B&H Photo Product Scraper

Extract comprehensive product data from B&H Photo, the world's largest photography equipment retailer. This scraper collects detailed information including prices, descriptions, images, reviews, and stock status from B&H Photo's extensive catalog.

🚀 Key Features

• Comprehensive Data Extraction: Scrape product names, brands, prices, descriptions, images, reviews, and stock status.
• Flexible Input Options: Start from category pages, search terms, or specific URLs.
• Pagination Support: Automatically handles multiple pages of results.
• Detail Page Scraping: Optionally visit individual product pages for full details.
• Stock and Review Data: Includes real-time stock status and customer review counts.
• World-Class Stealth: Advanced anti-detection measures with latest browser headers, session rotation, and human-like timing.
• SEO Optimized Output: Structured data perfect for e-commerce analysis and comparison tools.
• Production Ready: Built for reliability with error handling, retries, and exponential backoff.

📊 What Data Do You Get?

Each scraped product includes:

• Product name and brand
• Current price and currency
• Stock availability
• Customer review count
• Featured image URL
• Full product description (HTML and text)
• Gallery images
• Product URL

🔧 Input Configuration

Basic Setup (Direct URL only)

This actor now accepts a direct product or category URL and will only run when you provide one of the URL fields. Keyword search (searchTerm) and category-only inputs have been removed to avoid client-side JS search issues and to be compatible with the Apify QA requirement for direct URLs.

Field	Type	Description	Example
url	String	Direct product or category URL to start scraping. Provide a product URL for the most reliable results. Example: https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1628178-REG/canon_eos_r5_mirrorless_digital_camera.html
startUrls	Array	Optional list of direct URLs if you want to scrape multiple pages at once	['https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/...']
collectDetails	Boolean	Scrape individual product pages for full details	true
results_wanted	Integer	Max products to collect	100
max_pages	Integer	Max pages to scrape	20

Advanced Options

• Proxy Configuration: Use residential proxies for best results
• Custom Cookies: Bypass regional restrictions
• Deduplication: Remove duplicate URLs automatically

📈 Output Schema

{
  "name": "Canon EOS R5 Mirrorless Digital Camera",
  "brand": "Canon",
  "category": "Digital Cameras",
  "price": 3899.00,
  "currency": "USD",
  "in_stock": true,
  "reviews": 127,
  "featured_image": "https://www.bhphotovideo.com/images/images2500x2500/canon_eos_r5_mirrorless_digital_1628178.jpg",
  "description_html": "<p>Professional mirrorless camera...</p>",
  "description_text": "Professional mirrorless camera with 45MP full-frame sensor...",
  "images": [
    "https://www.bhphotovideo.com/images/images2500x2500/canon_eos_r5_1.jpg",
    "https://www.bhphotovideo.com/images/images2500x2500/canon_eos_r5_2.jpg"
  ],
  "url": "https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1628178-REG/canon_eos_r5_mirrorless_digital_camera.html"
}

🎯 Usage Examples

Scrape Digital Cameras Category

{
  "startUrl": "https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/buy/Digital-Cameras/ci/9811/N/4288586282",
  "results_wanted": 50,
  "collectDetails": true
}

Search for Lenses

{
  "searchTerm": "lens",
  "category": "Lenses/ci/9812",
  "results_wanted": 100,
  "max_pages": 10
}

Multiple Categories

{
  "startUrls": [
    "https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/buy/Digital-Cameras/ci/9811",
    "https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/buy/Lenses/ci/9812"
  ],
  "collectDetails": false
}

⚙️ Configuration Tips

Optimizing Performance

• Use Proxies: Enable residential proxies to avoid IP blocks
• Limit Concurrency: The scraper automatically manages request rates
• Set Realistic Limits: Balance speed with data quality

Handling Large Catalogs

• Pagination: Automatically follows "Next" links
• Deduplication: Built-in duplicate URL removal
• Error Recovery: Continues scraping even if some pages fail

📋 Requirements & Limitations

• Data Freshness: Real-time scraping for current prices and availability
• Geographic Access: May require proxies for international access
• Rate Limits: Advanced stealth measures prevent blocking while maintaining speed
• JavaScript Disabled: Works without browser rendering for optimal performance

🔒 Security & Compliance

• Stealth Technology: Latest anti-detection techniques (Nov 2025 browser versions, client hints, session rotation)
• No Bot Signatures: Removes identifying headers while maintaining compatibility
• Exponential Backoff: Intelligent retry logic with jitter for failed requests
• Session Management: Aggressive rotation prevents tracking

🔍 Use Cases

• Price Comparison: Build competitive pricing databases
• Inventory Monitoring: Track stock levels across products
• Market Research: Analyze photography equipment trends
• E-commerce Integration: Feed product data to online stores
• Review Analysis: Study customer feedback patterns

🛠️ Troubleshooting

Common Issues

• No Results: Check URL format, proxy settings, and stealth headers
• 403 Errors: Automatic retry with exponential backoff and session rotation
• Incomplete Data: Enable collectDetails for full information
• Blocking: Advanced stealth measures handle anti-bot protection

Best Practices

• Start with small result sets for testing
• Use residential proxies for maximum stealth
• Monitor logs for stealth mode activation
• Allow time for exponential backoff on retries
• Use the searchTerm example to test keyword searches; if a query returns a small number of items (e.g., 4), use logs to verify if the site is paginated or uses infinite scroll. The actor includes debug logs for list pages to help Apify QA.
• NOTE: searchTerm is no longer supported by the actor. Please provide a direct url (product or category) for scraping.

📞 Support

For issues or feature requests, please check the actor's discussion forum or contact support through the Apify platform.

🔎 QA Checklist (Apify)

• Ensure startUrl or searchTerm example is present in INPUT.json (done).
• Ensure proxyConfiguration default uses Apify Proxy residential groups (done in input_schema.json).
• Ensure dataset_schema.json includes fields for primary output (done).
• Avoid leaking secrets — no API keys in package.json (done).
• Provide clear README usage and examples (done).

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Keywords: B&H Photo scraper, photography equipment data, product scraper, e-commerce data extraction, camera prices, lens inventory, photography market research