Ive been shooting with my mirrorless setup for like five years now, mostly doing street photography and some light landscape stuff, but my primary body is finally starting to give out on me. The shutter count is way up there and the sensor is getting kinda dusty no matter how much I clean it. Ive got about 1500 to 2000 bucks set aside for an upgrade, maybe a Sony A7IV or a used R6, but I really dont want to pay full retail if I can avoid it. I usually just check B&H or Adorama every few days, but I swear every time I see a good deal it was already sold out hours ago.
It feels like Im always a step behind. I keep missing those weird, random price drops that happen at like 3 am on a Tuesday. I know about CamelCamelCamel but that doesnt seem to track the dedicated camera retailers very well, just Amazon, and honestly I prefer buying gear from shops that specialize in cameras anyway because of the support and not having to deal with potential grey market stuff.
Are there any specific sites or tools you guys actually swear by for alerts? I need something that wont just spam my inbox with junk but will actually ping me when a price drops below a certain threshold. Im hoping to pull the trigger by next month since I have a trip to the coast planned and really dont want to take my current dying camera with me. If there is some kind of tracker or discord bot or even just a specific newsletter that isnt total clickbait, I would love to know. Ive heard rumors about some forums having dedicated deal threads but its hard to sift through all the noise to find the actual good ones. Where are you guys actually getting your alerts from?
Honestly just use the alerts on the Fred Miranda forums buy/sell board. It is the best place to snag a clean Sony A7IV 33MP Mirrorless without paying retail. Just be careful!
To add to the point above: setup a custom search on slickdeals for the Sony A7IV 33MP Mirrorless and just enable push alerts! Its seriously the fastest way to get notified.
Honestly, I get that anxiety. Hunting for gear is exhausting. I stopped relying on automated scrapers years ago because they just flooded my inbox with useless notifications. If you really want to avoid grey market nightmares, stick to the big authorized dealers like B&H or Adorama directly but keep an eye on their used departments instead of just new. I once tried a cheaper third-party site for a lens and it ended up being a regional model without a valid warranty, so definitely be careful where you click. I would suggest checking the deal threads on DPReview forums. Just make sure to verify the seller is an authorized retailer before you pull the trigger. Sometimes the best deals show up when you aren't obsessively watching the clock, just be patient.
