i just ran across a thread on another camera forum asking about buying lenses on ebay. i've bought a couple lenses on ebay, some in-store at samy's camera (used to use the hollywood store, but i love the culver city store), at least one on amazon, several - a mix of new and used - at b&h, plus a couple from keh. i've bought cameras a couple other places, but i think those are all the places i've bought lenses. i've never had a bad lens buying experience so far, and when i think about it, there are good things about buying in person and online. how about you? where do you buy your lenses, and are there stores or methods you are happier buying them?
In my country, from well known (online if necessary) stores with photographic material. One of them offers also consignment - a place to sell/buy your/others used equipment. The advantage is that the used equipment is supervised by the specialists of that store and returns are guarrantied.
I have a lot of trust in the second-hand market. I have bought a lot of lenses this way. More so that in my country I can pay when I receive the stuff, and I can verify the items before paying. But I also bought a few lenses from eBay, from other countries, with good results. Only one time I have bought a lens which was not in a good shape. This could be about 5% of my acquisitions in the last 7-8 year.
I am pretty much limited to eBay and charity shops - all of my gear is circa 1975 - occasionally I see some stuff in bricks and mortar shops but the last thing I bought in a shop was my Nikon F from a pokey little backstreet shop in Tokyo - teeny shop but my oh my did he have some gear in there - an Alladins cave.
Mostly car boot fairs, charity shops and occasionally eBay. But I'm mostly buying to sell on, not to keep, though I did recently splurge on a Nikon AF 50/1.4
Ebay, Gumtree, Facebay, Charity (Goodwill) shops and even Cash Converters for a Canon 50mm F1.8 mk11. I have found that of the 70's and 80's lenses that Sigma zooms have been the most disappointing and that the Tamron SP lenses (coupled with a K/A adapter I own for Pentax) have been the most pleasing. CZJ and to some degree Pentacon primes are often good value compared to some and please more than some Japanese made lenses. Not having much caution about buying lenses, I have a number of lenses that are have fungus, sticky (or broken) aperture Iris blades and a couple with just seized up Focussing rings. I never learn! Recent purchases include a Canon 50mm F2.5 macro, a couple of Vivitar primes with C/Y mounts and a C/Y to EOS adapter that hopefully is on the way from China. My wife is not happy about the number of lenses I have but LBA is a recognised disease....isn't it?
I know that I can buy anything photography related from the internet. But, I prefer to go to a bricks and mortar shop in the city that I live in. I can have a hands on with the item. They have a pretty good range of both new and second hand items. They are are a little more expensive. Plus, if you don't support them, you can't expect them to stay open. Gary
The majority of my lenses come from St.Vincent De Paul ( a charity shop), the quality is good as I volunteer there and check and price them myself.
This question really comes down to the type of lenses you want and the best/easiest place to get them. For my digital canons I have brought new, and online as the best in town options are best buy (we had a Ritz camera but it closed). So buying higher end gear ends up going to B&H Adorama or Amazon where i know i can trust them, they have competitive pricing, and I can return easily if needed. For film its harder, 20 years ago for 35mm i did have local options for film lenses sold used, but not now, so as the guys above as noted you need to focus on flee markets or thrift store type options. This is a market that has become rather niche. For medium and large format I think your best bets are specialized forums and ebay to be honest. I have bought the majority of my 67 and 645 systems off ebay, you just need to be patient and pay very close attention to the listing and photos. My Shen Hao 4x5 on the other hand I bout from someone on the large format forums who was selling off the whole system. Sure there are still options sold new here, but the used market is thriving and you can get some nice well cared for equipment.
I also buy them online. To be honest, I also gave the same thought as people really should buy lenses in person rather than online. There are so many complications of buying a lens online specially for me as there are no official ebay or amazon in my country. I cannot just return it if there are any flaws.
I think a lot depends on the seller and how honest they seem to be - I never trust a description that says something like "like new" on a second-hand item, but if the seller lists any faults and includes good photos (e.g. not the standard product shots you can find on line) I'm usually willing to take a chance - sometimes I've gone badly wrong, of course, but that's always going to be a risk with second hand. Of course I'm mostly buying stuff I can return if necessary, from UK sellers, so I don't have a lot of problems with overseas sellers. At the moment, of course, buying on line is about the only option I have - really don't want to travel about on public transport if I can avoid it.
