Best places to find lenses?

[cowanrg]

I have just gotten into collecting and using MF lenses. I was just wondering the best place to find lenses, other than ebay? it seems camera shops either don't have MF lenses, or they are really expensive. It seems most thrift stores, goodwill, salvation army, etc, either don't have ANY, or have absolute junk. antique stores seem to be hit and miss (found some that have decent lenses, but it varies). I tried one pawn shop and found a CZ 50mm Planar 1.7 for $120 attached to a Yashica body.

Where is everyone finding their lenses (other than ebay)?

[Orio]

Since a couple of years, Ebay is rarely the best place to find good MF lenses.
Too many people smelling business and trying to sell for a lot of money lenses in dubious condition.

One good place is here. If you are in this community for some time, you should have learned whose names you can trust. I personally try to make very honest prices, keeping into account that I don't have to pay shares on the sales, so I can make lower prices than what usually found on Ebay.
I make accurate descriptions of my lenses, not hiding any defect or problem that I am aware of, and in case problems should appear that I did not know about, I'm always ready to accept returns. There are several other people here like me. We are all users who love this community and care about relationships with the other members.

Another great place are used camera fairs. My best deals in the last two years have always been done in used camera fairs. Especially if you stay clear of collectioners lenses (like old Leica or Contarex lenses), you can find very good bargains at used camera fairs.

Finally, there are some online stores like Keh who sell old lenses. They are not always the cheaper, but they are a good resource.

[visualopsins]

flea markets & yard sales, craigslist, goodwill.com, friends with aging parents, estate sales...

[ludoo]

Local ads sometimes yield interesting things, and in the US you have craigslist where the best bargains are. My best bargains were from flea markets: go there early, and bargain like hell.

[cowanrg]

OK, cool. I keep hearing about how people say "oh, I got this lens for less than $10" and was wondering how. craigslist is great, but there's not a lot of MF lenses on there, and people are always trying to get rid of a body too, and the whole thing is overpriced.

I'll have to look for flea markets and estate sales. I just rarely know what I'm looking at except for some 'brand names'.

[ludoo]

Often lenses attached to bodies are cheaper than alone, as they are not advertised and people never take the time to look at body auctions.

As for what to search, give it time, read the archives here, and you'll manage to find some good lenses.

[cowanrg]

Yeah, I have a Pentax SMC 50 1.8 that I got for $40 attached to some body. Not a great deal, but I was excited to see it, and it's in mint condition. I also got an Olympus Zuiko 50mm for $10, and we found a Helios 44-2 for $9.

So, I'm doing good, but I've been to a lot of places and haven't seen much. I basically bought everything I saw that was decent.

[Attila]

To find flea markets perhaps a joy, but takes lot of times too and mostly garbage coming I did give up. My sources are Ebay, forums and local shops.

[luisalegria]

There is plenty in US ebay. There are over 500,000 items in the camera section. Nobody can master this much data where so much is messy and disorganized.

If you set up some searches for useful keywords, check for poorly listed things and messy lots, and you know what you are looking for (research !) you may find things the other sharks have missed. I find things like this all the time.

[magkelly]

Goodwill.com and their auctions is my #1 place to gear hunt. Nearly 3/4 of my stuff is from Goodwill. It takes time, patience, and some major diligence in checking the listings out but there are very real bargains to be had on there. Unfortunately it's also become a lot more popular place lately. People are frustrated with Ebay for various reasons and some of them have just caught on to the things that can be bought there so prices are not as cheap as they were even a year ago, but still it's definitely a good place to be if you want affordable gear and FYI, while I have had a couple of clunkers come my way I'd have to say that most of the lenses I've bought on Goodwill have been in pretty nice condition indeed for second hand stuff.

[cowanrg]

I've been looking at goodwill.com for a little while now and haven't seen anythings special. Their prices seem to be about what you can get on ebay if you just watch it and are good at searching. plus, the selection is much smaller. Maybe I'm missing something.

[Mike Deep]

Local camera shops, Goodwill stores and Salvation Army stores have been very useful for me.

[Olivier]

I find that there are still good bargains on ebay uk.

