Used Equipment

eddiesimages · Sep 25, 2006

What is your experience in buying used camera equipment? I have an opportunity to purchase a used Nikon D100 and some used lenses. I realize there will be no warranty when buying used. Is it worth the couple hundred bucks you will save? Any experiences on having repair work done?

LWW · Sep 25, 2006

If you have a serious Nikon malfunction you are probably toast.

That being said Nikon bodies are virtually indestructible. I have a 1960 Nikon F with 85-250 zoom used for decades by the Dayton Daily News sports dept and a 1959 Nikon F used by the USAF, also for decades.

Both are a little beat cosmetically but function perfectly. So do my other 4 Nikon Fs. So does my 1973 F2 and my 1983 F3 and my 1987 FM and my 1991 F4s and my 1994 N8008 and my 2006 D50.

My two Soviet made Nikonskis are curiousities but not much as cameras. Both work barely. Neither works fully.

I like Nikons BTW.

LWW

Big Mike · Sep 25, 2006

One thing to think about when buying a used digital...how many times has it been fired and what condition are the moving parts in?

Some people fire off thousands of images a week with a digital camera...this can wear out a shutter or mirror etc. Not many film cameras had to endure this type of use.

midget patrol · Sep 25, 2006

Big Mike said:
One thing to think about when buying a used digital...how many times has it been fired and what condition are the moving parts in?

Some people fire off thousands of images a week with a digital camera...this can wear out a shutter or mirror etc. Not many film cameras had to endure this type of use.

Luckily with newer cameras, you get shutter ratings in the 100,000 cycle range.

I have thought about buying used lenses because they're just so much cheaper, but I haven't followed through yet.

Oldfireguy · Sep 25, 2006

I have only purchased used Nikon film cameras and I have never had a problem.

Big Mike · Sep 26, 2006

midget patrol said:
Luckily with newer cameras, you get shutter ratings in the 100,000 cycle range.

That's fine for a film camera...but I can easily see someone racking up over 100,000 exposures on a DSLR.

mysteryscribe · Sep 26, 2006

Over the years I have bought a hundred or more used cameras even before I closed down the stuido, since then at least that many more. My experience has been that I had to manually check them out before I felt comfortable paying real bucks for them. In most every case, if i checked them out well before hand, they were worth every penny I ever paid.

That said I would not buy a digital camera used, although I did buy two hybred used on ebay to test before I recommended that my son in law take the business digital. My first thought is that electronics can have that timed effect. You can check it and check it and still have a hidden problem. I think I would only buy a camera with a good thirty day warrentee and then I would want to shoot it everyone of those thirty days.

One last note, a warrentee is only as good as the person's name on it. But then I never owned a nikon either.