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I wanted to buy a new Digital Camera for my Birthday. Upgrading from a Sony Mavica FD-88 to a Nikon Coolpix 4500 should be fun...or so I thought.
I first ran searches using WebFerret Pro, Google.com and CNET.Reviews.com. Searching for cameras that had good close-up or macro capabilities and were priced at under $700. I came up with 6 contestants.
Fuji Finepix S602 Zoom
Nikon Coolpix 4500
Nikon Coolpix 5400
Olympus Cam C-730
Olympus C-4000 Zoom
Casio QV 8000SX
Camera Review Sites
Amazon.com
ReviewCentre.com
Digital Camera HQ
ABOUT Cameras
To narrow down my options I used www.dpreview.com and www.imaging-resource.com to review the details and specifications of each camera.
For the price and macro capabilities I settled on on the Nikon Coolpix 4500. I was pleased to find out that Nikon had a current Rebate on the camera. But I also discovered that the 4500 had been discontinued, which made finding one a bit of a challenge.
I started my search on merchants who had a good price and also would honor Nikon's Rebate. This proved to be tougher than I thought. I checked the following sites for prices:
Google.com/products
MySimon.com
NewEgg.com
NexTag.com
PriceGrabber.com
CNET Shopper
As I found the cheapest deals I saved them to my Favorites list with the cost of the camera plus shipping on the first line. This makes it easy to review. After I found around 10 of the best deals I checked out each merchant.
BizRate.com
Photo.net
ResellerRatings.com
ReviewFinder.com
I decided on CamerasForLess.com. I ordered online and used my credit card. They charged over $25 for Shipping & Handling. The next day they called to confirm my order. And at that time tried to sell additional items for the camera which I declined. But they said no problem the camera was in stock and they would ship right away. Well, later that day they sent an email saying that their merchant account was down and they were unable to to process my order. That I would have to use Paypal. This was not an option for me so they canceled my order. When I asked for email confirmation that my order was canceled I never heard from them again.
UPDATE REGARDING CamerasForLess.com:
I finally received an email cancellation notice - 5 months after the order was canceled.
My second choice was Apple Electronics.com They were not honoring the Rebate but their price was already low, $408.00 and I didn't have to hassel with sending in the Rebate.
Again, I placed my order online and used my credit card. The next day they telephoned and confirmed my order and also tried to sell me additional items. They did have a pretty good deal on batteries so I purchased one additional battery. I didn't receive an email tracking number, which would have been nice. But they shipped the camera and it was new and not refurbished as I had requested. I also found a $5.00 off coupon for Apple Electronics. So, I was very happy with the deal.
I decided I needed a couple of additional batteries which I purchased on Ebay. I also needed an additional Compact Flash Memory Card. The one that came with the camera was a 16 mb card and holds just a few photos. I searched the Forums at dpreview.com.
I had my heart set an a Ridata 512 mb Compact Flash Memory Card. I did some more searching and found a great deal at Meritline.com. I placed an order and received it within 2 weeks. They also sent me a free gift. Certainly a great way to win over returning customers!
Prices change so quickly online that a person really has to do their own research at the time that they are ready to buy. This will assure you of getting the best deal. And don't forget to check for Rebates, Discount Codes and Coupons.
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