14X Lens Pricing
 

What can I expect to pay for a used 14X lens today? I've seen them going on Ebay for anything from $350 to $700. That's a pretty big range considering they're all in "excellent condition." I need to start practicing with a full manual lens and the 16X is still too expensive for me. Did I mention I'm a student? Now accepting donations...

Thanks!

The ones I have seen seem to be a similar price.
I am getting ready to put my 16x lens up there just to get rid of. It is manual and auto.

the 14x is an excellent lens. I have it on my XL2 and much prefer it over the stock lens. It's much sharper. There's one for sale right now on Ebay for $425. That's a steal really. Most of the time I see them for around the $600 average.

Paul,
Are considering the 20x as the stock lens? If so, why do you think it is sharper and what do you like better about it?

Actually I've never used the 20X Lens. I bought my XL2 with the 14x manual, and previously had an XL1 with the 16x auto lens. I forgot that the XL2 had an upgraded 20x stock lens. So I'll qualify that comparing the 16x auto lens to the 14x, the 14x manual IMHO is much much sharper.

I also prefer the fact that the 14x has a true manual mechanical (no-electronic) apeture which allows me to make subtle exposure adjustments, versus electronic fstop steps, and it has no servo driven focus, so I can complete repeatable focus pulls if need. When doing film-style shooting, this is wonderful and essential.

That said I rented it out to a friend with a wedding videography business, and he hated the manual lens because he couldn't use auto-focus, or auto iris while running and gunning. He couldn't perform a consistent zoom (no motorized zoom either) and it has no built in ND filters, so he had to stop and screw on an ND which sometime could mean loosing a shot.

So it has it's downsides. Now the 16x manual is more expensive than the 14x and kind of bridges the gaps. It has built in ND filters, allows you to engage or disengage the servo zoom. It has manual repeatable focus, but an electronic iris.

So it basically comes down to what kind of shooting you're going to be doing. For film style I recommend the 14x. For Weddings or industrials use the 20x auto or bridge the gap with the 16x manual.

That's my 2 cents.