Post-purchase support required

A week ago, while enjoying Peter’s photos from his trip to Thailand, I was overcome by the most violent case of lens envy. It was time; I was ready to purchase my first true telephoto lens.

The Olympus lens I wanted costs $500 in Australia. On eBay, I was delighted to find the lens was available from a USA retailer for around $250, including shipping. I was ready to place my winning bid when I was distracted by someone selling another lens — second-hand, the cheaper Sigma brand with different specs but ready to be picked up in Melbourne.

What to do? I agonised over the decision for two days. Here is the comparison.

Olympus Zuiko lens 40-150mm

Sigma lens 55-200mm

PROS

  • Widely acknowledged to produce sharper images
  • A faster lens (wider apertures), which I’d appreciate because I don’t carry a tripod
  • Better build quality
  • Has a 58mm filter thread so it can share filters with my current lens
  • 1 year warranty
PROS

  • Still reasonable image quality; as a prosumer, I probably would not have been able to tell the difference
  • Around $130 cheaper
  • I can pick up the lens in Melbourne and use it straight away
  • 25% lighter in weight
  • Longer focal length — reaches 400mm, compared to the 300mm of the Olympus lens (35mm equivalent)
CONS

  • Located in the US, which means if there are problems and I need to use the warranty, there will be expensive shipping charges
  • Opposites of the Sigma pros (i.e. more expensive, heavier, shorter reach…)
CONS

  • Has a 55mm filter thread so I will need to buy new filters
  • Second hand
  • Opposites of the Olympus pros (i.e. less sharp, less robust…)

In the end, I thought back to my previous dEBAYcles. Every time I’ve had a problem with eBay, it’s to do with an item I bought from overseas. Being in different countries just multiplies the hassle.

I bought the Sigma lens. I regretted it a little bit. Post-purchase support would have been nice (Vera? Vera? “Joan, I think you did the right thing. You’ve saved money and it’ll be easier for you to travel around with a lighter lens, right? And being able to zoom further in is definitely worth it.”)

Oh well. I made peace with myself and arranged to meet up with the seller. I brought my camera along because I happened to go on site that morning and used my camera.

We met up and I asked if I could test the lens. We tried to mount it onto my camera but it quickly became obvious that it wouldn’t fit. It turned out that Sigma makes 55-200mm lenses for Canon cameras (which have larger mounts) as well as Olympus cameras (and Nikon, and Pentax). To be honest, the seller had made it clear that the lens was for Canon mounts but I hadn’t realised that the same lens could come with different mounts.

It was totally my fault. I was totally embarrassed. He was decent enough to let me renege on the sale. That’s really bad eBay form; winning an auction is a contract. Your reputation as an eBay buyer and seller relies on you following through with your contracts. I did pay him $10 to cover his listing fees. He will re-list his lens but I was the only bidder last time. I don’t know if he’ll be able to sell it.

Anyway, now I went home, logged back into my eBay account and bought the lens from America. Price was no object (actually, it ended up being only $100 more expensive, once I included the cost of filters I would have bought for the Sigma). It’s on it’s way to Australia now (I’m tracking it). I am optimistic that this dEBAYcle is over.

One comment

  1. Anonymous says:

    Joan,
    I would’ve gone with the cheaper, lighter, more-zoom 2nd-hand object as well. Just think of how many 2nd-hand paperbacks I buy!
    ftalk

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