Can anyone who purchased a XH-A1 in the US tell me if the Canon warranty is an international warranty or USA-only?

I'm living in Japan now but I'm currently in limbo deciding between living in Japan or returning to the US in the near future. I know I want an A1 but I'm having a hard time deciding whether to import an A1 from the US (probably with a Mack extended warranty) or to buy it locally, mostly due to warranty and customs issues.

I know Mack warranties cover 3rd-party repairs abroad, but I'm wondering if Canon Japan would repair a US model under the regular US warranty. I heard from Kaku Ito that the Japanese models come with a Japan-only warranty, so I'm guessing Canon USA won't even try to service a Japanese model. :(

Thanks!

How long will you be living in Japan? If you decide to live in Japan for a couple of years then it make sense to buy a Canon XH-A1 from Japan. But when I was in Japan in June 2006, it seem to me the Canon gears were more expensive after you exchange the dollars to yens.

My recommendation is to buy locally in Japan. If you decide to move to the USA, you can simply sell the camera in Japan before you move and pick up a new one in the USA after you get here. Hope this helps,

I recently had an interesting conversation about warranties with a Canon Service Center rep in California. I was asking specifically about how they handle the warranty work on gray market cameras. He told me that as long as one has an invoice showing when and where the camera was purchased, Canon will warranty it, no matter where it was from. I believe his exact words were "As long as it's a Canon product, it's covered." Seemed odd to me so I worked him over pretty good about it and he was firm in his answer. I'd be curious to hear from anyone who has had direct experience in this type of matter.

BTW, the Canon Irvine folks have some of the best customer service I have ever seen, in any field. Took my H1 in for a pixel fix and they went over the whole cam and clean the heads and shipped it back to me in 3 days. They even pay for overnight shipping.

My understanding is the same as Mathew's and is a distinguishing characteristic of Canon products. They seem to be willing to honor the worldwide warranty regardless of where the item is purchased. This is just the opposite of other manufacturers, Nikon in particular, that will not touch in the USA a grey market camera that does not bear USA serial numbers.

Really? They must be generous over in the states. I just rang up Canon this afternoon enquiring about worldwide warranty, and they said that they didn't do it. Which blows, because I want to buy the XH-A1 from America because I can save about $1500AU.

Really? They must be generous over in the states. I just rang up Canon this afternoon enquiring about worldwide warranty, and they said that they didn't do it. Which blows, because I want to buy the XH-A1 from America because I can save about $1500AU.
S'pose that's why?