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Last edited by asf; 17-Oct-2021 at 12:24.
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Last edited by asf; 17-Oct-2021 at 12:24.
I find japanese ebay sellers to be excellent. Concerning LF gear I have bought 3 lenses and a lot of film holders. Apart from 1 lens that was described as "as is" all items were conform the description. The as-is lens has a defect but it is hard to spot but still usable and the price was correct.
Expert in non-working solutions.
Sorry to hear about your lens purchase experience. I have purchased 4 or 5 large format lenses from Japan and never experienced a problem. They have been well packaged and quickly shipped. Mistakes do happen, I am glad to hear they treated your problem respectfully as we all hope all online sellers would! Kudos to them!
Last edited by OKAROB; 30-Jun-2018 at 23:49.
I love to buy from Japanese sellers on eBay! I've found the Japanese to be the most honest and polite of all of the countries I regularly do business with. They often send a little gift (chocolate, bag of tea, paper crane) and a hand written note in English with any purchase I've made. Plus the US Dollar is strong against the Yen and they still have a strong film culture over there so they tend to present the best values in general.
That being said, I believe that there are good and bad people of all races, religions, countries of origin, age, gender, sexual orientation, political affiliation, and fan of a particular sports team. So I tend to try not to think of sellers in terms of where they're from, but rather how they list their items. Do they provide good pictures and lots of details? Do they respond to questions? Do they have good feedback history? I've had very few bad experiences on eBay over the years, and most of the bad experiences I have had have been as a seller, not a buyer (buyers deciding they don't want something after all, so they break it and claim it was damaged in shipping and demand their money back seems to be a popular trend).
My purchases from sellers in Japan have been positive with one exception, in fact lenses were often better than described. The only bad experience was a crappy 2D bellows I got from Tokyophoto.
I received an enlarging lens yesterday from Japan which looks perfect, it was a heck of a good deal.
The only issues I've ever had with any Japanese sellers is them not knowing how to properly check bellows for light leaks. Each time I received one with corner holes the seller made amends. I've never had any problems with used lenses from Japan.
Funny, I was checking Super Angulon prices on eBay the other night and came across a listing for a 75mm f/5.6 SA from Japan that seemed like a decent deal. Something didn't quite seem right about the lens... a closer look at the auction pics revealed that the "rear" element installed was actually the front element of a convertible Symmar 150/265mm! You really have to wonder about these sellers sometimes.
I have had great experiences with Japanese camera shops, both in person and through eBay, but like every store it is important to remember they were probably not out there using it themselves, so they might not be aware of hidden problems.
Regarding the swapped rear element thing, I bought a 150mm Sinaron SE as part of a package from a Norwegian photographer, and I asked him beforehand if it was sharp. "Yes!" The price for the package was very low overall and included a Toyo camera a 90mm Gradagon and other accessories. When I tried the lens, it had a lot of glowing highlights and was not sharp. It was somewhat functional, but quite soft. I sent it to Rodenstock for a repair, and they said the shutter and rear element was from a 150mm Apo Symmar. Whoops. The bellows were also Swiss cheese and needed to be replaced. I asked the seller and he said, "oh, sorry, I only shot 3 polaroids with the kit". Norwegians are generally very honest too, so I think it is important to remember that there are people everywhere who are bad sellers, whether they intend to be or not. In my case the gear was priced low enough as to make it better for my sanity to just ignore it and get on with my life...a 150mm SE was not in the package, it was a Copal 0 shutter with some pretty end caps.
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