Understanding secondhand blurb by the shop seller!

Ellie Jones

Ellie Jones

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I should really first say hi again, has haven't been on the forum for a while... Shall leg over into intro in a bit.

Due to budget I'm going to have to go down the second hand route... So far my research on a couple of lens, in the description blurb on a lot it mention, dust in the lens!

Question
When the lens is being sold by a camera shop, how might this impact on the lens performance, when do I start to worry that I'm spending good money on something that's duff!

Any other pitfalls that I should be weary about, when purchasing from a shop second hand!

The lens I'm considering...

Something like an ?-400-600mm Zoom for the Canon EOS 1200D EF fit

For wild life photography, so from the dear in the woods, and the flippen King fisher down the canal bank, that I don't really stand an hope of in hell of capturing with the EF 75-300 kit lens I've got.

I'm open to any suggestion on perhaps a lens which would do what I want....
 
Have a look at the sigma 150-600 contemporary, or the Sport.

A bit of dust in th lens isn't going to cause any major problems, but I guess it depends on how much dust s a but of dust. The old canon 100-400 had a push pull zoom and is well known for being a dust trap because it was sucked in when zooming.

Not sure what your budget is but the sigma mentioned above can be had for around £800 brand new and is actually a very capable lens.
 
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Sounds like you have been looking at MPB or Wex :) Either way they are really just covering themselves when they mention dust. It is extremely rare for dust to affect image quality in anyway and most, if not all, zoom lenses will have some dust in them. The good shops that sell second hand gear offer a warranty, MPB for example offer 6 months, some like Grays offer 12 (but they are Nikon only). The likes of MPB, Wex, Mifsuds, Ffordes etc will always allow returns if you are not satisfied with the lens.
 
Yep, I've been looking at the main lot....

I did ask the same question on another forum, and was given a link to a blog where they should the impact or should I say lack of, using a lens with a rather shattered front lens... and reassurance that some dust won't impact as well.

I would have liked to go new, but alas budget wise just a bit more than I would like to pay at the moment, so second hand to keep the cost down. I did find what appears to be to an Tamaron 150-600mm said to be in excellent condition, which should be here Thursday. Fingers crossed
 
if you look to go 2nd hand in the future (alas budget is the same for me) - then the fine people of this forum are usually good folk too :-) . Ive bought a couple of things.
 
Ellie Jones said:
Yep, I've been looking at the main lot....

I did ask the same question on another forum, and was given a link to a blog where they should the impact or should I say lack of, using a lens with a rather shattered front lens... and reassurance that some dust won't impact as well.

I would have liked to go new, but alas budget wise just a bit more than I would like to pay at the moment, so second hand to keep the cost down. I did find what appears to be to an Tamaron 150-600mm said to be in excellent condition, which should be here Thursday. Fingers crossed
Click to expand...

That would a Tamron 150-600mm, I have the self same lens and it's very capable

Good luck with it

Heres a shot I grabbed using that lens

Red Kite Pair by Les Moxon, on Flickr

Les
 
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Wow Les, what an amazing photo... Something for me to aspire to.

I'm lucky that I live on the Somerset Levels with 4 nature reserves dotted around, and out on the coast at Steart Point, they've opened the newly created Salt and Fresh water Marshes reserves... Then I got the Quantock Hills, which I drive over on my way to work.

Then down side from what I can see with the lens, is it's shear weight just under 2kg, should have seen my hubby's face when I told him, how much I'll be lugging about lol, but I did have intention of replacing my existing camera case for a ruck sack style, as I'm finding a pain using it and handbag.... As I have T1 diabetes, so when out and about I need to take, emergency supplies with me a hypo kit, spares for my insulin pump, phone etc... So a rucksack type bag, should mean that I can get my camera and diabetic kit in one bag!

When I showed hubby a picture of the lens last night, he asked what the earth was that? (the mount collar) explained due to the weight of the lens, you attach the lens to the tripod/mono pod rather than the camera body.... Haven't has yet told him, that I'm probably going to have to change my tripod, which is only a cheap and cheerful one, which at the moment has served it's purpose well...
 
I've bought many used lenses and have never bought a duffer yet.
If buying from a shop they should have tested it and made sure it's ok and they should also give you a warranty on it of at least 3 months.
I have a Sigma 50-500 OS and I can tell you that there's no "probably" about it, if your tripod is a "cheap and cheerful" one then you WILL be upgrading it. :D
I have a Manfrotto 055XPROB which is more than sturdy enough.
 
Well, I took a punt found a Tamron 150-800 lens from a shop in Gloucestershire called Clifton camera's, comes with 6 months warranty.... I was impressed with the packaging, rather large box was handed over, opened it up to see if was filled with polystyrene chips, so had to dig for the lens, which was in it's original box and wrapped in a double layer of bubble wrap...

As to the lens, well why did I worry... No scratches, no dents yes a couple speaks of dust in the front lens... But boy does it take a picture Well chuffed with what I took today considering I did it hand held.....

3 more things added to my list.
  1. Ruck Sack- Even though well worth it, lugging it over a mile to an hide on a local nature reserve was hard going.
  2. Monopod- yep got some good photo's hand held, but I'm hoping for improvement with one, has yes my arm did get tired holding the weight when shooting
  3. Memory cards- Up until now, my 16gb card has served well, but as I shoot in both jpeg and raw, I did actually run out of memory card... So another one or two is needed.
  4. I need to buy a decent bird identification book.... So I know what I'm taking a piccy of!

Mind you, buying said lens has cost me a surcharge of over an £100, has I popped out an brought hubby a pair of binoculars!

But my fav of the day is this one (that is if it works)

 
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