Wirecutter’s best deals: Save $100 on a Vizio M-Series LED TV

Clam Quick-Set Escape Canopy Tent

Street price: $285; MSRP: $320; deal price: $215

The best price we’ve seen to date on this tent, and a big drop from the last time we saw it on sale. Back during May, we posted it at $255, and this is $40 below that.

The Clam Quick-Set Escape Canopy Tent is our upgrade pick for the best canopy tent. Kalee Thompson wrote, “As we pulled this monster out of its box we were skeptical that we would get it erected in anything close to the promised 45 seconds. We were wrong. This hexagonal shelter pulls open like an accordion; each of its walls pops out with a firm pull on a looped handle located in the middle of each side panel. The final step is popping up the roof, which has a generous center height of 7 feet 6 inches (one inch taller than the Mountain View). There are no poles to connect, no sleeves to thread them through. The whole thing is remarkably easy to set up, even for one person; the family at the next campsite was amazed at my tent prowess when I set it up solo.”

Vizio M60-C3 60-Inch LED TV

Street price: $1,000; MSRP: $1,300; deal price: $900

While we often saw this drop to $1,000 around the holidays, we didn’t really see it drop below that. After the holidays, prices went up to the $1,100 and $1,200 range, with this new drop to $900 being the best price we’ve seen.

The Vizio M60-C3 is our runner-up pick for the best TV. Chris Heinonen said, “If the Samsung is unavailable (or if you just want a bigger screen for your dollar) we recommend the Vizio M-Series. It also looks very good most of the time but falls behind the Samsung when it comes to very dark scenes and motion. The 32-zone dynamic backlight helps to improve dark scenes, but the flaws of a dynamic backlight are much more visible on a 65-inch TV than they are on the 43-inch version we picked for our favorite $500(ish) TV.“

In terms of value, he wrote, “But for screen size per dollar, the Vizio M-Series is your best value today even if it does come in slightly behind the Samsung in overall image quality.”

Nikon 35mm f/1.8G AF-S DX Lens

Street price: $200; MSRP: $200; deal price: $167

The best price we’ve seen on this lens through Amazon, and a rare sale on a lens that’s already a great value. The last drop was around March, the only worthwhile sale of the past 12 months, which brought it down to $180.

The Nikon 35mm f/1.8G is our pick fast prime pick in our Nikon lenses guide. Amadou Diallo wrote, “If you can afford only a single lens, this is the one to get. It’s small, does well in low light, and creates lovely background blur.”

For some more detail, “If you’re coming from a kit lens, you’ll immediately appreciate our pick’s wide f/1.8 maximum aperture—most kit zooms stop at f/3.5. An aperture this wide lets in a lot more light, making it easier to shoot in dim situations like at concerts, in theaters, or at birthday parties as well as outdoors at night. The wide aperture also lets you blur the background, getting a wonderful, creamy, out-of-focus area, referred to as bokeh, that helps to draw attention to your subject.”

Olympus M.Zuiko 40-150 mm f/4.0-5.6 Lens

Street price: $150; MSRP: $200; deal price: $100

One of the more versatile and affordable of the Olympus lenses on sale at the moment. We saw this price back in February, though it’s been in the $150-$200 range since then.

The 40-150mm zoom lens is our pick for the best zoom lens for Micro Four Thirds cameras. Tim called it “good and supremely affordable.” He said “It’s great for any situation where you want to shoot something far away, and that makes it an excellent tourist lens. So you can shoot wildlife and birds pretty well; it’s great for getting a shot of landmarks that are a bit further away than you’d really like; and it’s solid for taking to a sports event to catch the action on the field.”

Deals change all the time, and some of these may have expired. To see an updated list of current deals, please go to The Wirecutter.com.