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Buying and Selling Lens

let's get into our final little section here on buying and selling lenses, because after all, we need to buy all these lenses. Now, we're all eager to go out and buy lenses. What should we be doing in buying these lenses? All right, so if you're gonna buy a new lens, you need to evaluate and examine what your needs are. And if you've watched this class up to this point, you are clearly evaluating your own needs. I know you are. As you're watching this class, figuring out what am I gonna be shooting and how am I gonna shoot it, and where can I get And what sort of point of view options do I have? What type of lighting and my working in my constantly working in a low light environment. Maybe I'm shooting concert photos that are always very dark in the arenas. You need to figure out what do I need in a focal length range. And this is in some cases where I think it's better to forget about cannons. List of available lenses. Just think about what focal length would I like to have if everyth...

ing were available and go, you know what I would really need something around 90 to 150 millimeters. Okay, what fits in the 90 250 millimeter range? Figure out what sort of maximum aperture you would ideally like. Toe have probably going to make a compromise on this because we would all like to have a 1.4 lands. But that's not always the option that our budget or the lenses having in store for us. What sort of qualities features and price fits your needs and your budget. Compare the choices out there. What's available from Canon? What is what other lens from Canon might also do The job. What about the third party choices from Tamron and Sigma? Do they have something that might fit my needs at a similar price or even less price for looking at reviews? Here are five places that I've looked at that I think have good, different types of reviews. DP Review does a good general review of cameras. They don't do so much on lenses, but they do review the lenses, and they do give a lot of good information for canon lenses. There is a guy who runs a place called the digital picture dot com, and he does the most extensive reviews on lenses. Very practical, hands on experience, and it'll take you 15 20 minutes to read through a review on a Basic lands. Lots of great information in their Lindstedt has a lot of nice information. Fred Miranda is not so much a review site, but where people will tell you about their user experience of that lens. And I love just kind of going through there to see the highlights of what they like most and what they like least about particular lenses. You get a real quick read on what's good and bad on the lens, and on a technical standpoint, you want to see how they rate in sharpness or vignette ing dxl mark dot com does a very good job. Interesting job, sometimes on rating these lenses and categorizing. And from a very technical standpoint, you might want to check when that lens was introduced. Was that 20 years ago, and we're expecting a new one around the corner. I tend to try to avoid buying lenses that are on the really old scale. Having said that, I have a bottle lens that was discontinued because I liked what it did, and it fits my needs and quality standards. Buying the lands. Just check around a little bit at reputable dealers to see what the going prices. See what the warranty is because there is an issue with Grey Market options, a gray market option. For instance, here in the United States, Canon USA does a lot of support for people who shoot canon in the United States. The advertiser equipment. They have education. They do a variety of things. They have repair facilities, most importantly in the United States. Now, if you by ah Lens that was destined for Bolivia and somebody bought and sold it and brought it to the United States, and now they're selling it to you. Canon USA can look at that lens and look at the serial number and say that didn't come through our importer. We don't need to fix that lens, and that's kind of an option that they have, because Canon USA will cover products brought into the United States. It's not an illegal product, but it might be less money, and it better be less money because it's it's not gonna have the same warranty and some camera companies will say gray market option, and they'll say, yes, it has a one year warranty. Question is, who is the warranty through? Is it through canon, or is it through your store or another company? And that answer may very depending on where you get it. What sort of accessories are supplied or not supplied that you want to get with it? Good to know. And when you get your lands, take it out and test it. Use it right away, see if there's anything wrong. If there's something wrong with it, you're likely to notice it right away. That gives you a chance to exchange it for a new good. One doesn't happen very often, and I keep the packaging. It's not that big. This is one of those unusual items. It's a valuable item. It's relatively small. If you keep the packaging when you turn around and sell it in 5 to 10 years, you'll have that packaging in. That increases the value of it a little bit, So if you have the space, keep that around. Let's talk about buying use lenses. I don't have a problem buying used lenses I've bought used lenses, and if they're in good, clean shape, that's perfectly fine. I've never bought a used camera. I just don't like the fact that the sensor is in there and it can get dirty and it can get stuff on it that is very hard to clean. But there's a lot of people out there who buy lenses and suddenly find out that rent is due and they need money. And so they're good lenses out there that you can get your