Sadly, I'm not a man of great means I've been saving all my pennies for quite some time now, and Canon Refurbished pricing puts the 5D Mark IV nearly within my reach. My question is, can the quality be trusted? If you have had experience with the program (bodies or lenses), I would greatly appreciate you sharing your story with me.
Thank You!!
-Matt
p.s. I ran a brief search, but didn't find a thread about the product quality/reliability as a whole. If it's there, and I missed it, please feel free to flog me accordingly
I personally have not bought any refurbished items from Canon, but only because they are not made available to me in Canada. Otherwise I would not hesitate to buy refurbished. In fact I think there are even some advantages over buying *new* in that a refurbished piece has not only passed through the original quality control of the manufacturer, but has been subjected to a 'second set of eyes' during refurbishing.
I have purchased several items labeled 'refurbished (various electronic devices) and have never experienced a single problem with any of them .... something that i cannot say equally of *new* products I have purchased
Bought my 5DIV refurbished from Canon and cannot distinguish from new. Comes with same 1 year warrantee (and was extended by using a good credit card).
I believe the quality control for Canon's factory-refurbished products is higher than it is for brand new products. You shouldn't have any problems at all. Just make sure you buy it straight from Canon though, and not some shady seller.
I only ever bought one factory-refurbished product from Canon, and that was a 5DII. It was practically brand new with less than 5 shutter actuations. The white box and the lower price tag were the only differences between it and a brand new 5DII.
I've bought many refurbs from CanonDirect and they looked, felt and smelled like new. My last camera purchase, three months ago, was a 6D MKII and 24-105 STM kit lens for $1299. According to ShutterCount, it had 93 shutter activations. The two SL1 I bought before it had 14 and 19 activations.
I bought a refurb 28 2.8 IS USM lens that back-focused. AFMA on my other cameras made it tack sharp but I bought it as a walk around for the SL1 which lacked AFMA. They exchanged it for a 24 2.8 IS USM and it was tack sharp without AFMA. A bit of a pain calling for a RA and mailing it back—they tried to make me talk to a tech and not as fast or easy as Amazon returns—but it worked out okay.
Refurbs are per definition used and rejected gear... Some folks buy two and free lenses and the rejects ends up as refurbs... Is the price really right? YMMV.
Absolutely! I’ve bought 3 lenses from there: 24-70 IS, 35 IS and 100-400 II. All looked brand new and had all their original accessories minus the box.
I prefer to buy most of my camera gear there. Just wait for a sale if you can. They happen several times a year and are usually 10% off but sometimes more. Also, they have financing through PayPal to help ease the purchase if you REALLY want something but are strapped for cash. 😉
Here is all I know regarding refurbished from Canon.
I bought a 430 EX III a few months ago from their refurbished store. It was something crazy like $150. So, I receive it and the front cover was broken. Annoyed, I contacted Canon. Honestly, their customer service experience was a bit frustrating, but they sent me another one and I sent that one back. So no real issue, everything was taken care of.
Regarding their customer service, I was told from him that their refurbished products "are new". He spoke very highly of their refurbished store, and said that basically they are either returns or overstock from retailers that get pushed back to Canon. In either case, since the products could have been handled, Canon sells them as refurbished instead of new.
To me, that description didn't technically meet the "are new" definition that he gave me, but perhaps insinuates that these are not products that are broken, repaired, and then sold. I don't know. I'll buy refurbished if it's a good price, that's basically it.
Their customer service was simply hard to get in touch with. When Amazon has spoiled me being able to address issues within five minutes, it was frustrating waiting 20-30 minutes on hold via Canon. I guess that's a first world problem.
I've bought refurbished including 1D X Mark II that looked new and was $900 cheaper than new. No problems after 8 months and tens of thousands of photos.
I have bought several products from the Canon refurb site, including my 5DM4. Everything works great! No complaints there. Just keep in mind that they
mark everything as a refurb. I am not a fan of them putting marks on my gear. I’d rather they mark the serial number somehow.
Per whose definition? Your response is clearly not backed up with experience aa far as Canon is concerned.
artificialyello wrote:
Refurbs are per definition used and rejected gear... Some folks buy two and free lenses and the rejects ends up as refurbs... Is the price really right? YMMV.
Refurbished gear can be anything sent back to the manufacture and then fixed to factory specs. This could be nothing at all(a LOT of people return things saying something isn’t workin when it’s just fine but they have buyers remorse) or more complex. But for the most part, imo, buying a refurbished item is a good way to get something cheaper and bonus when a 1 year warranty is included.
I purchased a refurb 5D MKIV about 6 monthes ago for around $2200 on sale. It had 14 shutter accusations on it and appeared like new and was not marked “refurb” anywhere. In fact, I have never purchased any Canon refurb item that was marked in any way. Also, I was able to register the 5D MKIV with Canon.
I've had two Canon refurbs, a 300D Rebel in 2005 in Canada (returns were put in a generic box and sold at some Canadian retailers), and a 70-200mm f2.8L IS v1 in 2006 (a refurb in a generic box, shipped from Canon NJ ? to a Washington DC area dealer).
Both were perfect out of the box. The Rebel is still running to this day, 13 years later!
I would not hesitate to buy a factory refurbished Canon product.
In fact I think there are even some advantages over buying *new* in that a refurbished piece has not only passed through the original quality control of the manufacturer, but has been subjected to a 'second set of eyes' during refurbishing.
I agree completely. In modern manufacturing, new products often aren't even tested before they leave the factory for cost savings, presuming the quality control process is in order. So in some ways, a refurbished lens at least has been checked over by somebody and that is even better in my view.
Are they rejects? Well sure, that 70-200mm was rejected by someone. For many reasons, like remorse, they used it once for a wedding and returned it, or maybe it was broken out of the box. And yeah, maybe it was the least sharp out of three some very discriminating purchaser might have discarded. But it's the same gamble as if you buy any lens--a brand new one off the shelf could similarly be the least sharp out of the three at the store, the six in the warehouse and the hundred at Canon's DC. You can always return the refurb and get another if you really think it's off.
I think the quality of the refurbished items has to be kept as it's Canon itself selling them. Their own reputation and brand is reflected by those items. Same as Apple refurbished items, which even get new serial numbers, apparently.
There are some places selling "refurbished" items, which are clearly off lease from a corporate or educational institution or are poorly processed returns. In the latter, a manufacturer has taken the returns, perhaps from a retailer who has contracts to do so, then decided to surplus the lot of returns to a discount retailer, who in turn cursorily checks them over and "refurbishes" them, then puts them on the shelf. I went to look at a "certified refurbished" laptop recently at a discount store which had human and pet hair tangled into the power supply velcro strap. Ick.
I have bought three things from Canon Refurb: a 5D Mark II; a 7D, and a 270EXII flash. All were indistinguishable from new.
Frankly, I expect that I'll never again buy a significant piece of camera equipment new. Both camera bodies I have now were bought used on the open market (one off this B&S forum here, one from Craigslist at home). Canon Refurb is far safer than that!
I've been saving all my pennies for quite some time now, and Canon Refurbished pricing puts the 5D Mark IV nearly within my reach. My question is, can the quality be trusted? If you have had experience with the program (bodies or lenses), I would greatly appreciate you sharing your story with me.