We might be a while away from seeing Black Friday camera deals, especially since there are other sales in between to snag a bargain or two – like the second Amazon Prime Day sale in October – but we're here to help you get ready for the year's biggest sale season.
Whether you want to upgrade to one of the best mirrorless cameras, invest in a brand new camera phone or you're looking for a shiny new telephoto lens, Black Friday is a great time to snap up a new kit or update your existing one. Aussie retailers will be vying for your attention, so you'll see significant price drops from several outlets that will help you save a pretty penny.
For example, we saw some amazing offers on Fujifilm's medium-format cameras during Black Friday 2023, which made even the 102MP GFX 100S drop to the price point of a premium full-frame camera! The excellent Nikon Z8 has a grand slashed off its street price too, and while it's been a little cheaper since then, it means you'll likely see a record-low price on the pro full-framer.
Some of the best instant cameras will be discounted too, and they make excellent gifts – and with Black Friday falling on November 29 this year, it's a wonderful opportunity to get your Christmas shopping sorted if you need to buy for a photographer in your life.
There'll be a heck of a lot of deals and discounts to sift through, and we know how overwhelming that can get if you aren't sure of what you want. So, we're here to help.
We'll be rounding up the best Black Friday camera deals right here to help you find the best products at great prices. We'll be here through the weeks preceding the actual Black Friday weekend and then some, handpicking only the best of the best bargains that are worth your time. We'll also list lenses and other accessories here so you can kit out your entire camera bag for less.
In the meantime, we've put together a little guide to help you prepare, listing out when the sale will start in 2024 and the best retailers to shop at.
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When will Black Friday camera deals in 2024 start?
This year, the official Black Friday sale period is from November 29 through to Monday, December 2, 2024 (Cyber Monday), and some of the best camera deals won't be available after that date. However, Black Friday camera deals in Australia start about two weeks ahead of that date, so start checking retailers around November 15.
While most camera retailers usually stick with their best offers during the three week period that includes the actual sale, some can drop the prices further during Cyber Weekend proper, so you might want to wait till November 29 to see how much you can actually save.
When is Black Friday 2024?
As we've just mentioned, Black Friday this year falls on Friday, November 29. That means Cyber Monday will be on December 2.
That's still a few months away, giving you plenty of time to figure out what you'd like to get – a new camera for beginners, the best instant camera perhaps, or just a lens or two. You'll get almost an entire week of the best prices on photography gear, but don't dally as stocks may be low and you could miss out.
Where to find Black Friday camera deals
Pretty much every Aussie retailer, whether a specialist camera store or a more general tech store, will be offering great discounts during Black Friday. Many of them will even price match or try and outdo the competition, so you may get lucky pitting one retailer against the other to bag the best bargain. Below is a list of some of the most trusted camera retailers in Australia if you want to start browsing their online stores.
Chances are you won’t need to leave your home to snag a great Black Friday offer. Most in-store discounts will be offered online by the major retailers, so all you’ll need to do is keep your credit card handy and shop from your couch.
Before that, though, we’d recommend you have your shopping list ready and figure out what your budget is. Doing some research on prices now will help you determine whether a Black Friday offer is actually worth it or not when the sale finally begins.
- Amazon: save on all kinds of photography gear
- Camera House: save on cameras, lenses, tripods, bags and more
- CameraPro: great bargains on cameras and lenses
- CR Kennedy: shop Ricoh, Pentax, Leica and more
- Diamonds Camera: save on all brands, including Leica
- DigiDirect: save on cameras, lenses, peripherals and accessories
- Digital Camera Warehouse: discounts and price matching on top models
- DJI: shop some of the best drones, gimbals and action cameras
- eBay Australia: discounts from various resellers on cameras and accessories
- JB Hi-Fi: save on select popular camera and drone models
- Kogan: save on new and refurbished cameras
- Ryda: deep discounts on cameras, lenses and storage solutions
- Sony: price matching on Alpha cameras and lenses
- Ted's Cameras: several deep discounts in store and online
Black Friday 2024: Shopping tips
Is Black Friday the best time to buy a camera?
As a general rule, Black Friday is a great time to buy a new camera, but not every deal is as good as it may seem initially – which is where we come in.
