Sekonic 558: How do you tell if....?

[Medic1]

....the meter was not new when you purchased it?

The main question being: Do any 558 owners remember if the screen came with a removable transparent piece of film on it (as is common practice with most LCD's these days)?

I purchased a L-558 a little while ago and it had some dust in the cracks around the screen when I took it out of the box. Not a big deal as the meter seems to work fine. But my meter came inside the protective case (in the box) with no plastic wrap around it.

A friend just purchased the same meter and it was in a plastic bag with a silica pak (inside of the protective case) when he opened it, but his meter had finger prints all over it.

Neither meter had a protective film on the screen....

These inconsistencies are leading us to believe that these meters may have both been display models in the store and sold under the false pretense that they were new (which would not be that big of a deal if that was disclosed and they were at a discounted price).

Any help is appreciated.....

[DocFrankenstein]

I don't remember my 358 having any protection for the LCD. They come in soft cases and there's really no need for them.

The spotmeter I got used.

Here's a tip, if you want to avoid scratching the spotmeter lens do not rotate the cap while you're taking it off. I did that and got a circular scratch on the lens. That's bad design on sekonic's part.

[Medic1]

Well, thats good to know.....I know I'm being kinda nitpicky here with the plastic bag&silica thing, but I just hate thinking that I got less than what I was paying for.

I know its little things, but if the buttons have been pressed tons of times and the jog wheel has been rotated over and over again by browsing shoppers it all reduces the life use of those parts...and I payed for a meter that was supposed to be new with a full life span on all the parts

[DocFrankenstein]

Well, thats good to know.....I know I'm being kinda nitpicky here with the plastic bag&silica thing, but I just hate thinking that I got less than what I was paying for.

I know its little things, but if the buttons have been pressed tons of times and the jog wheel has been rotated over and over again by browsing shoppers it all reduces the life use of those parts...and I payed for a meter that was supposed to be new with a full life span on all the parts
I like demo models.

For one, I get them cheaper. Two, if they survived the abuse of the shoppers, there's nothing that I can do to break them.

But you do have to test them carefully.

[Medic1]

I like demo models.

For one, I get them cheaper. Two, if they survived the abuse of the shoppers, there's nothing that I can do to break them.

But you do have to test them carefully.

I agree.....demo models are good....if you get them cheaper, of course I paid the full price the new ones were listed at.

Just frustrated...because I have never had a problem with this store and there has been a big change in staff recently. The familiar faces that you knew and who knew you are all gone, so its hard to tell if I'm getting the run-around or not