lens from Japan

realspeed

realspeed

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Just been looking at the panasonic 35-100mm MFT lens. Does it pay to by used from Japan?
that is what I did . here in the UK That lens sells new for £999 to £1099. so I based the price below on the highest

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This is the lens I bought from Japan it is like new. now guess how much I paid for it ??? would you believe it is the same latest version? well it is.

I got this for £587.87 it was price in US dollars so had to convert. That is a basic saving of £512 then imort duty of around £130 brings it up to £642.
So on this lens alone including inport duty it is a saving of £457.
now times this "aprox" by the four lenses I purchased from japan is a saving of £1848.

To my mind this is the way to buy as new lenses (japan call it mint or near mint)

I leave it up to you to think about it
 
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I’ve only ever bought 2 things from Japan. A Mamiya RB67 and a lens, I forget which lens. The Mamiya was perfect, the lens however had a mark inside that wasn’t mentioned or shown, had to send that back.
 
Understand why you had to send it back.
For me if I can't see clearly the front lens glass then I don't go near. If the description mentions dust -fungus or pealing i don't go near. If it doesn't say mint or near mint I don't go near. I hate to think how many Pana. MFT 100-400mm lenses I looked at from Japan in my price range.If it wasn't for those I mentioned then it was for some part missing such as lens caps- hoods etc.
Yes one has to be careful about anything buying used on the interweb but there are bargains to be had
 
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I’ve had some good stuff before. I got a working canon a1, with a lens, a bag, filters and a canon point and shoot for £50.
The best thing I ever got was a Rollei 35. It was listed as not working, the shutter wouldn’t. I took a gamble and got it for £45. I moved the lens in an out a few times and it worked. I never got to test the light meter. Stupidly I sold it soon after as it wasn’t my thing at the time.

Like you I don’t usually take gambles anymore unless it’s priced at very cheaply.
There’s so many cameras on eBay listed as untested. I generally think that’s code for not working but I don’t want to list it as such
 
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I have used buyee.jp to buy local market only (JDM) watches from Japan. They are an auction intermediary for eBay Japan, Yahoo auctions (surprisingly big over there) and others.

Through them you buy the item. It is shipped to buyee and they ship it on to the UK after they have inspected it to make sure it is correct. Generally I am buying at half to two thirds the price I can get in the UK including import duties.

Got to be careful to not go mad and buy all sorts of stuff!
 
realspeed said:
Understand why you had to send it back.
For me if I can't see clearly the front lens glass then I don't go near. If the description mentions dust -fungus or pealing i don't go near.
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WEX routinely write in their descriptions that there is 'very light dust throughout the optics, although this will not affect image quality in any way'. This is even on the lenses marked 9+. I've bought lenses from them at 9 or even 9- and haven't been able to see any dust.

I think it's all a bit of a lottery sometimes since I took a Sigma 150-600mm to LCE and they said it had fungal growth (I'd had it less than nine months and it had never been out except in warm sunny weather) and they didn't want it. I sent it to WEX and they gave me what they quoted with no mention of fungus or dust. Make of that what you will.
 
But you're comparing Japanese used prices to UK new prices?

A like new version of that lens from somewhere like MPB is far closer in price. Around £744 including 12 month warranty.
 
Kane I think your missing the point. It is a saving against the price of new here in the UK. Not comparing UK used to Japanese used.
There are conflicting reports about MPB which is why I would not go to them . Although it is not up to me to judge as I have never used them
 
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realspeed said:
Kane I think your missing the point. It is a saving against the price of new here in the UK. Not comparing UK used to Japanese used.
There are conflicting reports about MPB which is why I would not go to them . Although it is not up to me to judge as I have never used them
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Bear in mind that people are more likely to complain rather than praise …
 
realspeed said:
Kane I think your missing the point. It is a saving against the price of new here in the UK. Not comparing UK used to Japanese used.
There are conflicting reports about MPB which is why I would not go to them . Although it is not up to me to judge as I have never used them
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I’ve used MPB twice, both xpro 1s, about 3-4 apart. The first was better than they listed it as. The second was good but the rear wheel didn’t always register. I used some contact cleaner and it improved it but didn’t work fully. They hadn’t mentioned anything about the rear wheel in the listing
 
mav said:
wex have one in excellent condition for £665 with a 12 month warranty, used stuff I have bought from them and park cameras have always been better than described .

if you have to return a lens to Japan how easy is it to get a refund on the import Duty
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I think you can work that out for yourself, Even I can do that.
 
I have to say I am a little surprised that the lenses i have bought from Japan don't have the latest firmware update. So just wondering who on here has not checked the firmware updates on their camera or lens. It would be interesting to know

Some of the updates using window 11 and the pansonic G9ii on either camera or lens did not work. Yet on my wifes appleMac I can do the firmware updates without any problems. Yet again with lenses sometimes I can do the firmware update with the Panasonic G9.
Now wether it is that Panasonic are not up to speed with Microsoft or Microsoft are not up to speed with Panasonic I don't know

One example was updating a Panasonic lens. Trying to do it with the G9ii was impossible but easy using the G9 previous version. you work it out because I could not undestand why. The only thing Ii can think of not all the downloads for the G9ii were not developed by Panasonic at the time
 
realspeed said:
Kane I think your missing the point. It is a saving against the price of new here in the UK. Not comparing UK used to Japanese used.
There are conflicting reports about MPB which is why I would not go to them . Although it is not up to me to judge as I have never used them
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That makes no sense, why would you compare a second hand price to a new price? Of course a used lens is going to be cheaper than a new one no matter which territory you buy it in and there's no way I'd pay the UK used price for a non-UK item, it doesn't make any sense given the potential pitfalls with support and the reduced second hand value.
mav said:
wex have one in excellent condition for £665 with a 12 month warranty, used stuff I have bought from them and park cameras have always been better than described .

if you have to return a lens to Japan how easy is it to get a refund on the import Duty
Click to expand...
Having recently been through the process it has been streamlined a bit but it's still a pain in the neck and quite time consuming, I'd accept the hassle of a non-UK item if it was much cheaper than the UK price or I couldn't get it in the UK but doing that for an item that can be bought in the UK for a similar price is an odd decision.
 
I've bought a few lenses from Japanese sellers and had a great experience every time...
 
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