I've nothing to do with eBuyer (except for having bought an E-520 from them yesterday that arrived today with free shipping) but the price seems excellent. The best deal at Camera Price Buster appears to be £48 more.
Yes, there are some truly astonishing deals out there at the moment. This tends to suggest an E430 and E530 might be on the way. The pattern seems to be that the SE kits come out as a particular model is nearing the end of manufacture.
Could be a tripple whammy of models, the E-430, E-530 and E-4! Personaly I'm hoping for some m4/3rds news from Olympus. Something pocket sized with a selection fo fast pancakes would suit me. A digital 35RC?
Despite everything, I suspect the E-4 is actually the least likely there Well that's certainly what I'm hoping for.
Hopefully it will be annnounced soon to give it enough time for the price to drop before my birthday in September (or, stranger things have happened, my long overdue promotion)
Wish they would / could hurry up and give us more details - my recent resurrection of that G3 has whetted my appetite for a small light "street camera" and I am having difficulty resisting a pancake lens, even though I know that it will not be quite ideal on a standard 4/3 camera. Roger
Just spotted on the American fourthirdsphoto.com site this quote: "Olympus confirmed to me today, no Micro 4/3 cameras at PMA this year." I think I will stop waiting for it and make my plans excluding microFT - probably buy a pancake lens and forget about new bodies for the moment Roger
Ebuyer are known to sell so-called "grey imports" intended for shipment to other parts of the world -- hence the low price. My E-520 was officially intended for North/South America - Ebuyer just changed the charging lead to a UK one. Check on underside of camera box: bottom left below the worldwide warranty logo there's a bordered box saying "This product is a North-South American version". Camera is exactly same as European version (the official version for the UK) but 2-year warranty may be invalid if American version is purchased in Europe. I can't positively confirm the warranty position but it is certainly possible. Experienced members over on 'DP Forum' tell me that's why they don't buy from Ebuyer. I kept mine as it all works fine and I am willing to take a gamble on ever needing the warranty.
In the UK the legal position is that the supplier is responsible for honouring the warranty, not the manufacturer. So I don't see what the problem is. Anyway, what is the probablility that a camera which works on removal from the box actually needs repair under warranty?
Untrue. The warranty forms a direct contract between manufacturer and purchaser of the camera, and is in addition to statutory rights. Those statutory rights exist because of the contract of sale between the supplier and the customer, and so the supplier is responsible for ensuring that the product is of satisfactory quality etc. etc., but that is NOT the same as the warranty - if it's a grey import, there may indeed be no warranty.
Nick is correct - the manufacturer's 2-year warranty is between you and Olympus - not Ebuyer. As to the improbability of the camera needing repair under warranty, just because it works okay out of the box doesn't mean it'll stay that way for two years. Any number of faults could appear in that time - it's a complex piece of equipment. As I said, I'm prepared to take that risk myself as Olympus generally makes reliable and well-built equipment, but I'm under no illusions about it (or the warranty).
Correct. In Europe, however, 'Olympus Europa' (European subsidiary of Olympus Japan) supplies an additional warranty for two years from date of purchase. See this: http://www.olympus.co.uk/consumer/2590_3657.htm It's that European warranty I was referring to in my earlier posts, not the standard international 1-year one. Since it's not an official European import it may not qualify for the longer warranty. I just want potential Ebuyer customers to be aware of this since there's no mention of it on the Ebuyer website (for very obvious reasons of course).
