Buying used lenses

izzikio_rage

izzikio_rage

Technomancer
Hey everyone

Was just checking out ebay.com yesterday, looking for some old manual md mount lenses. Most of these would have to be shipped from japan or korea or USA so just wanted to know what are the places to buy old used lenses in india. I've heard of the jjmehta forums and olx and quickr are options too, are there any others?

Plus what does one need to check before buying a used lens?
 
J

justgothere

Broken In
I have few old glasses and that's what I check while buying
#compatibility :as i am into nikon system hence that's not much of a problem unless you are going for pre Ai era. But for other users, for instance Canon, fd lenses will not focus to infinity on ef/efs bodies. So take your camera body along and test first hand.
#give the lens a shake to ensure that no moving parts of loose elements are there.
#check that no fungus / haze etc are there.
#minutely check front and back elements for loss of coating.
#shoot at different f stops to ensure that the aperture is not stuck of playing heavy.
#rotate the focusing ring so that to ensure that it is smooth.
#check for body dents, taps etc. Carry a filter with you and try to attach it. Many old lenses have bent filter rings and that's a real pain.
#don't buy distance / online unless the seller is known ( I have found out the hard way).
Last but not the least, check the images not on camera lcd but on a laptop screen. If the images come out well, even if there are fungus, dents etc you may go for the glass and most probably you will get a good one at a great price . Most of lenses will have some dust inside so that doesn't matter much. But don't buy lens with fog or haze. Have I covered everything? :D
 
anirbandd

anirbandd

Conversation Architect
justgothere said:
I have few old glasses and that's what I check while buying
#compatibility :as i am into nikon system hence that's not much of a problem unless you are going for pre Ai era. But for other users, for instance Canon, fd lenses will not focus to infinity on ef/efs bodies. So take your camera body along and test first hand.
#give the lens a shake to ensure that no moving parts of loose elements are there.
#check that no fungus / haze etc are there.
#minutely check front and back elements for loss of coating.
#shoot at different f stops to ensure that the aperture is not stuck of playing heavy.
#rotate the focusing ring so that to ensure that it is smooth.
#check for body dents, taps etc. Carry a filter with you and try to attach it. Many old lenses have bent filter rings and that's a real pain.
#don't buy distance / online unless the seller is known ( I have found out the hard way).
Last but not the least, check the images not on camera lcd but on a laptop screen. If the images come out well, even if there are fungus, dents etc you may go for the glass and most probably you will get a good one at a great price . Most of lenses will have some dust inside so that doesn't matter much. But don't buy lens with fog or haze. Have I covered everything? :D
Click to expand...

yeah you ave covered everything :)

good advice. :+1:
 
sujoyp

sujoyp

Grand Master
Great advice.... You covered all :)
Jjmehta is the best place...you will get good quality glass from actual users and not olr lens dealers
 
OP
izzikio_rage

izzikio_rage

Technomancer
Wow, that's a lot of advice :D

My issue is that i was looking for old manual md mount lenses (minolta) for my sony nex 6. Can't seem to find any of these in India. I did find many on ebay.com but not sure if i should buy without testing it. Are there any places in delhi where i can go to buy these?
 
anirbandd

anirbandd

Conversation Architect
if you do buy used lenses, make it a point to carry your slr and test it out from the buyer.
 
Hrishi

Hrishi

******************
izzikio_rage said:
Wow, that's a lot of advice :D

My issue is that i was looking for old manual md mount lenses (minolta) for my sony nex 6. Can't seem to find any of these in India. I did find many on ebay.com but not sure if i should buy without testing it. Are there any places in delhi where i can go to buy these?
Click to expand...

Yeah I also want to try Minolta lenses.
 
sujoyp

sujoyp

Grand Master
thats great...soo many guys want to use old minolta lenses ....try to find there much popular beercan lens ...it is said to be awesome ..its 70-210 f4
 
OP
izzikio_rage

izzikio_rage

Technomancer
:) yup that was the first one I looked for, unfortunately it seems to only ship from the US and all the variants of it that I found were $150+ (including shipping). 9k for a lens where I can't check the quality seems scary
 
OP
izzikio_rage

izzikio_rage

Technomancer
Not all, but i have a really old sigma 28mm f/2.8, it's amazingly sharp. The zooms that i've seen aren't all that good
 
sujoyp

sujoyp

Grand Master
adapter mount have issue with infinity focus...difficult to use for landscape I think ... @amlan can your 28mm can focus till infinity
 
OP
izzikio_rage

izzikio_rage

Technomancer
Got a couple of landscape shots this weekend, focus at infinity seems fine to me. Willl share the 100% crop so that you can check it out too. Was reading on some forum that if the length of the adapter is not right it'll start to act like and extension tube and affect the focus to infinity.

I'm using a NEX-MD mount for the lenses (ebay.com, shipped from korea)

*i.imgur.com/q9n6Mmc.jpg
Panagor 28mm f/2.8 prime: Pretty sharp, starts to give a good bokeh at f/2.8 and best of all with the 1.5 crop factor it is behaves almost like a nifty fifty :)

*i.imgur.com/UFjWFxt.jpg
Sigma 55-70mm, decently sharp at fully open. Gets pretty sharp when you decrease a couple of stops.
 
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sujoyp

sujoyp

Grand Master
nice lenses there...there is soo much to do in photography...but time is real constraint ...when I was free I used to do all type of DIY and play with manual lens...
 
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