Purchase regrets

[bert26]

What are yours?

I've been kicking myself in the ass and am wondering if my decision wasn't actually fueled by stupidity.

I had a v3 35 summicron with a beat up 12504 hood that worked fine and gave me many great pictures. I just hated that I had so much trouble accessing the aperture ring with the hood on. In hindsight, I didn't even need the hood because the glass was so recessed in the barrel.

Sold lens/hood for $1300 to a friend to buy a cosmetically sort of beat up but functionally perfect/perfect glass v4 35 German summicron with 12524 hood for $400 more. I'd used a friend's and loved the ergonomics and this sounds dumb but I love the way the square hoods look. It got destroyed in transit and left with no lens at all (was refunded though) I dropped $2,300 on a minty Canadian v4 with 12526 hood which arrived with the aperture index 45 degrees off which began the nightmare of a shop in portland failing the repair after waiting 2 months, getting refunded but then DAG sending it back misaligned twice and the third time the front began to come loose.

Anyway, after all that (CLA included) I'm $2,700 in on this lens. Everything is aligned and smooth and a joy to use but I can't stop kicking myself in the ass for putting myself through countless months of the lens bouncing back and forth in the mail. I've lightly bumped the hood a couple of times and my heart started racing because I'm so paranoid of knocking the retainer ring out of place since it's Canadian and held on by glue. I'm not gonna go through the nightmare of selling this and then not having a lens forever to wait around for a v3 to get $1,000 back (700 after ebay fees probably.)

Just wondering how much force on the hood it's gonna take to misalign this retainer ring. I know a circle hood will alleviate the problem and if this will get aligned very easily I'll go that route but...

Yeah, almost a year without a lens just for better ergonomics and a square hood. Ever do anything this dumb and fret over it forever?

 

[Pál_K]

Interesting. I have a 35/2 v4 with a misaligned aperture index as well. Optics and aperture seem fine on operation though. I don't use the flimsy hood - also, without the hood the viewfinder is essentially unobstructed.

 

[aizan]

I did something like that with a suit. In the end, the jacket was a lost cause after multiple alterations by multiple tailors. The trousers are great, though!

 

[filmtwit]

Nearly every 28mm lens I've ever bought. I hate them for numerious reasons. But almost all of them have disappointed me to no end.
Currently is a Nikkir 2.8cm in ltm which has worst filter size and vignettes like a mother to boot.

 

[Huss]

Bought a broken Kodak Retina Reflex at a flea market that I didn't check over enough to notice it was broken. Paid $140 to fix it. Don't even like using it. Guess I just don't like stuff being broken.

 

[Beemermark]

Forget the money. Are you happy. Concentrate on the happy.

 

[farlymac]

I regret any Canon SLR system gear I bought after I had what I needed to build a kit to give to my brother. Should have shopped the extras right away, but instead I got curious as to what the rest of the system was like. Nice lenses, cameras too quirky.


The LTM rangefinder stuff though was just fine.


PF

 

[maigo]

Just shoot, dammit.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[CharlesDAMorgan]

The cost is mere peanuts compared to old cars.

Congratulate yourself that you have a lens you can use and upon the lesson learned.

 

[SolaresLarrave]

My black M2. Purchased on impulse, kept to save face. It was black, but not well done. I had it painted by Stu in TX after Youxin Ye disassembled it, and it required a new RF because the one it had wasn't the correct one. It has now a decent set of framelines, but since the ones for 90mm don't come up well, I don't think I can sell it easily. That's OK. It looks beautiful now, but before it was painted I wasn't exactly a happy citizen.

 

[Richard G]

I agree with the “be happy”. All my photography gear put together cost less than what I’d lose in one day buying a new Mercedes instead of my wonderful three year old second hand Citroen. Just don’t remove the lens from the camera by gripping the hood and you should be fine. The lens is not delicate necessarily.

 

[rangefinderlove123]

it's ok

The parts of the v4 summicron which hold the lens assembly is made of polycarbonate, so don't worry

 

[Doug]

Commiseration on the bad experience... I'm reminded of a camera show purchase, a used Kiron 500mm mirror lens. Lovely condition, in its fitted leather case with rear-mount filters. I'm a Pentax user so I assumed the lens had an interchangeable T-mount. Nope, and it was for Olympus OM. Did I take it back to the seller? Nope, I compounded the error by scurrying around while folks were packing up their unsold gear and bought an Olympus OM-G body for $50. Then I found it was really hard to hand-hold a 500mm lens... So I added versatility with a 50mm and 135mm lenses. Deeper and deeper... Not very smart. Nice little camera though.

 

[Keith]

Commiseration on the bad experience... I'm reminded of a camera show purchase, a used Kiron 500mm mirror lens. Lovely condition, in its fitted leather case with rear-mount filters. I'm a Pentax user so I assumed the lens had an interchangeable T-mount. Nope, and it was for Olympus OM. Did I take it back to the seller? Nope, I compounded the error by scurrying around while folks were packing up their unsold gear and bought an Olympus OM-G body for $50. Then I found it was really hard to hand-hold a 500mm lens... So I added versatility with a 50mm and 135mm lenses. Deeper and deeper... Not very smart. Nice little camera though.

That made me laugh! 😛😛😛

 

[Phil_F_NM]

All the stuff that I now should get rid of because we're moving. Just a pain in the rear. Konicas, oddball lenses in even more obscure mounts which I had the intention to convert.
I definitely regret trading my 1978 Toyota Corolla liftback for three Mazda RX-7s.
Phil Forrest

 

[Ricoh]

Having too many cameras, 3 digi., 4 analogue and assorted lenses for each with f/l overlap, that's what.

 

[leicapixie]

When I closed my studio, I traded my Mamiya-c cameras and lenses..
for a Pentax 6x7 and 135mm Macro.
I soon "needed" a 75mm wide, filters, tele-extender, etc!
The problem was processing color a problem, my pro printer not 6x7..
The real problem was ME!
I hated the beast, the lenses were great, rectangular format a plus.
The weight, lord the weight and size!
Happiest day almost 20 years later (practically unused) traded for Leica M6TTL.
Great trade at Samy's in LA.

 

[james.liam]

I had a similar experience with a 50 Rigid I’d bought from OC Camera. I was away for an extended period of time and on return, so when I opened the package the lens would not focus properly. The owner refused a return and a visit to DAG, typically the solution to such things, resulted in a partial fix. Only after an extended and costly stay at Hotel Leica NJ did the lens work as brilliantly as it should. I couldn’t bear selling it off for parts and it ultimately cost me twice as much as it should have. Oh well. Offsets some of the good deals I have acted upon in the past.

“Sometimes you eat the bear. Sometimes the bear eats you”.

 

[benlees]

I spent quite a bit on old rusty Volvos. I wish I had the cash now! On the flipside, to stop the bleeding I learned to fix them myself and this knowledge I still use today, so it's all relative...

 

[james.liam]

I spent quite a bit on old rusty Volvos. I wish I had the cash now! On the flipside, to stop the bleeding I learned to fix them myself and this knowledge I still use today, so it's all relative...

Does Swedish rust have a special bokeh?