All year I had been looking to add the Canon 24-70 2.8L to my lens line up. It is a good complement to my 70-200 F2.8l IS lens I had gotten in November 2003. I purchase most of my equipment from B&H Photo in New York. 9 times out of 10 they have the product I want at a price 20% cheaper than I can get it in Charlotte. Their shipping is excellent. I usually get my items with two days using UPS ground.
Canon threw me a curve ball this year. They released the 24-105 F4L IS in October. At the time it was about the same price as the 24-70, but it has IS and I LOVE the IS on my 70-200. So I debated it until two days before Christmas. Wolf Camera in Charlotte had the lens for the same retail price as BH so I picked it up. The total cost with Tax as $1343.00. Not a cheap investment. I usually never buy anything form Wolf. Their prices are normally ridiculous for camera equipment. Compare what they want for my 70-200 vs. B&H. It's not often I see a lens appreciate in value.
After two days I was not sure I would keep the lens. It just was not that impressive to me for amount of money. Well I took it on our Christmas vacation and grew to really enjoy the focal length of the lens. The IS worked well and it has that typical 'L' build quality. I enjoyed the lens, but still could not justify the price from Wolf so I took it back when we returned from vacation.
The day after returning the lens, I saw a forum on DPReview talking about it being on sale at Badger Graphic Sales for $1095.00. That is a steal for this lens. I had never heard of Badger and I thought I knew most all of the online retailers. Well I did some research and heard good things so I pulled the trigger that night. Got the lens overnighted to me on Wednesday. This was New Years Saturday so the second business day was Wednesday. So basically I saved $200.00 into my hand vs. the Wolf Price. The transaction went smoothly and the product was delivered as I expected.
For those of you looking at Camera Equipment it would be a good idea to create a bookmark to Badger Graphic Sales in your web browser.
The lens is fabulous. Now I just need to go out and shoot it.