Olympus refurbished lens?

[Kiwi Mike]

I am thinking about purchasing a "refurbished" lens from Olympus and would like info from those who have experience with a refurbished lens. Any problems, do they have all the documentation, packaging etc. that would come with a new lens?

Thanks in advance, cheers, Mike

 

[Walt Palmer]

No problem. Don't worry at all. Enjoy.

 

[Kiwi Mike]

Thank you Walt, appreciated.

 

[shinndigg]

I purchased a 12-50 f3.5-6.3 lens 2 months ago...so far so good, though I'm planning to purchase an extended warranty in the coming weeks before the 90 day warranty runs out.

 

[Skeeterbytes]

Comes with all the NIB bits, owner's manual and IIRC a 90-day warrantee. No factory box or paperwork.

Have had good luck among four or five lenses, had to return a teleconverter which was replaced with no problem. Refurbs are a good way to stretch a budget.

Cheers,

Rick

 

[kli]

No problems with either my 9-18 or my 45/1.8. Can't remember if they were white-boxed or retail packaged, but you get all the same stuff in the box a new lens would have.

 

[im45us]

I have purchased 2 lenses from Olympus and no problems.

 

[Kiwi Mike]

Thanks to all who contributed - you have given me the confidence to go ahead and place my order.

Regards to all, Mike

 

[Marty4650]

I am thinking about purchasing a "refurbished" lens from Olympus and would like info from those who have experience with a refurbished lens.

So far, I have purchased the following refurbished lenses from Olympus:

• 14-42mm II R
• 40-150mm R
• 75-300mm
• 17mm f/1.8

Any problems,

Absolutely no problems at all. All have worked perfectly.

do they have all the documentation, packaging etc. that would come with a new lens?

Yes and no. They normally come packaged in a different box (sometimes plain white, but not always) and they have a much shorter warranty from Olympus.

Thanks in advance, cheers, Mike

 

[Kiwi Mike]

Thank you Marty, great to know that, I am planning on buying 2 lens in the near future. I am new to Olympus and slowly making the change from Nikon after over 49 yrs. with Nikon, so am learning lots and asking many questions.

Cheers

 

[fishpix]

I've had good luck so far with an Olympus certfied-refurbished PEN E-P5 body, but like the OP, I'm now considering / have some concerns when it comes to the Olympus-certified lenses.

Feedback above indicates that the lenses generally function very well (and thanks! for the perspective on extended warranties) -- but how about the optics and particularly the lens surfaces:

• Is the glass on the refurb lenses usually flawless/as new?
• Specifically is it free of any blemishes on lens coatings?
• Has anyone gotten a refurb with obvious evidence of cleaning on either the front or back glass?
• Any significant difference in unit variation -- e.g. more often get decentered product?
• How about dust inside the barrel -- any significant / more frequent issue with that on Oly-certified product?

Also wondering how folks think about the 'discount factor' on lenses -- as it seems to vary quite a lot depending on the lens -- what kind of % off street or of list price do you tend to look for on a lens as providing a good value trade-off?

 

[kli]

fishpix wrote: ...

• Is the glass on the refurb lenses usually flawless/as new?
• Specifically is it free of any blemishes on lens coatings?
• Has anyone gotten a refurb with obvious evidence of cleaning on either the front or back glass?
• Any significant difference in unit variation -- e.g. more often get decentered product?
• How about dust inside the barrel -- any significant / more frequent issue with that on Oly-certified product?

Both my lenses were as-new.

What you have to understand about "refurbished" products is that there's a bit of a crap shoot going on. Sometimes they really are repaired. Sometimes they're absolutely brand new, but for one reason or another cannot be sold as brand new (damaged packaging, open box return, store demo, returned stock, whatever). In my experience with purchasing refurbs, the latter seems to be more the case. Both my Canon refurb bodies came with click counts under 5. That doesn't mean you won't be getting a used lens. But you may also not. So, it's not necessarily like shopping for used gear or prone to the same flaws as used gear.

The other thing about refurbished products it that they've individually gone through a full service inspection and testing: something that [doesn't] happen with the mass-produced new copies that come off the line. You may actually be getting better QA purchasing refurbed than purchasing new.

Also wondering how folks think about the 'discount factor' on lenses -- as it seems to vary quite a lot depending on the lens -- what kind of % off street or of list price do you tend to look for on a lens as providing a good value trade-off?

For me, $100 off the street price is good enough for me, but this pretty much varies by individual and their budgets.

 

[dezinerd]

Bought an EPL6 w 14-42 and 40-150 and 16 gig wifi card. Lenses were good wifi worked but gets camera rather hot, so I did not use for wifi just as card. Camera made buzzing sound in focusing or stabization. Different than my OMDEM5. I thought it was cheaper stabilzation but it was the shutter. Camera will take video but not stills. Should have sent it back but was not wanting to return good lenses. Don't know if I would have had to but I did not check and camera failed out of warranty. Shutter repair is more than body is worth to me.