So after picking up a brand new 10-24 today for $200 and being stupid giddy I thought I would post and see if others might share their bargains or lucky finds. In addition, suggestions on keeping it or flipping it for a hopefully newly discounted d7000. Would love the new 600 but 2k is still outta my price range.
Insane deals and lucky finds
(45 posts) (25 voices)-
Posted 8 months ago #
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Best I ever did was a used 18-200mm for £240. Sold it a year later on ebay for £280.
I want you to tell us how on earth you managed to find a 10-24mm for $200?
Posted 8 months ago # -
Most could care less about this one but last year I went to a garage sale from a family cleaning out their father house he had passed away. I found a Nikon F 64 with a NAI 50 1.4 lens in almost mint condition I asked the price and was quoted $75. It sits on my camera shelve.
framer
Posted 8 months ago # -
I walked into my local photo shop and film lab 20 years ago and there was a Noct-Nikkor 58 mm 1.2 on the shelf for $800.00. I didn't have 800, but the owner told me to go ahead and take it with me: he let me pay the next time I came in. (he was doing a lot of work for me at the time.)
I still have the lens. Unlike my F2 bodies that have gone way down in value, this one has gone way up.
Posted 8 months ago # -
This morning after waking up I happened to check lensrentals. To my complete surprise they had a used D800 for sale, rated 9/10 and going for $2700. (The two other items I bought from them were rated 8.5/10 and were only distinguishable from brand new by a couple faint cosmetic scratches.) I wasn't awake enough yet to rationalize how much I actually need a D800 at the moment, but I don't think I will stumble across a deal like that on a D800 in the near future and now it is being shipped in my general direction.
Posted 8 months ago # -
I managed to get the Nikkor 80-200mm f/2.8 older push/pull version with giant leather case for $400.00 - I hardly used it, as it weighed a tonne and sold it a year later for $750.00
Posted 8 months ago # -
I posted a snapshot of the Noct Lens on PADS. When I get some time I might set it up as a practice subject.
Posted 8 months ago # -
These are recent:
Nikon FG, black, for $9 on eBay. They listed it as broken (frozen mirror). Put it at 1/90th shutter (manual mode) and popped in a fresh battery. Worked perfectly. Replaced the light seals for $5. Just sold it on consignment with an old 50mm f/1.8 for $150.00Nikon F100, $100, with about 15 rolls of negative and slide film. Wonderful camera.
Nikon 28-70mm f/2.8. $795, bought it at a local shop. They just had it completely refurbished at Nikon USA. pristine, back to front. Not even a speck of dust inside.
Nikon 80-200mm AF-S for $675. With the hood, case, box, blank warranty cards, etc. Glass isn't pristine (one "cleaning mark") but damn what a lens. I had the AF-D two ring version before but this blows it away completely.
Posted 8 months ago # -
I haven't had that good of luck, but I do hunt for deals. Got my refurbished 105 F2.8 for $750. Got my 17-55 F2.8 for $925 used, but looks and functions brand new. Got my D5000 as a kit with the 18-55 and after selling it my D5000 came out to around $350 at the time when they were still selling for $700+.
Posted 8 months ago # -
Back in the days of 35mm film, I was given a Nikonos V with a 35mm f/2.8 lens. This was during a volcanic eruption in Papua New Guinea and the exact circumstances are now a bit blurred in my mind - the owner might well have been scamming his insurance company. Or he might have just been lending it to me and forgot to ask for it back.
I was just grateful to have a camera I could use in the extremely dusty conditions, washing it under a tap regularly. I still have it and cherish it.
Posted 8 months ago # -
Yeah I know I'm super lucky. Not as lucky as the guy in front of me that got the 10-24 for $200 AND the 60mm micro for $200. He got the last of those which I was really interested in. Not to worry, I recently snagged a used 50mm 1.2 for $250 that looks brand new. Love it so far.
Now advice on my good fortune. I'm not sure I need the 10-24 esp since my 20 2.8 does we well on width and is faster. Sell the 10-24 towards a D7000 or towards maybe the 105 micro? Ive got a D90 which I love (only thing lacking is fx and ais metering for me) but Ive got some ais glass id love to meter with and improved low light would not be unfavorable.
