Local craigslist listing has a 70-200mm f/2.8 VR II listed for an unbelievable price of $1200.
All the red flags are up - so if this guy decides to meet (at a public place to avoid one way transaction of me handing over money without anything in return) - what should I look for?
Check the front and back element for cracks or scratches. What else am I looking for? How do I know if it has fungus?
Mount it on the camera and try out the lens at full range.
Anything else?
Local craigslist listing has a 70-200mm f/2.8 VR II listed for an unbelievable price of $1200.
All the red flags are up - so if this guy decides to meet (at a public place to avoid one way transaction of me handing over money without anything in return) - what should I look for?
Check the front and back element for cracks or scratches. What else am I looking for? How do I know if it has fungus?
Mount it on the camera and try out the lens at full range.
Anything else?
There is NO WAY IN HELL someone is selling that lens for that price. It's a scam, run away unless you just want to get scammed, and if you do I'll sell you my 400MM F2.8 for $1000 just send it to western union in my name....
I did inherit few million dollars last year from my ancestors in Africa that I still have to claim - I was hoping to buy this lens and Matt's 400mm f/2.8 using that extra money I am going to get :)
Thanks everyone for the reminder of scams - I am not going to transfer him money in any other form other than meeting in person, and only after actually using the lens.
As for being a stolen good, here is his claim
Originally posted by craigslist-seller:
The lens is a year and ½ old. I got it as soon as they shipped the new VRII lenses. I still have the original box. It is NOT a grey market lens. It has the US warrenty paperwork. The lens is in great condition. I’ve used it a handful of times and have taken very good care of it. I am located in Syracuse, NY. I don’t do paypal or credit. This is a cash, in person transaction only.
I'd take the advice from the article. Offer to meet the seller at the Police Station, you might not even tell him what it is, just give him the address.
Originally posted by vikas:
hmm .. alright you have me convinced, not worth it! And it does sound too good to be true deal!
Well first of all you are going to want to check that the lens in question actually contains the glass (or be it plastic) elements it is said to contain.
Secondly you could do yourself worse favours than to check if this glass is surrounded by what's us pros in the industry like to call "incasing" (without this the glass elements won't hold there place and will simply fall, not to mention the trouble you may have mounting to your camera.
So many times have I seen seller fool a buyer who simply doesn't check for one or sometimes both of these crucial things, leaving them with little more than dust in the wind.
I would suggest the following tests and evaluations of the lens.
Bring a camera with a dust free sensor.
Bring a laptop.
After you meet in the "Public Place" find a place thats a bit quieter.
Does the zoom operate smoothly? Is there zoom creep?
Look through the lens - is the glass clear and clean?
Put the camera into manual and stop down the aperture - when you hit the DOF Preview, does the aperture close down smoothly, without any odd noises.
Take a series of photos in different modes - Manual, Aperture Priority, Shutter Priority - does the lens operate in all of them?
Does the autofocus work properly? Is the manual focus smooth?
Test the VR - does it make a handheld long exposure sharper?
Take a series of photos at different focal lengths and apertures. Load them on to your laptop and look carefully - zoom in. Are they sharp and free of CA?
If anything doesnt seem right - walk from the deal - there will always be another one.
Hmm, I was lucky enough to buy 2 of my 4 lenses off of people on the interwebz, without meeting them in person, and neither screwed me over. Both lenses were as described and worked beautifully and continue to do so.
The 18-200 was off of ebay from some dude in California, and my blue-winning Sigma wide-angle lens is from some guy in New York named vikas...;-)
