Ageing second hand equipment

[DaveHope]

I've bought a fair bit of second hand kit recently (Nikkor 80-200 2.8, 17-55 2.8, 2.0 TC etc) and was after a decent, fairly accurate, way of dating the kit I was buying. In most cases the person I was buying from wasn't the original owner.

So, I figured I'd put together a simple web page that people might like to contribute data to so that we can build up a decent source. The idea is that people add their serial numbers and the original purchase date to the site, so that when others go to buy equipment it can be dated. It only takes a few serial numbers and dates for each lens to narrow down the age of equipment significantly.

Say a lens has been in production since 1994. If I were to buy that from here, I'd not know if it was from 1994 or 2011. If I had data for 1996, 2001 and 2008 it'd greatly narrow down hold old that lens might be.

Without further ado, here's a quick page I knocked together - No frills and no way to add your own data yet.

http://slrschool.net/nikon-age/

Does this sound useful to anyone? If so, I'll set about collecting and entering data. Otherwise I'll get outside and take some more photos

 

[Flash In The Pan]

A quick Google would have told you it's already been done, sorry....

http://www.photosynthesis.co.nz/nikon/lenses.html

 

[DaveHope]

Ah. Good spot.

In fairness, that only seems to list the start and end dates for production runs when things change. The goal of what I posted is to get as much data as possible so as to narrow down the date as closely as possible. Some lenses have been in production for 10 years, if you have a start and end date that doesn't narrow it down much.

Still have a lot of data to add, maybe it'll be more useful once there's more data

 

[Flash In The Pan]

Ah. Good spot.

In fairness, that only seems to list the start and end dates for production runs when things change. The goal of what I posted is to get as much data as possible so as to narrow down the date as closely as possible. Some lenses have been in production for 10 years, if you have a start and end date that doesn't narrow it down much.

Still have a lot of data to add, maybe it'll be more useful once there's more data

Thst's because you can't really tell the precise age of a lens by the serial or original date of purchase unless you have a very large sample. The date of first purchase is almost immaterial as one lens could sit on a retailer's shelf for 5 or more years, whilst a 5 year newer one could sell instantly upon delivery to the shop.

At the end of the day condition is far more important than age anyway, when it comes to lenses....

 

[DaveHope]

Thst's because you can't really tell the precise age of a lens by the serial or original date of purchase unless you have a very large sample.

I disagree. If you know the start of a production run has a serial number of, say, 200000 and you have 4 or 5 samples over a 5 year period it gives you a good idea. The real difficulty is that equipment can be sat on a shelf for a month before it sells. But I don't even think that'a major problem as if something is still boxed it'll be in new condition anyway. Statistically, those case should stick out too as most retailers shift stuff fairly quickly.

The age of something does help (at least it does me) have an idea of the condition you can expect an item to me in. I completely agree that it'll vary depending on use etc though.

The date of first purchase is almost immaterial as one lens could sit on a retailer's shelf for 5 or more years, whilst a 5 year newer one could sell instantly upon delivery to the shop.

There'll certainly be the case where something sits on a shelf for a few years, but it'll be the exception rather than the rule. And if there's a handful of samples it'll sick out as the numbers are, for the most part, sequential.

At the end of the day condition is far more important than age anyway, when it comes to lenses....

Definitely. You only have to take a look at some 3 month old battered gear that's used by journalists to put you off buying kit purely on age. I'm only trying to give people an extra resource so they can be more diligent when buying used gear.