I tried to buy a digital camera this weekend.
I spent most of the day Saturday looking at cameras either online or in stores. I wanted to know as much about them as I could, and I figured it would be helpful to know the US price for comparing and barguing.
I had settled on a Nikon 3700. It's an ultra-compact model with 3 megapixels, the ability to record full-motion video with sound, and a voice recorder built in. I've been wanting a voice recorder for a while, and I thought this could be a good way to get one while picking up a camera.
The problem is, the camera starts out pretty expensive here. I couldn't get the shops down to the price I wanted to pay, even when we started bundling extras to bulk up the price slightly while hopefully getting some more wiggle room. I thought we had a deal at one point: the camera, a 128MB card and an extra battery for 3200 yuan (there are 8 yuan to a dollar). I checked out the camera I would actually be buying, tested the cards, learned how to use various settings (since the manual is in Chinese). But when I asked about the extra battery, they said, "What extra battery? You only get one."
So we renegotiated. Several times. They wouldn't go below 3500 yuan for the complete setup because "the battery is from Japan." Like I care where it's from! Unfortunately, with my limited Chinese and their limited English, I couldn't say that. ;-) I finally offered them what I thought was a good deal of 3100 yuan for the camera and card without the battery, but they wouldn't go below 3200. So after an hour or more of trying to buy (and sell) a camera, the deal broke down.
Part of me says I should just go back and buy the camera. Most of me says, "No." I've thought through another combo deal that might work, but I'm going to ask some students what they think about the price. This morning someone said that a 3 mexapixel camera should be around 1500 yuan. I'm guessing that white people can't get that price, though. But if I can get a camera for that low (or a better camera for a little bit more), I should be able to buy a separate voice recorder some other time for much less than what I would have paid for the 3700.
Posted by at April 12, 2004 1:14 PM