A question for all you KEH experts

[ywenz]

Having never bought anything from KEH and hearing that their gear rating system is fairly conservative, how would you guesstimate the KEH rating on this as pictured lens be?

http://www.keh.com/OnLineStore/ProductDetail.aspx

Assume the lens doesn't have ANY optical flaws and exihibit only the minor brassing you see in the picture.

 

[v3cron]

no optical flaws? probably bgn.

 

[ywenz]

BGN really? The reason I'm asking is because for this lens, 50 F2 SUMMICRON BLACK (GERMANY) KEH has this picture up and the only conditions to choose from are EX+ and EX so I assumed this lens should corresponde to one of them.

 

[Flyfisher Tom]

bargain ...

btw KEH's photos are all stock photos, none of them correspond to the actual lens.

KEH is generally conservative on their ratings. You will sometimes get very lucky on BGN rated lenses. Sometimes, however, I've had BGN lenses that really are BGN, heavy wear, heavy coating imperfections and cleaning marks. The great thing about it is you can return w/ 14 days hassle-free.

So it is a lottery of sorts to buy BGN, if you don't want the hassle of returning it, just buy EXC and above.

 

[Ben Z]

The one unfortunate thing about KEH is they use recycled photos to illustrate their website. The one displayed is almost never the actual item. An outfit like them sometimes has a dozen or more of the same item in inventory and their turnover is pretty quick as a rule so I can understand why they don't photograph each one separately. If you are interested in a particular item you should call and talk to a salesperson, they will have the warehouse pick it out and bring it to them, and they'll call you the next day. You can ask the salesman to describe anything you want to know. I don't know if they will snap some pictures and e-mail them, I never asked.

 

[Ara Ghajanian]

I bought a bargain grade 50mm Summicron from them and it had optical flaws on the front element. They assured me it wouldn't affect image quality. So far it hasn't.

As a side note: have any optical flaws on the front element affected anyones negs?

 

[planetjoe]

I don't know if they will snap some pictures and e-mail them, I never asked.

I tried this once, with a UG collapsible Summicron. They didn't seem too responsive to my request, but then "UG" is supposed to be pretty low-value. All in all, I haven't had any bad transactions. Their return policy is ironclad, although it sometimes takes a while to get an exchange processed.


Cheers,
--joe.

 

[ikiru]

They took some photos of a camera for me. So it is worth asking....and the camera was rated BGN...WOW. It is not even close...it is in VERY good shape(I bought it)

 

[aad]

Everything I bought from them marked bargain looked close to new.

 

[Magus]

Post deleted by posters request

 

[MadMan2k]

I know a couple people who ordered MF camera outfits from KEH with bargain rating, and they were in very good condition. I ordered a couple Pentax screwmount lenses from them for about $14 each, in BGN, and the glass is perfect, no scratches or marks or anything. Although, I don't think they're multicoated, so there wouldn't be a coating mark. They both have a little paint worn off, the 135's focus ring has quite a few rub marks. Doesn't affect image quality, but they're cheap lenses...

 

[Artorius]

For used Leica, I have dealt with Adorama, and B&H. I prefer Adorama as they are VERY conservative in their evaluations, but B&H is a close second. KEH is OK though, just gotta be careful, and their returns are not that easy to do. Most of Adorama sales have a 100 day return policy.

 

[RicardoD]

My Rolleiflex 3.5E Xenotar was listed as BGN and it WAS bargain condition exactly. Next time I will do what others have suggested which is to request item get pulled then have a conversation with a sales rep while he is looking at the item.

 

[Magus]

Post deleted by posters request

 

[Mazurka]

Unlike UPS ground, they don't charge a brokerage fee for UPS EXPEDITED.