A very close friend of mine lives in another city and is trying to buy a Canon 7D for her wedding photography business. She has been searching Craigslists across the country, and came up with a potential winner in my city. She has sent me a large wad of cash and asked me to buy it on her behalf. I’m meeting with the guy on Monday.
There are a couple of issues. First, from her conversations with the guy, it seems like he knows nothing about this camera. She asked him what brand the lens was, and his answer was “ultrasonic,” which is a brand of lens motor, not a brand of lens (the words would be printed on the side of the lens). Anyone who knows anything about cameras would know this. Plus, he’s missing the charger, both bundled cables, the manual, and all the CDs. And the battery doesn’t work, so my friend will have to get another one. To top it off, he’s only charging $1350 for it, which includes the body and a lens. This camera body retails for about $1800, and my friend suspects the lens might be worth about $300.
Yes, all this does put the “stolen” flag for me. But I won’t buy it unless/until the guy has provided some good explanations for all that. It is no skin off my nose to walk away from this, and it would be skin off my nose to get charged with receipt of stolen property. No advice needed on determining whether it’s stolen.
My bigger concern is that this thing might be a lemon. I have purchased a new battery and charger for my friend and have charged it up. I’ll put the battery in the camera and try it out before I buy it. I’m a bit of an amateur photographer myself, so I know my way around an SLR. I need advice about what might tip me off that this thing is a piece of garbage.
When I bought the battery, I talked to the guys at the photo store. They said one big thing is that used DSLRs often have bent pins in the card writer. So I’ll be checking to make sure it writes to the card properly. What else should I check? We’ll be meeting in a public place, and I’ll be bringing my computer with card reader, the fully-charged battery for the camera, and the cash. Without any other special equipment, what can I do to ensure this is a good camera before I buy it? Anybody got a checklist?
Your friend is an idiot to buy a most likely stolen camera with no warranty for a business like wedding photography where you often only get one shot at a picture. Run away from this deal. It may work just fine during testing and fail during use. Buy from a reputable dealer and get a warranty.
That’s precisely the type of response I had hoped to preempt.
Again, I’m not looking for advice regarding whether the thing is stolen, or regarding the wisdom of the transaction in general. I’m looking for advice on ensuring that the thing will work properly.
Agreed. IMO it’s better to have a lesser camera of known provenance, than a pig in a poke. If it fails on the job, as Telemark says, not only is that one job lost, but the fallout could be a bad reputation that makes it harder to get subsequent jobs. If the body and the lens retail together for $2,100, it doesn’t make sense to buy an unknown camera for a saving of $750.
Look people, I’ve already tried to talk her out of it. I know it’s a bad idea. Thank you for reminding me. If you wish to dwell on that point, please go to the pit and start a different thread pitting my friend for her obstinacy in insisting to proceed with this transaction.
What I need now is some advice on how to mitigate the situation. I.e. how best to spot a defective camera given the aforementioned resources. Specific warning signs, particular tests to run, etc.
Could you meet the seller in the camera shop (i.e., the photo store you mentioned), and let the tech there evaluate the camera before you hand over the money?
As far a testing it goes all you can do is run it through a bunch of photos at various automatic and manual settings. Then take a laptop with a decent screen and a card reader to visually inspect the photo quality. You should be able to do this in 15-20 minutes or so. As far as what speed, aperture etc. test settings to use just look at the photo tests on www.dpreview.com and use some of those. You may also need to bring a memory card.
Although you don’t want advice on the purchase I’ll give it anyway. Beyond the general stupidity of making a purchase that has a high probability of being hot merchandise, the $ 1350 price really isn’t much of a deal for a used camera of unknown provenance with no accessories and no warranty.
That’s an excellent idea. I actually asked the guys at the camera shop whether they’d be willing to do this, and they said that the most they’d be willing to do would be to send it off to the factory to have it checked out. They wouldn’t be willing to do an in-store checkup. I’m don’t imagine the seller will be willing to have it sent off for 6 weeks, so I’m on my own for the checkup.
As someone who buys used computers (I own a PC shop) I would imagine that the OP’s friend quite well understands the impact on their business a bad camera could make. The OP’s friend will I’m sure test it thoroughly before betting her business on it.
If the friend has any sense at all she is already carrying multiple cameras for the very reason that if a camera malfunctions, gets dropped, whatever, they have to be able to finish the job. If this purchase is to start a photo biz…I would say OP’s friend is an idiot. If its being added to the loadout of an existing established photographers arsenal, no biggies.
The camera shop idea is a good one and its kinda disappointing to see the shop waffling on giving it a look see even if they charge for it. Personally I would go find out what all the missing pieces cost then offer at most $1000-(cost of accessories) or better yet print out offers like Astro found where maybe you can get a new unit with accessories for not much more as evidence that seller is charging more than FMV for the unit. If you can show that the camera isnt worth $1350 for a working used unit - accessories but the seller does not care…walk.
The OP believes this to be a suspiciously good price. It sounds about right to me as a general proposition for used precision equipment, though I don’t know cameras.
She should be aware that the serial number of the camera gets recorded in the pictures it takes. If the person has registered it, that means it can be tracked more easily than your average stolen item.
Also that any electronic good can have ‘soft’ failures where it appears to work but there is damage to them that means the item can die far more early than it otherwise would. No shop can test for this, and the chances of it are probably higher depending on how the battery died (fair chance its just flat from the sound of it though).
You know, usually the dope has a much better signal-to-noise ratio than Google, and considering that nearly everything I found on Google was worthless, I assumed this would be no exception.
Here’s a registry of serial numbers for stolen camera gear. It’s user submitted so it’s not even close to being complete but it’s one source to check to be sure you’re not buying a stolen camera.
She is getting a pig in a poke and it is a crap shoot as to whether it works well. I wouldn’t carry that kind of cash around, and if I had to, I’d do the transaction in a courthouse or bank. Testing a used camera is going to take several hours.
Why worry so much? Why not just walk away?..you’ve already said that it’s no skin off your nose to walk away.
you seem to have a lot of worries: you might get arrested for stolen property, your friend will ruin her business when the camera fails at a wedding, worried that you might get mugged for the cash.
What you seem to need is an excuse for walking out of the deal.
Why not just tell the guy that you don’t like the camera, and it won’t meet your professional needs?
You can be polite, take a few pics,shake your head and act disappointed at , I dunno, the slow reaction time of the lens. Tell him that without the manual, you won’t be able to use all the advanced functions you need.
Or throw a few technical terms into the conversation.The seller is ignorant, right?Tell him the resolution isn’t good enough. Tell him you can see a small scratch on the lens. He’ll deny it, so tell him that the scratch doesn’t affect the shots you just took in daylight, but will cause bad reflections from flash if used at night.
Tell him that the jabberwock is mis-aligned with the mimsy boragrove memory circuit, and you can’t buy it without a full checkup done at the factory.
Then walk away.
And tell your friend that you honestly checked it out, but the camera wasn’t what she thought it was, so you didnt want to waste her money.
The first link was to a very comprehensive lens checking article. The second linked to several articles at the top with useful info while making the point that you don’t seem to have done a lot of work yourself.
Otara
