We're talking about the accessories. The memory cards were $30 more expensive. The $10 blower cost $12.

I know how it goes, Bud. I've done retail at a high enough level to "get it." I don't need the mini lecture. He quite obviously can approach the prices, since his are the same on the bigger ticket items. He just tries a little too hard to make up for it on the cheaper stuff.

The camera store probably does 75% of its business in film, processing, and printing.

Don't fool yourself. You really aren't "doing your local guy a favor" by asking him to match prices with someone the size of B&H. Unless price structuring has changed drastically the past fifteen years, the mom and pop camera shop gets screwed by the large camera companies on pricing, each wholesale price break for them coming every 3 or five units they buy. To even reach the level of being able to buy the camera for themselves wholesale for the same retail price you are buying it from mail order, they may have to buy lots of tens to a hundred or more, of the same 500 to over a thousand dollar camera. That is probably more in inventory, than the rest of his capital investment combined.

But if you buy from him, you can count on service and advice, without using a package carrier as a go between.

The big stores in port cities can get you the best prices. Support your local guy for your own convenience, if not a matter of conscious. But don't think you are "giving him a break" by having him match prices with B&H or CameraWorld... he can't even approach it.

To the other Erik, the suggestion that I save a hundred bucks on sales tax was made by the retailer as a means to convince me to buy from him. I ordered instead from B&H where there is no sales tax at all for me. Necessities like groceries or clothes - in PA - aren't taxed.

"I'm pretty sure we could have [...] used an out-of-state address to avoid sales tax."

Weren't you just writing about how today's kids aren't doing as well in school as we were at their age? I feel like it's one thing to happen to use a retailer in another state and avoid the sales tax, but to use deception to circumvent paying the tax seems a little extreme. It's not like you're buying necessities like groceries or clothes -- while I wish I didn't have to pay taxes either, I try to remember that the money to pay for road repairs, fire departments, and my brother's medicaid comes partly from the taxes on my purchases of luxury items like $1700 worth of digital camera equipment.

That said, I'm pretty jealous. This camera looks awesome, looking forward to your gallery (if it will be public). I'm hoping to replace my Powershot A75 with a 300D now that the prices are coming down, and then in a year or two upgrade to this 350D model. Enjoy.

I have always wanted an SLR, especially a digital SLR, but for now I have settled for a Canon A60. It's nice (if lacking in the "megapixel" ability), and has manual modes for many settings, but I'm just not enough of a photog to justify the cost of an SLR -- and this is something I wish were different about me.

One of the nice things about B&H is the online access to your previous orders. That really saved us after my dad's camera was stolen and we had to file a claim with the insurance company. Of course, keeping the receipt would have accomplished the same thing, but that's besides the point...