How much worse will prices get?

[finboy]

With the US economy doing much better than ours, and the prospect of a $.65 dollar next year, I'm a little bit worried about what the price of photography gear is going to do. I wasn't into photography last time our dollar is terrible, but based on the current pricing I have to imagine things are not going to get better.

How does everyone think the current prices of gear are going to shift over the next year?

[Buster]

Basically we are all going to get a lot more poor.

[msommers]

Prices will get worse quick and take awhile to rebound whenever our dollar improves. Same shit with audio equipment these days, absolutely getting owned.

[Buster]

Anything that we consider a consumer good, or most interesting foods...welcome to inflation.

[Buster]

of course, the BoC could raise rates, and the hit to your home values MIGHT just be offset by the entertainment you get from watching the carnage in the Vancouver and Toronto real estate markets.

[ExtraSlow]

Folks selling lightly used trucks are the only winners here.

[kaput]

.

[Mitsu3000gt]

Retailers are *VERY* quick to correct to the 1.35 dollar, but if/when things get closer to par you will see months of delay, but probably some sales in between. Current bank forecast is 1.34 average for 2017.

I don't think Nikon/Canon can sustain such outrageous prices in Canada when their customers did not get a proportionate 40% increase in disposable income.

Look at the D500, released at $2699 CAD, which was actually a fair price, and it's already $2049, only $50 off of the USA MSRP.

The Canon 5D4 is hilariously overpriced at $4500 CAD, they can't keep it there for too long and maintain decent sales numbers. Same with the D5, it was $8500 and now $7850, only about $1300 more than the USA price.

There are already "add to cart" prices hundreds less than Canadian MSRPs. You got to look around a bit and you won't get it on release day, but there are better prices to be found.

Computer parts have been similarly affected, along with cell phones, and much of the consumer electronics industry.

MSRP's should remain quite stable to what you see now, they have already all been 'corrected' with 30-40% premiums beginning in January 2016. They aren't going to get much worse unless FX goes absolutely nuts. Much of what you see newly released will have an insane MSRP, which falls not long after though unadvertised deals ("add to cart to see price" sort of thing).

If you have gear to sell that you bought in 2014-2015 or earlier though, you can probably make money compared to what you paid, and put it towards something new.

[NoPulp]

I think companies will try to make as much money as they can off the currency, but eventually demand will drop because it's not affordable. That will force a price drop.

I find it interesting that many electronics are close to the same price regardless of dollar, but photography gear is very much affected by the dollar.

[Go4Long]

I'm eyeing up the 400mm 2.8 FL for next year, it's painful. But honestly still less given the exchange rate.

Vistek has it on for $12'999 (actually the lowest I've seen so far)
BH has it for $11'196 USD