SO MANY people buy their cameras online from foreign retailers that one Sydney camera store now charges tyre kickers an ''explanation fee''; if you want to handle the camera and have a salesperson give you the low-down it will cost you $30. How else will local retailers cope with the time wasters who, armed with the information from the shop, go home and order online?

As the grey market has grown and business has been lost by local shops there have been rumours of retailers planning to set up their own Asia-based online stores, giving customers access to products at world, rather than local, prices.

It is no longer just a rumour. JB Hi-Fi has opened an online grey market store selling Canon and Nikon DSLR cameras, lenses and accessories. One of the last deterrents to internet shopping was not trusting a credit card number to an unseen and untraceable shop in Hong Kong. Now customers can buy at Asian prices from a company they know, although there will be no local warranty and repair service.

Nikon Australia warns customers the warranties will not be honoured here. JB Hi-Fi advises customers of its direct importation site that for warranty repairs the camera must be returned to the store and from there sent back to the place of origin.

Pentax importer C. R. Kennedy, which is not affected by the JB Hi-Fi move, nevertheless has a warning about batteries and the fact that grey market products ''will not meet Australian electrical standards''. This ignores the fact cameras are portable devices and chargers are designed to work with international power supplies - they would be useless to tourists if this were not so.