Posted 8 months ago # -
shutteredglass said:
Now advice on my good fortune. I'm not sure I need the 10-24 esp since my 20 2.8 does we well on width and is faster. Sell the 10-24 towards a D7000 or towards maybe the 105 micro? Ive got a D90 which I love (only thing lacking is fx and ais metering for me) but Ive got some ais glass id love to meter with and improved low light would not be unfavorable.
Sell the 10-24 AND the D90 toward a D600. That paired with your 20mm would be a great combo, and you will love the wider FOV.
Posted 8 months ago # -
Yeah I thought about that. After lookin at used d90 prices I figure with battery grip and katzeye screen maybe pull in 700-750 (correct me if my swag is off). Paired with with the 10-24 I'm still lookin at $600 plus to get to a d600. As much as I'd love a fx I think the cost for me is too high. Not a techno chaser here, just upgrade periodically when cost and desired functionality align. Not usually high iso performance either. Went from 60 to 90 for af motor, now 7000 for ais, dual sd slots and maybe more video. hopefully with d7000 price dropping a little, the d7000 would provide me more than enough camera for many years. Long enough for a fx body to be sub-$1000.
Posted 8 months ago # -
Not really on sale per se, but I had gotten my 35mm 1.8 for practically free from Citbank Thank You rewards points.
I had preordered my copy right before release and it came a couple weeks later when people were scrambling for them. The price isn't any lower than when I got it then, so I guess I got a good deal on it.
Posted 8 months ago # -
Lets see good camera related deals.
From eBay picked up a Nikkor 75-300mm f/4.5-5.6 from ebay that supposedly the AF didn't work. Tracked the problem to EE Servo coupling post being broken off. So I used a small drill bit put a pilot hole in the aperture ring where it would have been put a small screw in the pilot hole and bingo fully AF functional on the AF cameras that require that being there.
From a local camera store picked up a Nikkor 50mm f/1.4 AIS for $125 perfect shape minus oil on aperture blades. A nice and heavy cleaning of the blades later have a nice 50mm f/1.4 AIS for a lot less than retail.
From Adorama picked up a Nikkor 55mm f/2.8 Macro AIS for $50 with oil on aperture blades. Once again a nice and heavy cleaning of the blades later I have a nice Nikkor 55mm F/2.8 Macro AIS for the macro work I randomly do.
From Adorama I picked up a Nikkor 55mm f/1.2 for $75 with some bad fungus. Heavily cleaned the lens and slapped a nice multi-coated filter in front of the lens I have a nice lens for pretty much anything I want to shoot in MF.
From Adorama I picked up a nice Nikkor 80-200mm f/2.8 AF for $150 with a slight bit of fungus on the front element. A little research on the web figured out out to remove the front element. Cleaned it and reassembled it I now have an excellent Nikkor 80-200mm f/2.8 AF for portrait work and stuff like that.
From a friend at a local camera shop I picked up Nikkor 80-200mm f/2.8D AF-D for $300. He lent it out to me to see if I could sort out what was going on with its AF drive system. I did a partial tear down of the lens and loosened the focus assembly's gearing and tweaked the primary drive gear. After doing that reassembled the lens and it has been working flawlessly.
At a local pawn shop I picked up a Nikkor 35mm f/2 AF and a Nikkor 50mm f/1.8 AF for $200 for the set. The 35mm f/2 has some slight cracking on the window on the side of the lens but other than that is functions flawlessly.
At another local pawnshop I picked up a Nikon SB-600 and a Sigma 28-70mm f/2.8 AF (that I later found problems with and fixed) for $400 for the set. The flash goes with my D7000 kit and the Sigma 28-70mm f/2.8 AF goes with the D800 as a walking around lens.
At a local camera store I picked a Nikon SB-800 for $200 and I currently keep this with the D800.
Picked up a 35mm f/2.8 Shift lens early non-AI (metal shift knob) that supposedly has some elemental separation from Adorama for $125 a few years back. I have yet to find any issues with the lens in my testing shooting on the D800.
I have picked up a few other Nikkor 50mm f/1.2s and 55mm f/1.2s here and there for less than the current market value and done some minor tweaking repairing to them and have shot many pics with both of them.
