"Damaged" Lenses for cheap! Buy, or run? HELP

DivadWaldoss

DivadWaldoss

Member
Hey guys
I've been offered the following for $65 shipped. It's online, so I won't be able to physically look at them before buying. So, what do you guys think I should do? Buy, or no? All the stuff is supposedly from a school that's cancelling it's photography class, and has collected some broken gear throughout the years that they're now trying to sell.
So, the three lenses are:
Canon EF 70-210mm f/4
Canon EF 35-105mm f/3.5
Canon EF 50mm Compact Macro f/2.5

Here's pictures the person sent me in order as listed above. As for the pictures of the glass itself, I have no clue what glass belongs to what lens.

70-200

IMG_2394.jpg

IMG_2398.jpg

IMG_2399.jpg

IMG_2400.jpg


35-105
IMG_2401.jpg

IMG_2402.jpg


50mm
IMG_2409.jpg


The Glass ( i think this is just the first two lenses, not the 50) I think the first is the 70-200 and the second is the 35-105.

IMG_2407.jpg

IMG_2406.jpg

IMG_2405.jpg

IMG_2404.jpg



Should I buy, should i exclude one of these and try to get a lower price? let me know ASAP!
Thanks!






 
Last edited:
The seller gave me an option
I can either have the 35-105 pictures above, or the 4th one going from left to right in this picture. It appears to be in better condition, and is also a 35-105.
IMG_2408.jpg


Let me know what I should do!
Thanks!
 
Stay away from anything damaged at a school, especially older plastic autofocus lenses. Most repair places won't even want to touch these at all.
 
Only if you want to bust them open and investigate the inner workings and $65 seems a little steep for that. Anything used by students in a school is going to have been mistreated badly.
 
I'm going to go against the grain here and say that normally I'd stay the hell away from things like this... but at $65, you're not really out much. It depends on if you can afford to throw away $65, but if these lenses are in any sort of working order, I'd probably go for it. They may not be perfect, but they might be useful to have around just in case they can give you an interesting look. And maybe you want to try experimenting with modifying some glass sometime, these would be great to try things out on.


I say, if you won't really be broken up about the fact that you may be losing $65, it's worth the risk because you'll probably get SOMETHING worthwhile out of it.
 
dude, think hard about connecting a broken lens to your camera, who knows, the connectors could be damamged, they could short out or fry your cam, is 65.00 worth the hassle of damaging your cam. Not my cam, I can tell you that, I have to much respect for my cams to attatch garbage to them for any reason.
 
I use lots of "damaged" lenses, BUT:
* only aesthetically damaged; anything that affects function (iris blades, mount) or optics, is a dealbreaker
* only on older, fully manual lenses, with no electronics at all
* actually, only on lenses that are worth the risk; and I don't know these, but vintage zooms are usually not great
(these lenses that are worth the risk, like my vintage Leitz for Leica-R, are also usually built like tanks, so a ding here or there won't have any effect on function; plastic lenses from the 80s and 90s are a different game altogether)
 
DivadWaldoss said:
Hey guys
I've been offered the following for $65 shipped. It's online, so I won't be able to physically look at them before buying. So, what do you guys think I should do? Buy, or no? All the stuff is supposedly from a school that's cancelling it's photography class, and has collected some broken gear throughout the years that they're now trying to sell.
So, the three lenses are:
Canon EF 70-210mm f/4
Canon EF 35-105mm f/3.5
Canon EF 50mm Compact Macro f/2.5

Here's pictures the person sent me in order as listed above. As for the pictures of the glass itself, I have no clue what glass belongs to what lens.

70-200
Click to expand...

Cheap price doesn't mean you have to accept broken junk lenses. BTW I've seen lenses that took a short swim in the river which looked similar.

These lenses listed are not Canon mounts or auto lenses, but with a $22 dollar Fotodiox mount adapter you can be shooting with very nice glass.

Here is a Vivatar 70-210 f3.5 OM mount for $53.99 in nice shape./
http://www.ebay.com/itm/OLYMPUS-OM-...42948175?pt=Camera_Lenses&hash=item58942ab24f

75-150 OM Zuiko up to 20 bucks so far.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/OLYMPUS-OM-...86450680?pt=Camera_Lenses&hash=item3f180d16f8

Zuiko 65-200 f4 $9.95
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Olympus-OM-...48227159?pt=Camera_Lenses&hash=item27c7590f57

Nikon 80-200mm f4.5 MINT $99.95
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Nice-Clean-...15384764?pt=Camera_Lenses&hash=item43affcbbbc

Vivatar 35-105mm f 3.5 Nikon mount $79.95
http://www.ebay.com/itm/VIVITAR-35-...62016781?pt=Camera_Lenses&hash=item3f1698420d
 
Last edited:
If you are looking for a good low prices Canon zoom with auto focus and IS you may want to check out the canon 55-250 f4-4.5. It's A little slow, but a pretty wide range. I have one and it's a good value. I'm upgrading from it to a 70-200 2.8 and planning to sell my 55-250 on ebay this month. It's like new only used a few days since I bought it last year.
 
sonofaresiii said:
I'm going to go against the grain here and say that normally I'd stay the hell away from things like this... but at $65, you're not really out much. It depends on if you can afford to throw away $65, but if these lenses are in any sort of working order, I'd probably go for it. They may not be perfect, but they might be useful to have around just in case they can give you an interesting look. And maybe you want to try experimenting with modifying some glass sometime, these would be great to try things out on.


I say, if you won't really be broken up about the fact that you may be losing $65, it's worth the risk because you'll probably get SOMETHING worthwhile out of it.
Click to expand...

Counterpoint - I recently bought perfectly usable m42 lenses (optics still good, not much visible wear) and all of them were cheaper than $65. I'm talking 28, 35, and 135 2.8's.

And I got the Canon 70-300 (non IS) for $75 off some dude on Craigslist, in perfect condition.

In short, don't buy junk ever when you can buy quality used lenses for as cheap or nearly as cheap.
 
Some lenses hold up with rough use very well, and the one's you have listed are not those lenses.

Save your money.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top