used lens

[jann1033]

got to thinking after seeing a used 18-125 on ebay..

are these ever available at maybe a local retailer ie camera shop or something...nervous about buying it on ebay due to not knowing what you might get but locally if i could see it up close and personal might be different...if so any tips for buying used lenses, ie steer clear from.... thinking about my own lens, they look as good as when i got them so would you think anyone would ever sell anything worth buying used?

 

[handicap18]

Yes, but it is usually a larger mom and pop type store. I know there is a small chain in the Boston area, Hunts Photo & Video that does have used lenses. I was in one of the stores a few weeks back to get a new lens and saw a small display of older used lenses. It wasn't a big display though. I'm going to their main store on Wed to check some other things out. I'll take a look to see what they have.

I also came across a web site a while back that sold used lenses, but I can't find it in my bookmarks.

Also check out craigslist.org that is an online classified. Some area's have tons of listings. I check out the Boston area one every now and then and have seen camera equipment listed, though none that would go with my setup.

 

[jann1033]

thanks

 

[captaincrash]

IMO...

... buying on ebay is OK with a few provisions. I look for paypal extended coverage even though I'm not using the $1000 limit. Plus I lean towards postings that offer a refund. I am tempted by the 30-50% savings you can typically get on eBay... but since having had some recent "near" dissappointments I've grown more weary.

On the other hand - I've bought and sold over 500 transactions. 80-90% is buying... 20-10% selling. Only 1~1.5% have been troublesome one way or another.

Oh - and Craugslist is great for buying and terrible for selling. On craigslist you generally draw down the seller - while on eBay it's bidding up. Of course, eBay has it well organized to find and show; and CL is a bit of a totally wild crap shot.

For less expensive lenses I am beginning to lean towards buying retail. Getting at $1000+ lenses - the demand is so hot for Canon gear - that I don't see any bargains. All I see are stolen eBay accoumnts with the bargain offers!!!! In fact recently I detected (and reported) a stolen account listing a low cost 28-105! You might ask - why would anyone waste their time on that? Well... these folks were from a country where a few hundred $ represents the average persons' annual earnings there! So yeah... what we earn here is fantasy for folks all over the world. And it represents a huge temptation for would be foreign criminals.

So - aside from that - the short answer is ... ask the seller if they guarantee condition and functionality. Add 98%+ feedback greater then 50 ~ preferably 100+ and then try to win one for less then the average of the last 30 days worth of sales on the same lense AND keep it under your target budget. And you've engineered a deal. The time involved is NOT worth it when it takes too much effort - considering what we earn an hour when working or simply existing! Yeah - make 100,000 a year and that's like $2000 a week. That is about $280 a day IF you worked 7 days a week... or it's $400 a day if 5 days a week. And that is $50 a hour! Make half that annually and it's $25 an hour on a 40 hour week. I know.. it's not that simple after living expenses, taxes and insurance. We all have relatively limited disposable income. Well - that's the rub now - is it not?

OK - gotta go! Please excuse the unedited errors above. Gotta run now!

TTFN

 

[spoon2003]

Jann1033

I don't work for sigma4less or in anyway affiliated with them. The sigma 18-125 is $235, new, free ship and 7 day return policy.


Sue

 

[Kelly Grannell]

This is just me and my paranoia, I don't buy used lens. In most cases if *I* sell a used lens is because either there is something wrong with it (not up to my standard because every copy of each lens may differ from another -- read my experience below --), or a backup lens (which means not used, ie: new).

I tend to collect all my lenses.

The only time I got rid of my entire collection was when I moved to digital, I find that my lens collection are not up to par to digital's light-fall-off requirement.

By the end of the year (the latest) I will get rid of my backup Sigma 18-125 but still thinking about keeping my other one (the one that now have been ignored for the past 7 months) if (and ONLY if) Canon releases its 18-125 (or 200) with IS AND the Image Quality is at par or better than my Sigma 18-125.

My experience with multiple copies of the same lens yielding differing results:

Believe it or not, I've bought 3 Sigma 18-125 and 4 Sigma 18-200 and in the end I have to re-sell or return all but 2 Sigma 18-125 because only two of them passed my minimum level of acceptability. The same goes with Canon 17-55 f/2.8 IS, I got the sharpest one out of 5 identical models I tested, Canon 70-200 f/2.8L IS I got 1 out of 2 copies, bought 3 Canon 17-40 f/4L, none of them passed my standard.

Where all those below-my-standard lenses go? eBay or the likes of those. Some of them actually went to my teacher. He never printed anything larger than 12"x18", so a bit of unsharpness or a bit of CA are fine for his application but not for me.

Okay enough with my rant.