hands on. If you know what you want to look for and you compare, you figure out what the new item costs. Look at eBay's completed listing. I don't care what someone is trying to sell a lens for. I want to know what it's actually sold for in a large number, not the person who spent a crazy amount of money on one lens. What's the typical selling price of a lens figure out? OK, what's the range of lens? I would like to get it here, but I'd be willing to pay this much if it's in good shape, examine the lens, and so this is a chance. If it's like a Craigslist item where you can go visit the person and see the lens yourself. First off, be familiar the way a new one operates. What does it feel like? Is the zooms stiff or is it loose? How does the focusing feel? Review the ad very closely. See what they say. You want to look at all the external wear that's gonna be a big, telltale sign is to how used it. ISS. You can take a look at the lens with a flashlight pointing the flashlight through the lens, and what you're looking for is cobwebs, fungus, dirt glass chips. Who knows what you might see in there? It should be nice and clean in their dust is usually the main problem. Anything that moves focus ring, zoom ring switches, move everything. Make sure it works. See how the auto focus the image stabilization sounds do a little test shot. I used to bring a computer and download my images. Now, with most cameras, you can zoom in and you check sharpness pretty well. If it looks really clean, it probably is in pretty good shape. So now that you know about what somebody who is buying used equipment is like, let me just talk real quickly about selling your used equipment. Collect up all the stuff, find the box, find the lens caps for it clean and check it. You know, I always find it strange when people sell dirty stuff. Just take five minutes and clean it up. Now you need to photograph her stuff. And for some reason, photographers have a really bad time photographing the stuff that they sell. And so I want to share with you some really bad photos. Okay, Now this is a terrible photo, and what I think is kind of funny is they actually laid out a white piece of paper and you could almost tell what they were thinking. It's like, OK, I guess I got a photograph. This equipment, Let's put out a white piece of paper. Well, that's so much work. Let's just take the picture. You know, would only want to clean up the background. It's not properly focused. It's not properly exposed. And so clean it up, making a nice environment. We don't need all this empty space in there. Fill the frame with your subject. I feel like I'm teaching 101 photography here. Bad lighting situations backlit situations, and somebody's even got a nice studio and it's not really well let it's very dark. I can't tell what that is very easily. I see there's bag there, but I can't see that lens very well. And please stop using your phone. The fisheye effect The distortion on this is Tara. If this is what your lens actually looks like, I have no interest in it at all because it looks completely distorted. You know what? That's a stock photo, and that is not the lens I'm buying. I know that represents the lens I'm by. I want to see a photo of the lens that you have for sale, not something that it's similar in style. For some reason, this person is selling a 70 camera, but this image, because they weren't paying attention when they listed their ad, became the featured photo. It's like That's not selling the 70 camera very well. And so just organize yourself and nice and don't not include an image. Photographers want to see an image. It's gonna help sell your ad. And so here's what a good set of photos I sold a lens recently. A nice, clean photo of what? The lenses. What do you get? What you get? The lens caps. You get the case with it. Here's some detailed shots to show you close up of what you're going to be getting. When you do this, you tend to get better. Quality buyers. Get people who are really interested. Take a little salesmanship, Sell your stuff, clean up. So when you're taking your photographs nice, simple, clean environment. Fill the frame nice, even lighting. Make sure it's in focus. Properly exposed. Nice descriptive perspective on it. Don't use your phone. Use your regular camera. Don't use stock photos. You want to use the actual photograph, and you want to pick a nice good image that says, This is what I have for sale. When it comes to the description, be short. Be clear. The brief. Not gonna go through all the details here, but clearly state what you're selling. Be specific about the physical condition, the glass condition of the lands. What exactly are you getting? And probably one of the most important things is don't lie or mislead. They're gonna find out eventually. Oh, it's missing its lens caps. Just say no lens cap supplied you know, just be very honest about it. You won't have to deal with people backing out of the sale at the last minute. Setting the price. Figure out what a new item is. You're gonna have to price it down from that. Check eBay for completed listings. What is the typical cell price for this particular item? What is the price range? And I said it a little bit high, and I'm very firm. That's what I'm selling it for. I'm gonna leave it here for a week or two weeks, and then I'm gonna lower it here, and I just be very firm about things. And I've done a very good job at selling these. Respond quickly to your emails so that they know you're I'm actually meeting somebody tomorrow to sell some stuff. Meet a nice public place. Starbucks is nearby. Star vexes nearby. Everybody right. That's great place to meet. And then no funny games on the money. Just pay, pal or cash. Make it nice and simple.