Need some help with buying a used lens.....

Here's the scenario. A guy locally is selling a 70-200 F4L lens non-IS for around $400. It has a UU date code (manufactured in 2006?) and has the normal amount of wear for a lens of that age. The problem is that the front element has a small scratch on it. He sent me some images taken with the lens and of course the scratch is too fine to show up in any shots. He's including just the lens, caps, hood and bag (no box, etc). Does that seem like a fair price? I usually buy my stuff in near mint condition so I'm not sure how much a lens like that would normally go for. Thanks for the help crew!

I would have to see the scratch but I won't buy any lens that the glass is not perfect. It may not affect photos but you don't know all the condition. Will it cause glare? I believe that if scratch/scratches will not affect picture then lens manufacture does not need to make the glass perfect. Why not sell lenses cheaper with scratches all over?

Normal amount of wear? I recently bought a (135mm f/2L) UT date code lens - the year earlier - with essentially no wear at all.

Bought new, this lens will cost you around $600, or 50% again. However, I would keep an eye out for other copies of the lens used.

In all truth the scratch probably will not affect the images at all, although I think it would be most helpful to have a shot of the sky taken at minimum focus distance to get the best chance of the lens scratch showing up. If you're using the lens on APS-C and the scratch is near the edge of the glass, it may be impossible for it to show up.

All things taken together, my very inexpert thought is to keep on looking, but you shouldn't put a lot of weight into my opinion since I don't have any experience with using this one.

Price is good, but I'd worry about the scratch. If it were me, I'd keep looking.

According to this site that's a good price, but I would want to take a few shots with the lens myself to make sure the scratch has no effect on the image quality.

http://tangentphoto.co​m/canonusedlenspricegu​ide.html

I understand people wanting nice looking equipment, but it takes a heck of a scratch to cause an issue with IQ.

You might want to check this out.

http://www.lensrentals​.com …0/front-element-scratches

Call canon and see how much it would cost to fix.

I changed my mind. I found some folks on the boards selling these for a good price with the original goodies. Maybe I'm a snob but I hate buying used stuff that looks used. Thanks for your help everyone!

Ten Ounce wrote in post #13647451
Here's the scenario. A guy locally is selling a 70-200 F4L lens non-IS for around $400. It has a UU date code (manufactured in 2006?) and has the normal amount of wear for a lens of that age. The problem is that the front element has a small scratch on it. He sent me some images taken with the lens and of course the scratch is too fine to show up in any shots. He's including just the lens, caps, hood and bag (no box, etc). Does that seem like a fair price? I usually buy my stuff in near mint condition so I'm not sure how much a lens like that would normally go for. Thanks for the help crew!

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Do you think you can take a pic of the lens?
I know you can't judge a book by its cover but just curious on how it looks like

http://www.lensrentals​.com …0/front-element-scratches

Read this, then dont worry too much

This is the picture provided by the seller.

Ten Ounce wrote in post #13648704
This is the picture provided by the seller.

Wouldn't bother me in the slightest, but I'm more about the photos, not the gear.

I wouldn't worry about that tiny scratch. $400 seems like a great deal if it works.

Definitely a personal decision. I've seen a few recently selling for under $500. So, is it worth $90 to eliminate the scratch? It would be to me. Especially if i ultimately planned to sell it as part of a future upgrade. Others won't care at all if it doesn't show up in pictures.

The other part of the equation is that I would have to drive about 200 miles round trip to pick this up. That right there is about $40-$60 in gas depending on how heavy my foot is. I'm probably better off buying used on here. I've seen some great deals recently on lenses that have everything included. If I was local to this guy I might've met up with him to try it out and make sure, but I would be pretty upset if I wasted my day to drive there and find it to be worse than shown.