vinten is way better than the Sachtler DV4, DV2 and DV6. Sachtlers are great, I'm just not impressed with the DV line of heads.

Note: if you really trick out your XL2, FU-1000 finder, FF, Matte Box, onboard monitor, Anton Bauer Battery it will end up weighing about 12 pounds, or so. I have the #6 spring in my Vision 3 head. The Springs go according to weight in Kg's. Smart. So they go #1 to #10 = 2.2 Lbs to 22 Lbs. Almost time to move up to the Vision 6 Head. Especially if I rig my Mr. Coffee up to it.

www.zgc.com/zgc.nsf

Whether you're shopping with EVS, Zotz, B&H or ZGC, you can't go wrong because each one is a DV Info Net Sponsor (http://www.dvinfo.net/sponsors/index.php). Rather than worrying about which websites to avoid, just stick with these wonderful dealers and they'll take great care of you. Hope this helps,