Buying Used Gear 101

Why used is the way in

We get a TON of questions about used gear. From “Why should I buy used gear?” to “How do you check over cameras when you’re buying gear?”

We’re making this to give you a quick general overview of the whole process. Keep in mind that every single camera has its own list of quirks, common issues, and documented failure points. If you’re looking for something specific, it would be wise to do a little bit of research before looking at it. You wouldn’t want to miss a well-documented, common issue when purchasing your dream camera.

Used gear on the Seawood counter

Where to buy, and the trade-offs of each

• A local camera store. You can hold it, test it and ask questions before you pay. The staff is perpetually underutilized in camera stores. We’re here because we’re experts. Ask us questions! We’re one of the largest benefits of going to a local camera store. Questions are what we’re here for!
• Online used dealers. Each dealer publishes its own grading scale, and the scales don’t match from one shop to the next. Read the grading definitions, not just the grade. Reviews can tell you a lot about a store.
• eBay. The eBay Money Back Guarantee covers items that don’t arrive or aren’t as described. You have to open a request within 30 days of delivery, or of the estimated delivery date if the item never arrives. It only applies when you pay through eBay checkout or an eBay invoice with an eligible payment method, and some items are excluded. The main issues are that you can’t inspect the item and you may not be dealing with a camera expert.
• Local classifieds and marketplace apps. You can inspect the item in person. These are usually great deals as long as you don’t mind the meetup. Many police departments offer their parking lots for exactly this. I always recommend this, especially when larger sums of money are involved.

What to inspect

Lenses

• Shine a flashlight through the lens and look for haze, internal dust and fungus, which shows up as thread-like or cloudy patterns. A little dust is fine. Fungus, haze and heavy scratches are not.
• Clean the lens before you judge it, so you don’t mistake dirt for haze.
• Mold sometimes glows under UV light, which makes it easier to catch. But frankly, if you need a UV light to see it, it’s early: price it in and plan a cleaning.
• Work the aperture. It should be snappy, not loose. Check the blades for oil. Oil on the blades is functionally irrelevant for a rangefinder. It mainly affects SLRs.
• Turn the focus ring end to end. It should be smooth, with no tight or loose spots. Rough spots can mean the grease has broken down.
• Check the mount for wear or corrosion, and make sure the lens sits firmly on a body.
• If the barrel shows signs of being dropped, then just check it twice. It’s not always a deal breaker, but the lens should be thoroughly gone over.

Flashlight check on a 75-200mm zoom

Film bodies

• Fire the shutter at every speed (or 1 sec, 30th, 125th, max). Time the 1-second setting against a watch.
• Open the back and check the light seals. Worn seals are cheap and easy to replace with a DIY kit, and they’re a fair bargaining point.
• On cloth shutters or bellows, shine a phone light through them to look for holes.
• Check the battery compartment for corrosion, and confirm the battery is still made or that an adapter exists. We see a lot of Nikon FEs come in with broken battery chambers.
• Confirm the meter works. Meter repairs can be expensive and sometimes impossible.
• Advance the film. It should feel smooth. If the camera has a motor, listen for strain or squeaks.
• On a rangefinder, check that the rangefinder patch lines up with the lens. A little bit off happens quite often. Vertical alignment means less than horizontal with most cameras. Some rangefinders have parallax correction (the difference between what the rangefinder sees and what the lens sees). With rangefinders, the fact that it tracks smoothly across the patch is most important.
• Look for big dents, which can mean the camera was dropped. Smell it for smoke or mold.
• If paperwork comes with it, make sure the serial numbers match.

Worn light seals on an open film back

Digital bodies

People always ask what we do to check digital cameras. The short answer is “not a lot.” Digital cameras don’t have the same maintenance requirements as older film bodies. With a digital camera, we check overall cleanliness, body wear (the baseplate can tell you a lot about how the camera lived its life), shutter count, and sensor condition. Of course, we run through the menus and do some function checks. But overall, the process is much shorter than for film cameras. Modern digital cameras are extremely reliable compared to their older brothers in the analog world. That being said, everything breaks eventually.

Baseplate wear on a Nikon D800

Red flags and how to test before you commit

• Shoot a roll of cheap film before you rely on a camera. It also tests the rewind. We recommend any of the Kentmere black and white films for this purpose.
• Put the lens on a body and take test shots at several apertures. Try to make it fail. You want to see how it performs in extreme situations. Shoot backlit, way under, way over, extreme contrast, front or back focusing, etc. Perfectly exposed negatives will not tell you anything about the lens. Almost all of these lenses will perform well under ideal conditions. Push them to find the cracks.
• Walk away or have a plan if you find mold, oil on the aperture blades, a dropped lens or a motor that squeaks.

What we see at the counter

We see so many lenses and cameras come through the shop on a daily basis. Most of the issues we see are from poor storage conditions! Cold and damp places will damage cameras and lenses beyond repair. We see fungus, haze, corrosion and even rust. The other large issue is something you think is protecting your gear. The foam in most camera cases degrades over time. The fine grit and pieces of foam work their way into your camera and cause damage. This is all preventable.

Still holding together, for now. Left long enough, case foam breaks down into grit.

Returns and warranties

Before you pay, know what happens if it fails: who covers it, for how long, and whether you can return it. On eBay that’s the 30-day Money Back Guarantee above. At Seawood it’s 7 days for store credit if you just don’t like it. There is also a 30-day warranty in case something goes wrong.

The take-along toolkit