new vs canon refurbished

<p>Hello, need an advice on buying a new lens versus buying a refurbished one through Canon, depending on the lens model usually the saving is about $100. Is it worth it or it is better to buy new? any experience to share or advice to offer? thanks ...</p>

<p>One argument I have heard for buying refurbished is that THAT lens has been specifically checked out to make sure it will be good enough for them to call it refurbished, it may have even been "tweaked" to make sure it's perfect. Where as new... hopefully the QC guys took their time but it might have to be sent back to be calibrated etc.</p>

<p>Personally I dont have experience with either though, I just buy used.</p>

<p>FYI: A good chunk of that $100 is going to end up in the Tax and Shipping buckets during the checkout process when buying from the Canon Refurb. store. </p>

 

<p>My 40D and 17-85 IS were both "refurbished by Canon" but were purchased from retail stores (Cameta and Adorama respectively). Although they don't see heavy use I've never had a problem with either for the three years I've owned them.</p>

<p>I wish I were aware of similar opportunities in the UK....my gut feeling would be to go with it.<br>

Refurbs I've bought via Apple have been 100%. Also I've bought used lenses and bodies from a specialised supplier here and have always been delighted.<br>

$100 equates to around £60 so it depends on your budget/aspiration/attitude to risk of course. Personally I'd have little fear.</p>

<p>I bought my 70-200/2.8 IS refurbished from Adorama. It's worked great for about three years now, and it gets a lot of use. Saved $150 as I recall.</p>

<p>I know your question is about a specific point, but if you don't mind some cosmetic issues like a scuff on the barrel or something minor, consider buying used from KEH. I have purchased 5 lenses from them at their BGN (bargain) grade and was impressed by how great the condition was, and the price can't be matched by a refurb, even. The glass was immaculate. If you're not happy with the condition, you can always send it back. Their grading is definitely biased in favor of the buyer, which is how they maintain a great reputation as a seller of used equipment.</p>

<p>I wish I had gotten over my "must have new equipment" attitude much earlier, I could have saved a lot of money (or gotten more equipment for it).</p>

<p>I bought a refurbished Canon EF 15mm f/2.8 Fisheye. It looked new. The box was plain with a "Refurished" note on it. It came with Canon's one year warranty. A savings of about $100. Would I buy refurbished Canon glass or body again? Yes.</p>

<p>I've heard the same thing that Erik mentioned. I recently bought an EF 100-400 f/4.5-5.6L IS USM from the refurbished store. It arrived in a plain "Canon" shipping box. The lens was packed in the box in its lens case, with a simple application of two-part urethane foam for security.</p>

<p>I've had no issues with it at all, and out of the case, it looked perfect. No scuffs, scrapes, etc.</p>

<p>BTW - the savings at the US Canon store on refurbished lenses is 20% on all the ones I've looked at. $1,359.20 vs $1,699.00 list for the 100-400, a savings of $339.80.</p>

<p>I just looked at Canon's online Refurb Store and they show these items as coming with a limited 90-day refurbished warranty, no other warranty is mentioned.</p>

<p>My mistake. It was a 90 day Canon warranty and the free one year warranty was covered by the retailer, Cameta Camera.</p>

<p>Thanks for clarifying that, Peter- for a moment it seemed like they'd really shortened the coverage time!</p>

<p>I am enjoying the lens and price savings having bought a Canon-refurbished lens from B&H. It's a 100 f/2.0. Being able to MA the lens brought it to critical sharpness. The savings was the difference between the post-disaster / USD value reduction new price versus what it cost new just before those events.</p>

<p>Great to read about good experiences with refurbs - particularly from Adorama! I have a Canon refurb myself - correction, had - my DH left it on a 'bus two weeks ago........</p>

<p>Anyway, a bit of background to refurbished cameras / lenses in general:<br>

All refurbished units sold by Adorama Camera are factory refurbished by the manufacturer, for example, Canon cameras are refurbished at their manufacturing plant in Newport News, VA.; the room that houses Canon’s entire refurb process is said to be completely dust-free, and with every employee working in there being required to wear special booties!</p>

<p>They can have simply been pulled from the production line if something appears faulty, or if it hasn't passed the final inspection. Most of the time it is a very minor issue that needs correcting, nevertheless, once it is pulled from the normal flow of production, it gets flagged as a refurbished model, so you may get a unit straight from the factory that has never been used.</p>

<p>A refurb may also be an ex-store demo, possibly used in field tests or sales displays, or it may have been ordered in error and returned to the retailer (who can't then sell it as 'new' so it has to be sent back to the manufacturer for refurbishment).</p>

<p>All refurbished items will have been checked over by the manufacturer by hand, inspected very thoroughly, diagnosed, and calibrated by experienced technicians, and could therefore turn out to be more dependable than a new item - which will only have been checked by a process of systematic quality control protocol (ie by random sampling as it comes off the conveyor belt).</p>

<p>All Canon refurbished products from Adorama come with a 1 year return-to-Adorama warranty; the warranty we give covers anything the manufacturers warranty covers for a new unit, including shutter defects.<br>

All other refurbs sold by Adorama come with a 90-day return-to-manufacturer warranty.<br>

In addition, Refurbs come into us with the firmware updates and latest fixes which were carried out at whatever stage it was at when we took delivery. </p>

<p>If you need additional firmware updates you can download them, but for any hardware fixes the unit would have to be sent to Canon. <br /> [by the way, if you send a camera (any camera) to Canon for any hardware work, they will always update the firmware].<br /> <br /></p>

<p>As to the individual history of a single item, the honest answer is we have no way of knowing. Refurbished equipment is not like new inventory; the manufacturers contact us when they have a batch to sell, and the availability is unpredictable. However, if you were to ask my personal opinion on whether the equipment that Adorama offers as refurbished is typically less than a year old, based on the regularity with which we receive batches, I'd be inclined to think it is all relatively new.</p>

<p>I hope this helps but any photo.net members are always welcome to email me directly for additional info / help at any time: Helen@adorama.com<br>

<strong>Helen Oster<br /> Adorama Camera Customer Service Ambassador</strong></p>

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