Thoughts on Ebay vs traditional stores...

[LeeSowden]

Hi all, just hoping on some input before I decide where to spend my hard-earned dollars.

I have a kodak dx6490, have been playing with it for 9-10 months now, and want to pick a few extra bits and pieces. One of these is a 0.7x wide angle lens, which I need an adapter to make it fit onto the camera. Being lucky enough to work in a camera and film processing store, I can get a bit of a discount, taking the price for these together down from around $280 (all prices in australian dollars) to $210 or so. Which is nice.

Then I find this lot on ebay, which has a 0.45x wide angle lens and the adaptor for - once I add in postage - around half the price.

It'd be nice to buy through my work, where I'd know pretty much exactly what I was getting, but these kinds of savings are hard to ignore - anyone got any advice?

Thanks

[Bytephoto]

Hi,
Here are my thoughts...

What make is the lens ??
Is it of good quality. Images too soft etc.?
Will it give vignetting with the adapter ?

All these questions are not so easily answered from the Ebay offer, but could quite easily be if done through the local camera shop.

Having said that I've bought quite a lot of equipment using Ebay but only from offers where I knew the product.

Voil’*‚„’‚‚*. Hope this helps.

[Paul_OH]

I agree with RVB, if it's brand name equipment you're buying then the quality is known and anything that is wrong with it should be returnable. If you're comparing apples with apples then take the cheapest offer but if the equipment's an unknown quantity then I'd probably err on the side of caution. On the other hand you maybe missing out on the bargain of the century, who knows?

Probably not much help but I'd stick with your local store unless it's the same item.

Paul

[fnkyfly]

Hey there brohan. I have purchased from ebay and I have found that 4 out 5 times I get less than what I expected. Try Bizrate.com.