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Looking For A Vintage Lens. Are These Worth The Gamble?

Started Dec 6, 2016 | Discussions thread
Roland Karlsson Forum Pro • Posts: 30,035
Re: Looking For A Vintage Lens. Are These Worth The Gamble?

BobORama wrote:

Don't buy garbage, and a $20 "retail" lens on e-Bay is, by definition, garbage. It possible to find a good deal, or a mislabeled item, don't get me wrong, but e-bay is a global marketplace, so if its $20, that's not going to be a stellar lens.

I would go for something like the Pentax A 50 / 1.4 or 1.7. Both are great lenses.

In terms of lens shopping in general, look at the lens reviews http://www.pentaxforums.com/lensreviews/ for what3ever you want to buy, compare to similar lenses in the class, make an informed decision.

A PENTAX-M 50 1.7 is a stellar lens. And it is usually cheap. Sooo ...

But you have got a point.

This lens is probably $50 with shipping. And, the more interesting lenses that are 9+ in points on the site above, usually are quite steep.

I have been searching for a good 20 mm for some time for a reasonable price. Got me an A 2.8. It came with a quite ugly LX, which maybe scared people away. But I cleaned up the LX, and now I have the 20 mm and an LX, just a bit beaten up 

It is getting harder and harder to make good deals. And, as was said, eBay is a global arena - even harder to make good deals there.

I also buy some camera stuff from a local Swedish auction site. It does not have as much as on eBay. But, when they have, it is usually much cheaper. Got me a Hasselblad 500C that way

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/Roland
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