Is Canon selling overpriced digital cameras in India?

Posted on May 12, 2005 by Sandip Bhattacharya

The Canon A95

Canon India is selling Powershot A95 at an MRP of Rs. 25,995/-.

Amazon’s listing of A95 mentions a list price of $349.95 (or Rs. 15,121 at today’s exchange rates). Amazon actually sells it for $269.94 (or Rs. 11,664 today).

The question is why does Canon India sell its regular products at a 70% higher price in India? How much duty do these products attract anyway? It is not that this camera is a new model. This camera is now about one year old in the market.

When I asked a prominent Canon’s retailer in India the reason, he mentioned a bullshit story about how Canon’s products are superior, blah, blah.

The fact is that in US, the A95 is battling it out with other 5MP cameras just as any other 5MP camera. In India however, Canon seems to be positioning it as a “premium” camera.

A case in point, its 5MP competitor Nikon Coolpix 5200 retailing at $399.99 (or Rs. 17,283 today) and actually sold for $249.95 at Amazon is a point-and-shoot camera unlike the A95 which features quite a few manual controls. You can actually get this Nikon camera for Rs. 18k in Nehru Place (14k without bill ;) ).

Canon’s pricing policies in India are sad – they will only result in people (like me ;) ) coaxing their overseas friends to “gift” them one from US instead, and save more than Rs. 10k in the process!

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  • http://puneetworld.indiablogs.org/ Puneet

    Well I assume it has to be the custom duties.. they excessive on electronic and stuff coz they considered as luxury items hence excess duties

  • http://puneetworld.indiablogs.org Puneet

    Well I assume it has to be the custom duties.. they excessive on electronic and stuff coz they considered as luxury items hence excess duties

  • http://www.sandipb.net/ Sandip Bhattacharya

    Well, in that case, the Nikon ones would also be as expensive, isnt it?

  • http://www.sandipb.net Sandip Bhattacharya

    Well, in that case, the Nikon ones would also be as expensive, isnt it?

  • http://ankitmalik.info/ Ankit

    Yeah… I think there is something wrong with the way Canon sells digicams… I bought a Canon Powershot A400 for 10200 Rupees and the next week I read a Techtree review saying it costs Rs. 8000. Now that is ridiculous! Prices @ PriceGrabber in $ are even less :( (

  • http://ankitmalik.info Ankit

    Yeah… I think there is something wrong with the way Canon sells digicams… I bought a Canon Powershot A400 for 10200 Rupees and the next week I read a Techtree review saying it costs Rs. 8000. Now that is ridiculous! Prices @ PriceGrabber in $ are even less :( (

  • http://www.sitekreator.com/stockmarket Abhi

    I got A70 1.5 yrs back in $270 .. with accessories .. total I shell out $375. But its worth, I could take great pics when I was in NYC. Actually it was the need, as I was going on a trip… and as every indian, I wanted to send the pics across the sea to home… anyways, within 3 months after I bought the cam, the prices slashed down to $220… hahahaha!!! Big hole in my pocket it sounded to me :-P

  • http://www.sitekreator.com/stockmarket Abhi

    I got A70 1.5 yrs back in $270 .. with accessories .. total I shell out $375. But its worth, I could take great pics when I was in NYC. Actually it was the need, as I was going on a trip… and as every indian, I wanted to send the pics across the sea to home… anyways, within 3 months after I bought the cam, the prices slashed down to $220… hahahaha!!! Big hole in my pocket it sounded to me :-P

  • Dr Anil Chitale

    Pl give yr quotations for Canon Powershot 95 & Nikon 5600 & 5700 in INR.
    Pl give yr location & Tel Nos in Mumbai. Can you send it to Indore if the price for me is right?
    Dr Chitale

  • Dr Anil Chitale

    Pl give yr quotations for Canon Powershot 95 & Nikon 5600 & 5700 in INR.
    Pl give yr location & Tel Nos in Mumbai. Can you send it to Indore if the price for me is right?
    Dr Chitale

  • http://iamairborne.wordpress.com/ fibinse

    I think you would agree that individual shops sell less cameras than compared to online shopping websites like Amazon – which is why they cannot do away on the seller’s margin on the few units that shops sell.Plus duties applied on imported stuff surely have an impact. So it isnt that Canon is increasing prices on stuff that it sells, its just that market turns out that way!

  • http://iamairborne.wordpress.com fibinse

    I think you would agree that individual shops sell less cameras than compared to online shopping websites like Amazon – which is why they cannot do away on the seller’s margin on the few units that shops sell.Plus duties applied on imported stuff surely have an impact. So it isnt that Canon is increasing prices on stuff that it sells, its just that market turns out that way!