How Amazon Accidentally Sold a $13,000 Lens for Less Than $100
- You Can Hire Robot Photographers For Your Wedding and This Couple Did
- Russia Has a Drone That Carries a Shotgun Just for Shooting Down Other Drones
Screenshot from Amazon
If you're a bargain traveller, then you know about things called accidental fares. Basically, either due to human error (like when someone accidentally types $130 instead of $1,300) or tech oversight, airfare is exceedingly cheap, but only until the airlines catch the mistake.
Well, for many lucky photo enthusiasts on Prime Day, they received the equivalent of an accidental fare.
Amazon Prime Day: Under $100 Camera Deals
Although Amazon has yet to release any public statement on the error, photographers took to the internet immediately on July 15th to share a variety of incredibly, unbelievably cheap camera deals.
One Slick Deals user posted the above deal, a Sony Alpha a600 for $94. The camera normally goes for over $500 new.
Someone bought a $11,499.99 camera lens for $94.48 on Amazon Prime Day...
— yakobo?? (@trillajames) July 18, 2019
It appears that dozens of cameras were accidentally put on sale for under $100. The below screenshot, which was posted to Reddit, shows a Canon 5D Mark IV, an otherwise $3,000 camera, on sale for $94.
"I somehow got a $3,000 camera for $94 on Prime Day last night," user u/a_girl_has_n0name posted. "It just seems a little too good to be true. Honestly, I just saw it by pure luck."
Editor's Tip: Using a tripod will help you capture better landscape photos. Not only will a tripod stabilize your camera and eliminate camera shake, but you can also use the few moments it takes to set up the tripod to look for interesting compositions that make your photo more appealing. Tripods come in all sizes and many different price points, but if you're working outdoors, it's nice to have a tripod with twist-lock legs for rapid deployment. Likewise, if you want to save weight for those long hikes you take to find beautiful spots to photograph, consider a carbon fiber tripod.
Amazon's Follow Through
Everyone was rightfully concerned as user u/a_girl_has_n0Name. Nobody truly believed that Amazon would follow through on their sale deals and send the cameras their way.
Particularly, after one Amazon Prime Day shopper posted that he received the $94 discount on the above $13,000 Canon Super Telephoto Lens.
"I got a $13,000 lens for $94 LOL waiting for the cancellation but that's like 99.3% off," wrote AyoltsPat on Slick Deals.
While some users did get locked out of their accounts during the mega-sale, probably thinking their accounts were being hacked because of the number of cameras they were trying to buy, it seems most users are continuing to receive the cameras they did manage to purchase (even the ones photographers presumably thought would be cancelled since they were on backorder).
