Originally posted by BerserkerCatSplat
Gray market, no. US lenses must be serviced by US repair centers. (Melville or El Segundo.)
Are you sure about that? From what I know, the Nikon warranties are fully international, so you should have no issues bringing your US or Asian lens to a Canadian repair centre and vice versa. Their official stance is that the location of the receipt must match the location stamped on the warranty card, and the warranty will be honored worldwide (otherwise it'd just be a grey market).
As for Canon, no issues. I bought a lens from the US for my father in law and it got serviced at the depot here in Calgary, no issues.
And no, Canon isn't making less money. Canon USA is making just as much as they were making 3 or 5 years ago. Canon Canada is just making MORE money because of hte higher MSRP. Just like the car manufacturers. They're NOT losing money on each car they sell. They are just making MORE money from Canadians. Suckers. I mean... d'oh.
You have a couple of photos that are great... you must be very good at photoshop!