Stupid employee discount!

[Dubious Drewski]

As for the car thing? Really? I would very much advise against purchasing any car that my brother-in-law has taken home over night from the dealership he worked at. I have been in the majority of them with him and I sure wouldn't buy it the next day.....

It was fun though, until he moved and relocated to a dealer much further from me.

Soo, how bad could it be? Does he drive the hell out of these cars, doing donuts and burnouts with buddies hanging out of the sunroof and cases of beer rolling around on the floor of the back seat?

He doesn't do that, does he?

Thus which is why we consumers pay the prices that we pay, and why I am not a dSLR owner, but only a cheap superzoom owner.

I wouldn't go so far as to say that. Do you know how often merchandise gets damaged on delivery? It's very rare, but still more frequent than damage done via employees.

 

[Senor Hound]

Soo, how bad could it be? Does he drive the hell out of these cars, doing donuts and burnouts with buddies hanging out of the sunroof and cases of beer rolling around on the floor of the back seat?

He doesn't do that, does he?

Now come on! A lot of cars don't have sunroofs, and you have to hang out the back windows!

 

[Johnboy2978]

I would agree with your analysis of Pentax. They have some very high quality optics and the mass majority of photogs snub their nose at Pentax despite the glass available.

The 50mm 1.4 AF was the first lens I purchased with my DS and I continue to use it frequently with my k10d. It is a little soft at 1.4 but that is expected with that aperture. It's a really nice lens at any price. I think I got mine new for about $160 after a mail in rebate. Go for it, you can't go wrong.

 

[seamus14]

It is one of the perks of any business (how many car sales people take a different car home every night?), and I for one would not begrudge anyone doing it.

You wouldn't begrudge someone for doing neutral drops in the car that you're about to purchase? I certainly would. IMO, the perk is having access to demo units... not stock. I would never allow my employees to use merchandise. Misuse/abuse can lower reliability and I expect a product to be brand new when I buy it.

 

[Garbz]

mrodgers the prices we pay unfortunately come from higher up in the chain. There is very little merchant profit in consumer goods like digital cameras.

That's not to say we don't often open up boxes when some new cool new lens or miscellaneous device comes in.

How else do the fancy new things get into the glass cabinet. I'm sure you don't man handle every 70-200mm f/2.8 going through the door but if I were buying from you I'd be happy to know you have used it and could recommend it. (well maybe for something I haven't used myself but you get the idea )

Believe me the number of times a lens gets handled does not stop with you. I doubt there's a single L series or goldring lens which comes from a production line and gets put in a box without someone touching it first and giving it a final inspection. At least I hope anyway, the price should be justified somehow.

 

[King Mango]

And we've only ever broke one item that I know of. My friend dropped a D200 once from waist level. The camera wasn't very happy about that and retorted with a large crack along its body. Of course we didn't try to sell it, we just returned it to warehouse as "defective". Whoops!

This is extremely repulsive to me... And what's even worse is I have a slight feeling that I should apologize for that.
But the truth is, that is 5**7 ethics.
I think you need to hear that.

 

[Dubious Drewski]

This is extremely repulsive to me... And what's even worse is I have a slight feeling that I should apologize for that.
But the truth is, that is 5**7 ethics.
I think you need to hear that.

Oh calm the hell down . This was one single incident in many years of working there. As I said, it's rare, but it happens. And anyway, it's not like the guy was goofing off with the camera; he was moving it to it's place on display and happened to lose his grip on it.

Go be repulsed at something worthwhile, not this.

 

[King Mango]

You might be singing a different tune if you got caught trying to pass that off. Just sayin...
As I heard so often as a child, "I'm gonna teach you a lesson young man." *gets out belt
Which I'm thankful for, because it's those kinds of lessons that build character. /high horse

Believe me, I'm not saying I'm perfect. But I am saying I'm not a thief. That's all I'm sayin

 

[Dubious Drewski]

Oh, I see. I think you completely misunderstand what happened. Where do you get thievery from?

Listen, go work in this type of retail for a bit, then come back and make judgments. Nothing wrong happened here. Returning damaged stock as defective is not an exploit and is not dishonest. That's what we have to do. It's expected that not 100% of stock will make it from the factory floor to the consumer's hands. That's just the nature of things, now please stop insinuating.

EDIT: And why the damned hell would you think we'd "try to pass it off"? What are your trying to say? Ignorance is natural and it's allowed now and then. But ignorance and insinuation are not a respectable combination at all. You've really insulted me.

 

[elemental]

Oh man.

I just got my Asahi Pentax SMC M 50mm f/2 from eBay the other day ($21 with a Ricoh KR-10 Super II body attached) and it has me seriously tempted to spring for the FA 1.4. I love the focal length, the speed, the size, and the build quality, but the "focus/stop down and meter/shoot" sequence is a little slow in some situations. This is not helping alleviate my desires for that FA 50mm.

I ave to agree though, why wouldn't anyone shoot Pentax? My 50mm f/2 is absolutely ridiculously good for having cost me probably $12. It even has image stabilization on my K100D. Ahh how I love Pentax.

 

[JerryPH]

As for the car thing? Really? I would very much advise against purchasing any car that my brother-in-law has taken home over night from the dealership he worked at. I have been in the majority of them with him and I sure wouldn't buy it the next day.....

We need a 10MP clear and focused picture of your brother and his full address and place of work. If he is abusive of his dealership's cars, we ALL need to stay away from him! (kidding of course!).

Drew, get the lens and go enjoy it!