Hi everyone,
I am interested in buying a used Contx 35-70 from KEH. It's listed in EX+ condition. Has anyone here purchased used lenses from KEH? If so, have you been pleased with their lens grading. Particularly, is EX+ pretty good? They say the "glass is clear." To me this means image quality should be as new and there should be no scratches or dust in the barrel. Is this a reasonable expectaion? Thanks so much!
-Phil
I have ordered from KEH a number of times and I have always been satisfied. I find that KEH is quite conservative in their ratings and I would expect an EX+ to be in great shape. I don't know if I would expect no dust, however. Often even brand new lenses have dust. There has to be a lot of dust before it will effect your images anyway. I would expect no scratches on the glass and the barrel to be in very good shape, but keep in mind it is still a used lens. I hope this helps.
I regularly use KEH, great company. As a matter of fact I just had a delivery last evening of a couple of Pentax 645 lenses that were rated EX+. When I finally got the bubble wrap off of them they look absolutely new. Their ratings are conservative and if there is a problem they will fix it.
I've only bought one lens from them and would disagree with the statement that they are conservative in their ratings. In my case the rating was accurate - so don't always expect the lens to be in better condition than advertised.
I have bought several lenses and bodies from KEH and their ratings have always been dead on. Never had any problems at all. Very easy to deal with and very friendly as well.
I received a lens from KEH today. I find them conservative in their ratings and much better than average ebay transaction. My 35-70 came from KEH and was rated EX. I would take it as a LN-.
I don't look for dust in the lens, but I've never purchased a lens from KEH that didn't have a perfect glass coating.
I've bought several lenses from KEH, their ratings were at least accurate and sometimes on the conservative side. The 35-70 that I bought from them was rated as EX and was basically LN -- I think it was rated lower just because it came without caps.
Paul
Thanks everyone for their responses. Based on everyone's input, I decided to buy the lens, only to find out it was purchased in the few hours since I posted this... oh well.
I just got an Contax G2 body in BGN and it was in almost new shape except for one minor scratch on the back. I got the 28mm Biogon in EX and it is essentially new. The 45mm Planar is the same way.
pmp6 wrote:
Thanks everyone for their responses. Based on everyone's input, I decided to buy the lens, only to find out it was purchased in the few hours since I posted this... oh well.
Yeah, if you find something you want you can't post it here. At least not before you buy it.
Lets find Phil a 35-70 and PM him. It's like a Christmas present, but he pays.
I have ordered lots of used cameras, lenses, and accessories from KEH in the past few years and I will say that their ratings are pretty much as stated. Several of the lenses I purchased from them (in LN-, EX+, and EX conditions) were clear or without any dust or scratches on the glass surfaces. Some of the lower grade lenses had either very free-moving focusing rings as if they had been used extensively, or had some minor cosmetic damage (like bent rabbit-ear prongs on the manual focus Nikon AIS lenses).
The film cameras I ordered from them showed signs of use but seemed to have been recently cleaned/repainted.
I was not so lucky with their used DSLR's. I ordered several (maybe 4 or 5 I think)D1X's in LN- condition and they seemed to have scratched sensors. I was able to keep two of them that were not worn or hads scratched sensors.
As far as ther accessories go, I wasn't too lucky with a couple of prism finders I ordered. One was a prism finder for an F3 in BGN condition, but it appeared to be much rougher-looking, beat up, and worn than I expected. I kept it because it was for an old F3 I had and it would have cost me more to pay for return shipping. Similar thing happened with a focusing screen I purchased for an F in LN- condition; it appeared very used.
I have also sold equipment to them. I sold them a D70S in its original box with all original wrappings, camera was hardly used because it was a seldomly-used back up body I had. They rated it as EX and I ended up getting half of what the going rate was for that camera at that time. I decided to use their payment toward a new Nikon lens mostly because I didn't trust them getting my D70S back to me in the same condition I sent it to them. My guess was that they already had my camera and if I didn't go with their offer, what assurance would I have that they wouldn't care about sending it back to me as carefully packeged as I sent it to them?
p.s. I forgot to include my return/refund experiences with them. They were great about accepting returns/exchanges on equipment provided I paid for another item at the time of the transaction. So, when I recieved a deffective D1X from them and call them the same day I got it, they were more than eager to exchange the deffective D1X with the condition that I purchased another one. They would promise that they would refund my card at the time they recieved the deffective D1X.
They were not to eager to issue complete refunds though. I waited several months for a refund on my credit card after returning a film camera I sent back to them. They kept giving me different excuses every week for a few months until I got sick of it and demanded to have my money refunded immediateley. My credit card company advised me that all it needed was a simple fax from them to credit my account, but it seemed that there was always a different excuse for them not sending the fax.
For used lenses, my experience with KEH has been positive. My BGN and EX rated lenses are pretty much as stated. Occasionally, I will get a BGN rated lens that appear much better except for a small cosmetic flaw.
For used accessories, my experience has been mixed. I recently purchased several Nikon OEM lens hoods that were rated EX and BGN, but their actual condition were much worse than I expected. The metal hoods were slightly bent and deformed. I didn't want to deal with the hassle and cost of shipping them back for exchange, however.
I've only twice had to ask for a refund, and the process was painless for me.
I'd never touch an EX or LN lens from KEH or elsewhere.
I reckon if a very old lens looks unused, it probably is, which I find a little suspicious. Sharp copies get used, a lot.
KEH is very honest with their ratings but they dont do optical tests, they only inspect externally.
Overall I'm very happy with KEH and my BGN lenses I bought from them.
