Photography In Turkey

I’m really tired of exaggerated prices of Photography industry. Well i can obviously understand that the DSLR cameras are expensive because of huge R&D costs and actually i believe they deserve it. Because R&D is the thing what makes technological improvements and leaps in photography. But in European countries like Turkey where i’m living even the smallest apparatus for photography is really expensive compared to USA and Honk Kong. For the people who doesn’t know the prices in USA or in Honk Kong prices in Turkey sounds reasonable. But i’ve been in US and it hurts me so much to buy photography gear in Turkey or in any other European countries.

Let me explain my complaint with examples. A while ago i needed to buy flash diffuser and shutter release cable. Shutter release cable was $29 and diffuser was $46 in Turkey. I searched these items in e-bay and found them both for $1.9 from Honk Kong and bought them, i paid $5 shipping for each of them so in sum i paid $14 for these two items. If i bought them in Turkey, it would cost me $65. The result is so terrifying. The picture even gets worst when we consider digital SLR cameras. I want to buy a Nikon D300, it is $1799 with a 18 - 135 lens on it in USA (LA) , and in Turkey just the body of D300 is $3000. This is insane, i mean ok, shipment costs are high taxes and other payments increases the price of product but seriously this is not a fair price. Especially considering the Gross Domestic Product per capita in Turkey is less than half of USA’s. This means the income in Turkey is nearly half of the income in USA for an average person, but the prices are two times more than USA. Than sometimes i hear people complaining about the small number of people interested in photography in Turkey. Seriously how could anyone expect a hobby to spread with this ridiculus prices. Can you imagine, it is cheaper for me to fly to New York and buy D300 and than fly back to Turkey. Not only it is cheaper, also i’ll have a 18-135mm lens and a one day New York photography trip this way. It is so dramatic. By the way the distance between Istanbul and NYC is 11.000 Km. Which makes this equation; price of traveling 22.000 km with plane + USA visa + one day trip in NYC + 18-135mm lens + D300 Body = Price of D300 Body in Turkey. Am i wrong to complain about that.

Most people ask why don’t you order camera from US? Actually everything valued more than $100 is likely to stuck in Turkish Custom. And if the item you ordered stacks in Custom they charge you with ridiculous custom taxes that the price gets equal to the prices in Turkey.

Hong Kong is even cheaper, the polarizer filter that i want to buy is around $125 in Turkey and the same filter is only $50 in Hong Kong.

Another thing is high service costs. After 3 months i started to photography, dust particles appeared on my sensor and i made a big deal out of it. I brought my camera to different services of Canon, some of them said no we cannot touch it, we may scratch the sensor wich will cost you $400, some of them said i’ll do it for $80. So i went to official service of Canon they charged me $60 for cleaning the dust. But the most annoying thing was noticing that the dust was there in the same spot after cleaning. Dust is removed after 5th try of service employee. After waiting long hours i told them “is this what i’m paying for?”, even the smallest problem can not be solved by the official service of Canon in Turkey. The manager told me “if it is necessary i’ll replace your camera with the new one” with loud voice after 3rd try of cleaning so the audience in the store can hear him. After this heroic statement that showing how a reliable and strong company this is, suddenly after the 4th try he changed his mind and said me “you know it is ok to have a small amount of dust, i think this is enough trying to remove it, just take your camera and go. You see the “professionalism” of the manager… They are charging ridiculous prices for the service and they are not even doing their job. Plus insulting a customer saying “i’ll replace your camera, do not complain about the service” and than trying to “send him out without doing what he is paid for”. I’m so angry that company and i’ll never ever do shopping or use their service again. After spending some time in Photography as a hobby, i learned how to clean my camera myself which cost me only $10 per cleaning. They always say that their prices are high because of the risk of scratching the sensor but you can clean your own sensor without risk for $10. How come these “professionals” are always under risk of scratching sensors? I’m telling you go buy a sensor cleaning set (foam swab and dry sweepers) for maximum $30 and this will be enough to clean the dust out of your sensor 3 times.

Today i wrote my bad memories about photography industry of Turkey. Tomorrow i’ll write about photography industry of the world and why it is so expensive for the amateurs.