> KEH has become inconsistent, IMO. I've done business with them for
> over a decade. You'll see lots of stories posted to the 'net about
> "Bargain" items that turn out to be very clean. I've had that
> experience as well. More recently I noticed that "Bargain" is more
> likely to mean just that and maybe worse. One "Bargain" lens I
> ordered had a nice gouge in the front element. Mechanical items are
> apparently no longer thoroughly checked as I've had to return a few
> lately. If you follow their rules, they're very fair about returns.
FYI here are my expereinces with KEH
Every lens I have had from them was rated at EX, 6 lenses all for my
bronica etrsi at around one month internvals over last year.
The first lens looked spot less (40mm) and has worked perfectly I would
have rated it as in mint condition
the second was also mint apart from the appature preview lever would stick
a little (100-220 zoom) at wide appatures but worked flawlessly taking
photos and never jamed when I used the preview, its the lever that stick a
little not the appature blades or mechanism so its not really a problem.
The next lens the focusing ring was a little lose (105 macro) and the
appature ring indents did not quite match the markings on the barrel.
again glass fine and fully functioning cosmetically mint too.
The next was fine (60mm) the next had a small dent on the barell and
generally was not as clean or as fresh looking as the previous ones
(50mm). If you look at the KEH description of EX the lens met the
description it was just a little bit of a disapointment after the better
cosmetic conditions of the previous lenses.
The final lens has a mechanical problem which means the shutter in the
lens jams totally at 45-47mm and does not allways fire at any zoom setting
with appature prefire. The zoom ring is very very stiff (45-90)mm. On the
other hand it could be the spring in the body which is weak although all
the other lenses are fine.. After some experimenting I traced the fault to
a ring in the lens mount that must rotate to fire the shutter in the lens
- the ring is a little stiff and binds totally at 45mm
I would say in their defense that they delt patiently with me when UPS
screwed up again and again and even threatend to send back items that they
had not even tried to deliver and that I would have rated the 40mm,
100-220mm and 60mm as mint or mint- in every respect and all the lenses
have had spotless glass.
James
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