New or Refurbished Lens?

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I have ordered a 70-300mm L from Amazon before the rebates ended. Now I see Canon Store has the same lens refurbished for around $300 cheaper than what I spent. Excluding tax and rewards, the difference come to around $200. I never had experience with refurb products. I would like to know if refurb lenses are atleast nearly as good as the new ones? ALso is the $200 big enough to give away the 1 year warranty (may be 2 yrs with certain credit card. I believe mine also provides the 2yr warranty).
Should I order the refurb lens and cancel my order for the new one?
 
Mar 25, 2011
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imkev said:
They are back on sale again and a much bigger selection than a few days ago. I own several refurbs as well, always look there first because prices are usually better when they have these sales.

I had just checked last night, and now the lenses I'm interested in are sold out :-[

I just ordered a 24-70MK II, so I will have to pay for it before buying more.
 
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The refurb sale right now does have a nice selection but as a trade off, most of the lens are only 15% off. They regularly have 20% sales and once or twice a year have a 30-35% off sale (they even have 50% off but that is typically only for the refurb older kit type lens).

The quality of the refurb lens/flashes/dslrs I've purchased (about 5-6) from canon have been just fine. But getting any specific lens you want can be very difficult. If you need your lens now, you may want to just keep the one you ordered. But I recommend checking the refurb regularly and signing up for their pita email distribution just so you'll get word of the sales.

Fyi, the canon powershot refurbs are very hit & miss. If you ever need to purchase one (as a gift or pocket travel camera, etc) I can't recommend buying thru Canon. I'd recommend just picking one up on sale somewhere else.

PS: **Don't trust the reviews on Canon's site. They filter them pretty heavily & won't post anything that gives their service a negative hit. They rejected two of my reviews of the refurb products I bought from them.
 
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pgsdeepak, I just purchased a 70-200L f/2.8 II and it came as mentioned above with all accessories, but in a large, very-well packaged box without the "original" box. The date code on mine was July 2012. I'm sure it may vary considerably based on what they deem repairable. I would just use the heck out of it in those 90 days to assure all is good. Mine was perfect and so far has performed perfectly.
 
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The lens is working good. It looks new, no cosmetic blemish. so no complaints :)
One question though, does 70-300mm L and non L images are dramatically different on a 40D or any APSC Camera for that matter? I see difference between the images from both the lens, but no big difference . Just want to confirm before I sell my Non-L and decide not to return the L before the 14 day return period runs out :)
I assume the images from the L lens will be much better when taken with a FF camera. I don't have my 5D available now to test, as I had to return it.
 
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JPAZ

If only I knew what I was doing.....
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Sep 8, 2012
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I just got a 100-400 refurb. Arrived today. Date code is October 2012. It is pristine. Even the carrying strap looks new. The only difference I can tell is no original box (actually arrived in better packing than I've seen from other vendors with "new" lenses) and no warranty card. I'll give it a thorough workout this weekend but just playing around with natural light indoors at night, seems fine (shot cabinet hardware with and without IS and looks awfully good at 400 f6.3).

Anyone find and purchase an extended warranty for a refurb lens? I once had a malfunctioning zoom repaired that was 6 yrs old (got a Mack 7 yr warranty when I purchased it) and it worked out well. It is not clear to me that this type of warranty is available for a factory-refurbished product.
 
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Rienzphotoz

Peace unto all ye Canon, Nikon & Sony shooters
Aug 22, 2012
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All refurbished items get checked over by the manufacturer by hand, inspected very thoroughly, diagnosed, and calibrated by experienced technicians, and could therefore turn out to be more dependable than a new item - which will only have been checked by a process of systematic quality control protocol i.e. by random sampling as it comes off the conveyor belt.
 
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