Refurbished Lenses

[DWHJR]

I was thinking about finding and buying some new Lenses. I was searching on Canon USA's website and saw a link to Refurbished Lenses.

Is buying Refurbished Lenses something you should stay away from, or should I definitely go for the deals on there?

Let me know what you think!

 

[Derrel]

Sure, why not? They have the same one-year warranty that Canon, USA "new" lenses have, and they are better-inspected too! EACH Canon USA refurbished lens is individually inspected to make sure it is up to standards; that is not the way their new lenses are sold. So, in actuality, a refurbished Canon lens is less-likely to be a lemon than a brand new lens. Adorama's Helen Oster has described how carefully refurbished equipment is inspected to make sure it meets standards, in multiple posts over the last year or so. She's a TPF member. You can search for her posts for additional information.

 

[HelenOster]

........Adorama's Helen Oster has described how carefully refurbished equipment is inspected to make sure it meets standards, in multiple posts over the last year or so. She's a TPF member. ....

And, as if by magic > > > All refurbished units sold by Adorama Camera are factory refurbished by the manufacturer, for example, Canon cameras are refurbished at their manufacturing plant in Newport News, VA.; the room that houses Canon’s entire refurb process is said to be completely dust-free, and with every employee working in there being required to wear special booties!

They can have simply been pulled from the production line if something appears faulty, or if it hasn't passed the final inspection. Most of the time it is a very minor issue that needs correcting, nevertheless, once it is pulled from the normal flow of production, it gets flagged as a refurbished model, so you may get a unit straight from the factory that has never been used.

A refurb may also be an ex-store demo, possibly used in field tests or sales displays, or it may have been ordered in error and returned to the retailer (who can't then sell it as 'new' so it has to be sent back to the manufacturer for refurbishment).

All refurbished items will have been checked over by the manufacturer by hand, inspected very thoroughly, diagnosed, and calibrated by experienced technicians, and could therefore turn out to be more dependable than a new item - which will only have been checked by a process of systematic quality control protocol (ie by random sampling as it comes off the conveyor belt).

All Canon refurbished products from Adorama come with a 1 year return-to-Adorama warranty; the warranty we give covers anything the manufacturers warranty covers for a new unit, including shutter defects.
All other refurbs sold by Adorama come with a 90-day return-to-manufacturer warranty.
In addition, Refurbs come into us with the firmware updates and latest fixes which were carried out at whatever stage it was at when we took delivery.

If you need additional firmware updates you can download them, but for any hardware fixes the unit would have to be sent to Canon.
[By the way, if you send a camera (any camera) to Canon for any hardware work, they will always update the firmware].


As to the individual history of a single item, the honest answer is we have no way of knowing. Refurbished equipment is not like new inventory; the manufacturers contact us when they have a batch to sell, and the availability is unpredictable. However, if you were to ask my personal opinion on whether the equipment that Adorama offers as refurbished is typically less than a year old, based on the regularity with which we receive batches, I'd be inclined to think it is all relatively new.


I hope this helps, but drop me an email if you need any additional information.

 

[henryp]

FWIW, I just bought my college-kid a refurbished digital slr and lens. I'm sure you know I would not have done so had I the least hesitation about factory-refurb items.

 

[Derrel]

Looks like dueling mega-retailer web representation here on TPF! Helen Oster ! Henry Posner! Woo-hoo!

 

[j-dogg]

Not only did I have them repair my 75-300 but my Rebel XTi croaked and Canon USA repaired both, 7 months later I'm still shooting both without any issues. I'd do it, I didn't even know they sold refurbished lenses, ill have to look at it. When they replaced both PC boards in my Rebel they also replaced all my grips, good work they do over there at Canon, which is pretty rare these days for big business to take care of their customers like that.

 

[crimbfighter]

Can anyone speak for Nikon's refurb program? Is it a similar process and of similar quality as Canon? I'm assuming it is, but it sounds so far like everyone was talking about Canon, so I thought I'd ask.

 

[HelenOster]

FWIW, I just bought my college-kid a refurbished digital slr and lens. I'm sure you know I would not have done so had I the least hesitation about factory-refurb items.

... and I just bought my 11-year-old a refurb Canon P&S. Couldn't be happier with it :hug::

Can anyone speak for Nikon's refurb program? Is it a similar process and of similar quality as Canon? I'm assuming it is, but it sounds so far like everyone was talking about Canon, so I thought I'd ask.

In my experience it's just as good. The main difference if you're purchasing from Adorama, is that we give a 12-month warranty on a Canon refurb, but you only get 90 days with a Nikon

 

[blakjak8]

Anyone know about Sony ( or Minolta) refurbs?

 

[henryp]

Can anyone speak for Nikon's refurb program? Is it a similar process and of similar quality as Canon? I'm assuming it is, but it sounds so far like everyone was talking about Canon, so I thought I'd ask.

In my experience it's just as good. The main difference if you're purchasing from Adorama, is that we give a 12-month warranty on a Canon refurb, but you only get 90 days with a Nikon

I believe the 90-day vs 12-month warranty on refurbs is a function of Nikon USA & Canon USA and not dependent on the retailer.