Is $100 a good deal on a Canon YJ12X6.5 2/3 B4 lens?

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Imamacuser

Veteran
Is $100 a good deal on a Canon YJ12X6.5 2/3 B4 lens, assuming it's not a scam? Someone locally is selling one, and looking at eBay they've sold for as high as $800, so it looks like a good deal.

Is the lens even sharp enough for 1080P or 4K (my current camera is an APS-C Sony A6300). I realize that I would need and adapter with an optical element to make it work with my camera.
 
There are plenty of youtube examples out there to help you decide if the lens is good enough for your purposes. Only you can decide that.
 
I was hoping that someone here had first-hand experience with that lens and knew the market. Yes you can find videos of people adapting B4 lenses, but useful videos is a different story.

On second thought, it looks like I could use the doubler and Clear-Image-Zoom with a cheap adapter.
 
I have a Canon B4 zoom with the 2x extender. I can't tell you if the quality of the image is satisfactory for you. The wider lenses such as the 6.5 tend to have higher prices than the ones with a longer zoom range. $100 is a super deal if the lens gives you the image you want. Even the less desirable versions are going for $200 or more. C'mon, it's $100 we're talking about here. You have to decide if it's a scam. No one can tell you that. If it was an ebay listing, then people could look at the listing and give you their opinion, but we have no information to guide you as to whether to purchase it or not.

I bought a top quality boom pole for an absolute giving-it-away price on ebay. It was in great shape and I was very satisfied. You'll have to give us more or take your chances.
 
Paul, you seem to be misunderstanding my questions, so let me reiterate.

Does anyone know the average sale price of the Canon YJ12X6.5 in the USA in USD? I saw someone selling one for $300 on eBay, and another one sold on there for $800, but that doesn't give me conclusive information, as eBay pricing can be very volatile, and there are so few of these in the completed listings that I can't calculate the average sale price.

I recognize that whether a lens is sharp enough is somewhat subjective, but I value the opinions of people with firsthand experience, and would like to hear them out.

I wasn't asking people to help me determine whether it's a scam or not, I recognized that it could be a scam, as the price seemed low, hence the question about market value.
 
Just to temper your expectations: It's a professional level SD lens. The chances of it looking good when blown up to cover a s35 sensor at HD rez, much less 4k, is slim to none. Two personal anecdotal examples... 1) When I was shooting on the F900(2/3" HD) regularly back in the day, I put an SD lens on it to see if I could see the difference, as there were a lot of people that speculated that "HD lenses" were just marketing(they're not), mostly because they didn't want to spend the money on HD lenses, and even on a small (sub) HD monitor, I could easily see that it wasn't up to snuff. 2) I own both a Canon 17-120 and 25-250. I also own several Fuji Premiere Series HD 2/3" Broadcast lenses(their top tier HD lenses) and the IBE HDx35 II adapter than blows-up a 2/3" lens image circle to cover a s35 sensor. Even as high quality as the Fuji lenses are, I can see the difference in them on my F55 vs the native s35 Canon glass.
 
I'm not sure what you hesitation is. Buy it for $100. Learn about SD lenses, then go sell it for between $300 and $800.
 
Maybe I can put this in it's place. One of my regular clients is a parachute centre - they want clear video of the parachutists exiting the aircraft from the ground at a considerable altitude. My usual cameras for this are JVC ⅓" HD 750s. They're a favourite of mine. Using a B4 lens gives an image magnification because of the smaller chip, and the Canon B4 lenses I have (3 slightly different ones, but all SD glass) work OK. The most useful for the parachute job is the one with slightly more zoom, and a 2 way extender. This on the adaptor, on a tripod give me what I need - BUT the imagine is soft and has chromatic aberrations around edges with the sun. However, it's infinitely better than trying to crop any normal cameras, even the 4K one I use sometimes. With the extender out I'm left with a long to very long zoom range and acceptable sharpness in 1920x1080. In the studio, the B4 lens, framed at a different distance to give the same framing as the kit lensed on the JVC is easily a win for the kit lens. The image sharpness on the modest lens (a Canon) that came with the camera is better. Chromatic aberration virtually missing, and on the B4 - sharpness is not as good. Not much, but with two identical cameras split screened on a big monitor, even non-video people like my wife could point to one side of the screen and say that's the best one. Going to4K just gives the same quality. What I cannot help with is your question on if it is good enough. For my parachute exits, yes it is. For daily use, absolutely not.

The other issue is that the actual lens differences between models also interact with your camera. I have two Canons and a Fujinon B4's One of the Canons is the worst of the three and the other the best, the Fuji in the middle. When they were all attached to the donor cameras in SD, I never detected ANY difference and could interchange them all.

$100 could be too much, or a bargain - you won't know till it arrives. It won't be faulty - just that the factory spec is not enough for your camera. I've still got the other two - but they'll never be used, and not worth selling.
 
Update: I didn't get the lens. It was a FaceBook Market listing, and I was the second person to contact the seller, and he held it for the first person, even though I wanted to pick it up the same day that it was listed. I'm a bit surprised that the seller would hold the lens, as most people have a policy of selling to the first person to show up. I've personally had far too many people not show up or lowball me to even consider holding an item.

I'm not too disappointed, as the lens was more of a want than a need, and hopefully it serves it's new owner well.
 
It's always a bit disappointing when an opportunity goes by. But there's always another one down the road. Who knows; maybe the other buyer saved you some trouble.
 
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