In some cases, retailers do mark up the prices of cameras and camera bundles in the run up to Black Friday, in order to offer a seemingly bigger discount during the run of the actual event itself. However, this doesn't necessarily make them a bad buy though as, on many occasions, their prices still drop to mouth-watering record lows. But in the grand scheme of things, the percentage saving may not be quite as large as advertised.
However, to combat these situations, we'll only highlight the actual saving of any Black Friday deal based on the camera's recent price history, and we will make sure it's genuinely a good deal before placing it in this hub. This isn't necessarily the norm, and many cameras do simply drop to their lowest-ever price for a brief period over Black Friday.
How to find the best camera deals
Of course, the best Black Friday deals will be on this page as soon as they launch. We’ll bring you the top bargains from all the best retailers when the discounts start rolling in on and before Black Friday. But there are a lot of different cameras to choose from, and it can get overwhelming at times, especially for photography beginners. We recommend making the most of our extensive camera knowledge to make sure you buy the right bit of kit for you come Black Friday.
If you're new to photography, a good grounding point is to start with our best camera for beginners guide. Once you've got a feel for which type of camera might suit your needs, check out our separate guides on the best camera for photography, the best mirrorless camera, or the best Micro Four Thirds camera, and if you want to take advantage of the lowering prices of DSLRs, check out our best DSLR guide – we've got the latest advice on them all.
Can I get cashback on Black Friday camera deals?
Typically, most camera brands don't offer cashbacks during November. Instead, your debit or credit card company might. It's worth looking into, but you can be sure that retailers will price match if you see a lower offer on a particular product elsewhere.
Another interesting option to consider is layby. Some retailers will allow you to select your gear during Black Friday at the discounted prices, pay a small deposit and then pick it all up later when you pay the full amount. This is advantageous when something is out of stock too and you've been assured of incoming stock. DCW's APAC Managing Editor tried this back in 2018, when she ordered a camera, two lenses (one of which was out of stock) and filters during the Black Friday sale then, but paid the full amount and picked up the entire kit only in mid-December.
Best deals from Black Friday 2023
Fujifilm GFX 100S (body) | AU$8,999.95 AU$6,349.96 at Ted's Cameras (AU$2,649.99 off after cashback)
While Ted's had only discounted this medium-format camera to AU$7,649.96, there was a whopping AU$1,300 cashback offer available from Fujifilm via redemption that made this one the biggest highlights of last year's Black Friday sale. 102MP on tap for the price of a premium full-framer is a bargain for anyone who mostly does studio work.
Leica SL2 (body) | AU$10,799 AU$9,895 at Diamonds Camera (AU$904 off)
It's very rare to find a Leica camera – any of them – discounted at any time of year, so seeing the SL2 full-framer get over AU$900 slashed off its rather exorbitant price tag was a surprise. In the grand scheme of things, that's not a huge saving, but hey, on a Leica it always is.
Nikon Z8 (body) | AU$6,799 AU$5,799 at Ted's Cameras (AU$1,000 off)
While the Nikon Z9 got a received a AU$1,541 discount on Amazon, we thought the grand off on the Z8 from Ted's was the better deal. It's got everything the Z9 can get you – with the exception of the dual controls on the bigger body – at a slightly lower price point. It's been cheaper since, dropping to around AU$5,336 on Amazon, so it's one to keep an eye on.
GoPro Hero 12 Black | AU$649 AU$487 at The Good Guys eBay (AU$162 off)
It's now been succeeded by the GoPro Hero 13 Black, but the snapping up the 12 last year for just AU$487 was one of the highlights of the Black Friday 2023 sale season. This came via an eBay listing on the official Good Guys store and with the use one of eBay's many checkout codes.
Fujifilm XF 150-600mm f/5.6-8 R LM OIS WR | AU$3,199 AU$1,999 at CameraPro (AU$1,200 off after cashback)
While the actual discount on this supertelephoto lens wasn't all that much, the additional cashback offer that Fujifilm had going then made it one heck of a deal. Offering a focal length range equivalent to 229-914mm in 35mm terms, this lens can get you closer to the action when paired with one of the best Fujifilm X-series cameras.
