USA or Grey market lenses,...
What are the differences as far as a customer is concerned?
Primarily, how much the item costs, and where you'd send it for warranty service. Generally, "direct import" items cost less than their "USA" counterparts.
A "USA" warrantied item is a manufacture's warranty that would be repaired by any manufacturer's authorized service facility worldwide if the item required in-warranty service. A "direct import" item would have to be returned to B&H Photo-Video Corp. in New York City if it required in-warranty attention. A resident of the USA may wish to make the buying decision based on price, since the cost of shipping to an American service center or to us should be about equal. A non-USA resident may want to consider the cost of returning the "direct import" item to us for warranty service, compared to the expense of buying the "USA warrantied" item and having warranty service available locally.
Another difference is how much the item costs, and where you'd send it for warranty service.
Simply put, "grey market" means that the item is not covered by the manufacturer's warranty, because the manufacturer's licensed or authorized agent or representative did not import that item into the USA and did not sell it to the retailer to sell it to you. We import the product directly from the overseas manufacturer or distributor, bypassing additional distribution levels. Many manufacturers and distributors therefore coined the negative sounding term, "grey market", for this perfectly legal money-saving activity, namely "direct import".
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