[magkelly]

Like I said, time, patience and diligence. You really have to take the time to study pics and read text at Goodwill, and I do find that I miss things unless I do it nearly every day. It can take a while to find what you want but there can be some real gems to find. It's not a place for the impatient though.

My Yashica lenses are all from Goodwill and there's not one lens in it that's not in excellent shape. There are a couple of $20 cheap ones in my lot but most of them go for $40-100 on Ebay most of the time. Total cost to me for 7 lenses so far? Maybe about $60-70 spent over a year if you take off what it cost me for the two cameras they came with.

It depends upon what you're looking for. Canon and Pentax lenses are getting pricey everywhere you look, but at least with Goodwill they're pretty honest about the condition of things. It depends upon the store as to whether or not they'll take it back if something is wrong, but so far I'd still take Goodwill over Ebay in terms of the quality of the lenses I've bought there. I've had one bum lens from there in over 18 months. I can't complain. I wasted all of $10 I think on that one.

Note, that statement above does not apply to my local Goodwill store though. They truly suck when it comes to providing clean camera equipment which is why I always buy at Goodwill online versus locally on that score. I've seen them try to sell fungus ridden kits, kits that had obviously been dropped in soapy water, and lenses that were clearly broken. The stores online clearly have a much higher standard in that regard than the one I deal with locally.

Shipping can be a bit pricey, particularly now, but sometimes it is worth it. Keep a sharp eye on the west coast stores, particularly those in the Tacoma-Seattle, Columbia-Williamette area. They get some nice gear and it's usually very, very clean most of it.

[cowanrg]

so, are we talking shopgoodwill.com?

[martinsmith99]

I use here, camera shops, charity shops, ebay, yard/car boot sales.

[magkelly]

Yup.

[ZoneV]

I use primarly ebay, flea markets, and used camera markets.
Ebay is good for finding something special - for exampel I search there for a Canon FD 24/1.4

The flea markets are good for suprises. My best buys are on the flea markets, but I never search for special things.
But the quality of the flea markets is mixed. On some markets you never find somthing in your quality and price range, on others you will find several interesting things. You never know what you will find.
To search flea markets only for the FD 24/1,4 would be dead boring. Never saw that lens in ~15 years.
I found a Zeiss 50/1.4 CY for ~ 50 Euro - on Ebay the price would be ~ 200-250 I suppose. But if you take your time into account, better got to Ebay!

Flea markets are a good source for fungus - so better be prepeared, learn to recognize fungus. Sometimes I buy intentional lenses with fungus - sometimes I didn´t saw the fungus there and bought a lens without knowing that it has fungus.

[cowanrg]

[RioRico]

I started acquiring lenses for my K20D about 2.5 years ago. I now have about 170 and have sold about 80. Most of my acquisitions have been via eBay. I'm in a remote community -- no good thrift-pawn-antique shops near here, nor useful craigslist, nor juicy yard sales, none of that. The nearest good pawnshop I know of is across the line in Nevada -- I hint at it in my article, PAWNSHOP LENSES (and other used lenses) - A Buyers' Guide.

I've bought some incredible glass, CHEAP, on the bay. Often it's part of a batch-lot, or attached to a camera, or just mislabeled. Or it may be in some undesired mount that I can adapt to PK. Or it's just not hot. For instance, the Super-Taks 55/1.8 and 55/2 have identical (fine) optics -- but the f/1.8 may fetch US$50 whilst the f/2 won't sell for US$10. It's amazing what effect less than 1/3 f-stop can have on price.

Where is the best place to look for lenses? Wherever you can find them!

[jjphoto]

The harder you work, the luckier you get!

[Papapishu]

From my experience, if you get it at a local shop you have to really dig your heels in. When I was working only part-time, I would bike around looking for old thrift stores that were off the grid. I've gotten a lot of good stuff that way. A Yashica ML for 5 bucks, a Takumar for 8.50 cents. It's very grab baggy, but the hunt is worth it sometimes.

[indianadinos]

Hi,

I use local sellers (really cheaper than fleabay), leboncoin (french site for local sales), monthly flea market in Toulouse, some local camera fairs ... and the marketplace from the forum ...
Now, i'm using fleabay only for accessories and only from well know sellers ...

Cheers