Some excellent Black Friday camera deals are still sticking around, giving you a little extra time to shop.
The official Black Friday date was November 25, with Cyber Monday on November 28, but that doesn't mean the massive sale has ended. While, in Australia, we typically see offers end when Cyber Monday ticks over into the following Tuesday, this year has been a little different.
Several retailers still have offers going, with DigiDirect confirming that its Black Friday sale will continue on till December 4. That means you can head over to DigiDirect to snap up a bargain on a camera body, lens or accessory after other retailers have gone back to full-priced items. There's up to 20% off cameras and lenses, while accessories can be found for up to 30% off at DigiDirect.
Amazon has officially ended its Black Friday sale, but the deep discounts on camera bodies we saw during the official sale are still hanging around. Some have jumped in price, but the discounts are still worth considering.
For now, though, Black Friday 2022 camera deals continue from most retailers. So whether you shoot with a mirrorless camera and need up upgrade, or you're looking to swap out your aging DSLR, there are some last-minute Black Friday camera deals to shop.
Black Friday 2022: best early deals
Full-frame mirrorless cameras
APS-C mirrorless cameras
Micro fourth thirds cameras
DSLR cameras
Compact Interchangeable Lens Cameras
- If you're after other Leica cameras, DigiDirect is currently offering 5% off most models and select lenses until December 4.
Instant cameras
Action and 360º cameras
Drones
Point-and-shoot cameras
Bridge cameras
Lenses
Photo printers
Vlogging accessories
Memory cards
Tripods & Monopods
Camera bags
Other accessories
Software
Black Friday 2022: Key information
When is Black Friday 2022?
The actual Black Friday date shifts each year, although – as the name suggests – it’s always on a Friday, the Friday after Thanksgiving in the US to be precise.
This year, Black Friday is towards the end of November, and the deals bonanza will officially kick off on November 25, 2022. That’s less than a month away from Christmas, so definitely a great time to get your gift shopping out of the way, particularly if you want to save on anything you're considering buying.
Moreover, Black Friday isn't a single-day event. In Australia, the sale usually starts a day or two before the actual Black Friday date and goes on until Cyber Monday – the Monday following Black Friday which, this year, is November 28. That means you’ll have almost an entire week to find great offers, although some deals can change across that time frame.
What is Black Friday?
While the term 'Black Friday' does bring up memories of devastating bushfires for many Aussies, we're solely referring to the annual sale that takes place in November.
Black Friday sales are a huge deal in the US, but it has gained popularity in Australia now and is a firm fixture on our retail shopping calendar. The name 'Black Friday' comes from the description police in the US came up with to describe the horrendous traffic and chaos that kicked off the Christmas shopping season when stores began discounts. Later, it just referred to how retailers moved 'back into the black' after profiting from sales during this period.
While Black Friday sales in the US kick off much earlier in November these days, Aussie retailers typically kick off their campaign about a week earlier and end the offers on Cyber Monday.
Where to find the best 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.
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.
It might also help to be a little flexible on your purchase decisions. For example, if you’re after an enthusiast-level camera, it’s best to list the features you really want. Then have a few options for the bodies. That way, if you find that the Canon EOS M6 Mark II is cheaper than the Sony A6600 and both offer the feature set you’re after, you can save a decent chunk of change by opting for the bigger discount.
That said, it can be time consuming and, quite frankly, overwhelming to have to sift through hundreds of offers from each retailer to find the best bargains. And that’s where we come in. The DCW team will be on hand to wade through the quagmire that is the Black Friday sale and handpick only the biggest offers on the best products. We’ll be listing them all right here, so you’ll want to bookmark this page. We’ll also make sure this page stays updated with all the latest offers through the entire sale period.
Black Friday 2022: Predictions
When will Black Friday camera deals start?
This year, the official Black Friday date is Friday, November 25, 2022, so the best camera deals will be available from that date. However, we are seeing several retailers start their Black Friday sales earlier each year, and there's a strong possibility you will see some offers begin to trickle in about a week earlier.
Typically, Black Friday sales in Australia will begin about two days ahead of the actual date – so November 23 this year – but all the best offers will only be during the actual Black Friday/Cyber Monday weekend that lasts four days. And we'll be right here through the entire time to bring you the best offers from several retailers so you don't have to do the hard work yourself.
What Black Friday camera deals can we expect this year?
While we don't know exactly what kind of deals we should expect this year, we can predict the savings you could be able to make by casting our minds back to the last couple of sales.
While 2020 saw a staggering number of great discounts, it was a little low last year in 2021. That shouldn't come as a huge surprise, though, as we were still reeling from the knock-off effects of the pandemic, viz., stock issues. Still, we saw some seriously good snappers get good price drops, particularly the Nikon Z series on Amazon.
Ted's Cameras had some of the best offers on other brands in 2021, but we're hoping that other retailers join in the price wars and give the consumer a chance to score a brilliant bargain.
We hardly saw any DSLRs get discounted last year, and we're not expecting that to change this year. It's all about mirrorless now and we're quite sure the smaller sensor formats will be the first ones seeing Black Friday-worthy price drops, particularly Fujifilm models.
It's not just about the camera bodies though. Black Friday will see discounts on great lenses too, whether they're for DSLRs, full-frame mounts or Micro Four Thirds.
In Australia, accessories don’t quite get the same discounts as cameras and lenses, but there’s likely going to be retailers offering some kind bargain on filters, tripods and camera bags. Peak Design usually hosts its own Black Friday sale, so November would be a great time to pick up an Everyday bag.
Memory cards and portable storage units, though, usually get massive price drops during Black Friday, particularly on Amazon. So if you need to stock up on SD cards or get yourself a portable SSD to backup your images, November will be the best time to get one.
If you’re into aerial photography, you’ll be sure to find a great offer on drones in Australia as well. And the same goes for action cameras and gimbals. So you really might want to start making a shopping list now.
Black Friday 2022: 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 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 best, 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 way back in 2018, when she ordered a camera, two lenses (one of which was out of stock) and filters during Black Friday, but paid the full amount and picked up the entire kit only in mid-December.