 

[jann1033]

that does lead to another question...if you buy at a local store or not...will a local store let you take in your camera and actually test the lens? if , as it seems, it's kind of hit or miss with any of the lenses it would be a real pain to have to ship back and forth( not to mention the cost) so is it worth the extra you'd pay at a local place. there is a local little camera shop but i think he charges way over the normal price i can get online. also is a dodd camera nearby ( not sure is that is national or just had a bunch of stores locally)

 

[jann1033]

IMO...
For less expensive lenses I am beginning to lean towards buying retail. Getting at $1000+ lenses - the demand is so hot for Canon gear - that I don't see any bargains. All I see are stolen eBay accoumnts with the bargain offers!!!! In fact recently I detected (and reported) a stolen account listing a low cost 28-105! You might ask - why would anyone waste their time on that? Well... these folks were from a country where a few hundred $ represents the average persons' annual earnings there! So yeah... what we earn here is fantasy for folks all over the world. And it represents a huge temptation for would be foreign criminals.
/QUOTE]

thanks for the ebay info. i have bought a couple things on it but nothing expensive and you lost me here...so you mean the articles are stolen? ( sorry dont' understand this part)

 

[Kelly Grannell]

no, the account is hacked by somebody else and sell nonexistent lens/item.

 

[jann1033]

greaaatttt, it's probably where i just bought batteries

how could you tell? this place had a website but my paypal went through a few days ago and haven't heard from them

 

[Kelly Grannell]

places that sells batteries don't usually get hacked. It's the larger $$ items (in the hundreds) that may or may not be scams.

 

[Kelly Grannell]

that does lead to another question...if you buy at a local store or not...will a local store let you take in your camera and actually test the lens? if , as it seems, it's kind of hit or miss with any of the lenses it would be a real pain to have to ship back and forth( not to mention the cost) so is it worth the extra you'd pay at a local place. there is a local little camera shop but i think he charges way over the normal price i can get online. also is a dodd camera nearby ( not sure is that is national or just had a bunch of stores locally)

Well, the thing is what's bad for me not necessarily bad for my (photography) teacher and what's bad for him may be a good thing for me.

Take for example. Canon 17-55 f/2.8 IS. My copy is tack sharp at f/2.8, "only" sharp at other aperture, but I will seldom take pictures with this lens at an aperture other than f/2.8, so I keep this copy. Another copy is tack sharp at f/4 but not as sharp at f/2.8 and my teacher likes to use f/4 a lot, so he keeps that copy of the lens.

Another example, Canon 17-85 f/5.6 IS. Most people are okay with the IQ of the lens. For me, I'd rather use my Sigma 18-125 without IS rather than suffer with the (to me) bad IQ.

Also about chromatic abberation. How large you're going to enlarge the pictures? Mostly 4x6 and 8x12 at the most? I've bought a Canon 24mm TS-E lens that for my purpose the CA is absolutely horrendous (I WILL only use this lens for images I'll enlarge to 20"x30"). Most people won't enlarge it to that size. Even so, they'll be content with fixing the CA using PhotoshopCS2.

So unless it's really bad (front focus, back focus, severe flare, severe CA that can be easily noticed at 5x7) you shouldn't worry about it.

I'm that picky for 2 reasons.

1. I'm crazy
2. I don't want to use post processing as much as I can.

For those reasons, I almost never buy my lens online. If I can return the item, I'll return it, if my friend should pay re-stocking fee for it, then I'll either re-imburse her re-stocking fee or I sell the item on eBay, FredMiranda or any other venues. If the lens is severely out of spec, of course, I just exchange it.

Again, honestly, how many people are as crazy as me?

 

[jann1033]

Again, honestly, how many people are as crazy as me?

: can i get back to you on that? I'm still counting.....




thanks so basically since i'm planning on this for shot for my own use, it's not a big worry

 

[Kelly Grannell]

nope, nothing (much) to worry about.

PS: you should start and end the count with the number "one"

 

[0bli0]

generally speaking, lenses outlast bodies. buying a used 'L', for example, can save hundreds of dollars or more. there are things you need to look at, obviously.
personally, i don't buy used lenses from eBay, but new ones are ok. when i buy used, i like to be able to see and feel them.

 

[Geoff_M]

I wouldn't avoid eBay for used lenses. I've bought one there before with good results. There's lots of good reasons why someone would sell a lens other than it being bad. Some times people buy faster glass and sell the slower lens, sometimes people buy one lens that'll replace the focal range of two lens and sell the replaced lenses, other times people sell stuff after they drop a lot of $$$ on a system and they realize that it's just gathering dust.

If you want a reliable source for used equipment and are nervous about eBay, try KEH Camera Exchange at keh.com They are the largest used camera retailer in the US and are great to work with. I've purchased from them and their wear grading is very conservative.