My most recent heck of a deal lens was I picked up a Nikkor 50mm f/1.8D AFD that supposedly didn't focus off ebay for $20. I already had one that I had got a year earlier that ended up being a lost cause since its aperture was destroyed. I ended up using the front element assembly from that lens on the latest one since its filter threads were screwed. The lens is now fully functional and is a nice walking around lens. The lens is also tac sharp and quite the deal once it was fixed.
I was also given a stack of old Nikon hand me down gear from my dad since he went Canon a while back (I know I know).Apparently I have picked up way more than I realized that needed tweaking here and there to make fully functional. To me a slightly messed up lens is a good deal provided you know how to sort it out. I have honestly had a few burns on lenses here or there where I simply didn't have the ability to fix the problems on them. I have been lucky to have a very high hit ratio of getting damaged or broken lenses that either have minor issues that were easily fixable or there really wasn't an issue at all.
Posted 8 months ago # -
Oh yeah forgot about a really good deal from a local thrift store. Picked up a nice Kenko 2X teleconverter for $15 and a Tokina 20-35mm f/3.5-4.5 for $40. Once again I have picked up way to much awesome lens work over the last couple years for not a lot of $$
Posted 8 months ago # -
^^^ Are we really expected to read that?
Posted 8 months ago # -
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I read it.
Next time I find a "broken" lens deal, I'm PMing you :)
Posted 8 months ago # -
Deal you ask ok here is what I have done:
D4: $5000
24-70 2.8: $1350
14-24 2.8: $1450
70-200 2.8: $1780
105 2.8: $650
50 1.4G: $365
18-200: $625
10.5 fisheye: $275Posted 8 months ago # -
Cool topic and I can't believe it hasn't been covered before actually. Shutteredglass $200 for 12-24?! Wow Usually deals that seem too good to be true are 99% not true. Like paying for a $200 12-24 then mounting it on the camera at home and it falls right off kind of bad. Your fortunate. I can see great deals locally where I live everyday. Its why I have shot nearly every Nikkor, Zeiss and Leica lens there is. Probably my sweetest finds were:
A Zeiss 18mm ZM for my Leica priced at $800 and with the new Leica digital bodies all the lenses have shot up so its $1700 now!
A Nikon D700 for $1700 back in 2010 because a studio pro shooter put 25,000 actuations on it. It was mint though and I had for two years trading it in for my D800e. By the time I traded it in it has 134,696 actuations on it.
A brand new 14-24mm Nikkor for $1500 because it had a Japanese warrenty instead of a Korean one which is really frowned upon living in Korea. I didn't care though and have never regretted it.
An F100 for $80 even though it is in 95% condition.
A 28-80 G cheap little zoom for $40 great lightweight lens for hiking.
Countless free B&W UV filters to help close a deal on a lens. I usually can get these thrown in!
This past weekend a D800 for $2800 not bad and a D4 for an even 5 grand. Never seen new or used D800e bodies or the wonderful 5D Mark III though.
My local shops have really helped me out over the past two years of my graduate studies especially. When I have been short of funds for school, I have given my camera body(D700 last fall) to a shop and selling it to them for just $1000 to cover books and part of tuition. Then two weeks later, I buy the same body back from them for just $1100 after I get paid from work. Kind of like a loan, and they hold it for me for esentially $100. Unfortunately, I have done this about 7 times these past two years with bodies and lenses, but luckily I have only one more semester to go. Its nice to have this option as an emergency with my program being such a pain in the ass financially.
Posted 8 months ago # -
I guess old folks just do not get these deals....LOL
In the early 1960's, purchased two Omega enlargers, lenses, carriers, etc. 4x5 tanks, a ton of stuff from an estate sale...for maybe $30. worth several hundred at that time. And f/2.0 Summicron for $40....yikes, today it would be worth a couple hundred possibly. And, my Zenza Bronica, which I found out stills works after nearly 50 years, my first Nikon F body, both from Hong Kong, and we actually trusted the folks who seemed to be very honest. Saved about 40% as I remember.
I think for those who are young and know how to do this, or can repair problems (macsavageg4) the used market is not only fun, but full of fantastic deals. Probably best done, IMO, at the 1:1 personal contact level, and obviously n a large metro area this is easier.
@ Kanuck... you have my admiration and respect keep up the studies...
Posted 8 months ago # -
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