Would you buy a used EX3 (or any camera) used off Ebay?

[Dave Blackhurst]

Having dealt with electronics for many years, both using and repairing, the truth is that any device "can" fail, mysteriously, sometimes at the worst time. Thus the mantra of "backup, backup, backup" - and why you might want to save some $$, so you can buy 'twosies" (AKA backups) for mission critical equipment!

Sometimes equipment is a victim of user malfunction, gravity and liquids are enemies (and I had one camera fail due to a near-field electrical discharge, AKA lightning!), but it's fairly rare that electronics just "fail". Malfunctions are more likely, just because we're talking mini-computers, but reboot is almost always your friend.

Generally if there is no physical abuse evident, and if one can do a reasonably thorough test of functionality with positive results when you get the camera, you'll probably be just fine, even if it's a bit scary to buy a complex expensive "thing" online.

I've only had a few problems buying on ebay, and most sellers will work those out, plus ebay stands behind you as a buyer, they've covered the very few "serious" problems. As a seller, I stand behind what I sell, as do most sellers I've dealt with. In the end the savings are worth it to me, and I don't feel I've lost any piece of mind. I even buy "broken" stuff for repair sometimes, when it's represented fully - got some killer deals that way!

Just avoid liquid, gravity and abuse damaged items! And of course things that just aren't working! It is harder to find the "small" or private sellers, but the stores are usually all at retail or higher... so you can pretty much weed them out!

[Josh Bass]

I must be one of those idiots you hear about that's easily swayed in any direction by anyone's argument. . .now you got me going the other way!

Are savings worth the anxiety? Depends. Let's say $4000ish is the "normal" price of a used cam from a retailer (B&H has an EX1r right now for $4200ish). Saving $1000? Not really worth the effort/nail biting. $2000 or more? Now you're talking.

I would just really want to vet the thing before I call the sale "totally final" and take it out into the field, and I don't really know how to do that.

Yes, I agree that in an ideal world, having at least two of everything or a backup would be great. For things like lights and audio, that's not too hard usually (softbox fails, improvise 650 through large diffusion; lav fails, use a boom). On the other hand, buying two cams can get pretty unreasonably expensive. On the other other hand (this person grew up near a power plant obviously), the cam seems least likely to just not work right, save for a few models that were known to have issues like that *cough* Red One *cough hack wheeze*