B&H Photo Price Tracker

B&H Photo Video opened in 1973 as a film shop at 17 Warren Street in Lower Manhattan; the name comes from the initials of its founders, Blimie and Herman Schreiber. Since 1997 its only store has been the superstore at 420 Ninth Avenue, at 34th Street, and most of its business is done online: B&H sells more than 400,000 products, from cameras and lenses to audio, lighting, computers and pro video gear, shipped from a large fulfillment center in Florence, New Jersey.

Many of the owners and staff are observant Jews, so the store closes on Shabbat and Jewish holidays – and while the website stays online, checkout is unavailable from Friday sundown to Saturday evening, New York time. In the US, the B&H Payboo card rebates the sales tax on purchases as instant savings, or offers financing instead. Orders to the UK are shipped internationally, with import duties and taxes either collected at checkout, where B&H offers this, or due on arrival.

A price alert works well at B&H because the catalogue is so finely split: a camera body, the same body in a lens kit, a lens in different mounts or a bundle with accessories each has its own page and price. Set the alert on the exact configuration you'd buy. It also catches the moment an outgoing model is reduced after its successor arrives, or an item that sold out returns at a lower price.