refurbished 5d III, what do you think?

[zg08]

what do you think about getting a refurbished 5D-3? Is it worth it?

Not sure what warranty it would have, but assuming a year - do you think it's worth the risk?

why are some cameras "refurbished"? something was broken when a customer received it? or was it merely a return to the store for no reason?


this is what I'm debating over:
http://shop.usa.canon.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product_10051_10051_309850_


geez, i can't even call them to ask about warranty. need to be in the US to call. arghhh... i wonder if they'd accept a canadian CC to ship it to a US address....

 

[wickidwombat]

warranty is only 3 months on those AFAIK

 

[zg08]

warranty is only 3 months on those AFAIK

thanks...

probably not worth it. 3 months is not that much.

 

[RLPhoto]

I bought my 7D refurb and it was perfect, no issues. I got in 2010 for 1050$, which was a steal at the time. Glad I did it.

 

[zg08]

what does "refurb" means?

i know that for instance in vacuum cleaners if a customer returned one to the stor,e they would replace the filters and sell it at a deep discount...so buying refurb would be a good deal in that case.

but i have no idea what is involved in refurbishing a camera

 

[timmy_650]

So it was a product returned, they go thought it and fix the problem if there was one. Depending on the product will change they test they do. Place like canon put it though like a 7-20 point inspection, so it meets the same standard as new.
So I got my t2i refurbished and it looked new and had like 103 pictures taken and 27 videos. There might be scuffs on it and little blemishes on it. Something times that is all what is wrong with it, it can out of the factory with a cosmetic blemish.
In my experience 90% of products you buy refurbished you can't tell it was refurbished, it looks and acts new. I have yet to get that 10% and if you do just return it in the first 2 weeks or something like that.

 

[Mt Spokane Photography]

Refurbed does not mean repaired. The cameras are usually demos or ones that were returned and working fine. A lot of people returned perfectly good cameras over the light leak issue, so canon added a piece of tape.
You can purchase a Mack Warranty to extend coverage, but realistically, most problems with a camera happen within a month or two.

Still, if you are prepared to jump on a one day sale, you can do very well. I bought my 5D MK III from Adorama on ebay last fall for $2750 and got a spare OEM battery out of the deal from my ebay bucks. Recently, there have been some very good short term sales.

 

[fonts]

I don't get people's hesitation with this. Refurbished means back to standards. Basically new. It's a great deal even with the 3month warranty.

 

[zg08]

Still, if you are prepared to jump on a one day sale, you can do very well. I bought my 5D MK III from Adorama on ebay last fall for $2750 and got a spare OEM battery out of the deal from my ebay bucks. Recently, there have been some very good short term sales.

this refurb camera from canon is a sale. I haven't seen anything lower for a 5d 3, perhaps I'm not looking in the right places?

I don't get people's hesitation with this. Refurbished means back to standards. Basically new. It's a great deal even with the 3month warranty.

In my experience I had to repair a 40D within warranty period, so I think warranty can be important. However, what are the chances I'll get a second camera that would break within the warranty period? lol

 

[RGF]

I buy refurbished computers all the time -never had a problem. I have purchased refurb lenses, never a body, mostly since I cannot find one when it is time for me buy.

As others have said, could be a return - customer did not like it, or did not want it, ,.. Store returns the camera to canon and it then becomes a refurb.

 

[East Wind Photography]

Maybe not worth it. If the price is right and you qualify, get the CPS gold membership so at least after 3 months you can get a discount on repairs.

I've always had issues with refurb products (not Canon) so I steer away. New is not much more usually.

 

[Mt Spokane Photography]

Still, if you are prepared to jump on a one day sale, you can do very well. I bought my 5D MK III from Adorama on ebay last fall for $2750 and got a spare OEM battery out of the deal from my ebay bucks. Recently, there have been some very good short term sales.

this refurb camera from canon is a sale. I haven't seen anything lower for a 5d 3, perhaps I'm not looking in the right places?

Like I said, you have to be willing to wait and jump on a sale when it happens. Usually, they sell out in a few hours. You have to be patient and maybe wait for a few weeks, and there is no guarantee that will happen.
The Canon refurb price sounds good to me, you will not likely find one for less, unless, of course, you were to consider the cost of a third party extended warranty, and that might not be available for refurbs.

 

[PhotographAdventure]

If it works for the 3 months, during which time you can return it, then it will most likely work for the rest of the year as well. We are talking about the 5D3, which is a high quality piece of equipment, not some rubbish camera.

 

[mistabernie]

It actually depends where you buy it. If you buy direct from Canon Refurb, you're close to $2500+ with tax included, etc and a 3 month warranty (which you could extend via a Mack warranty, etc). If you can get Adorama to sell you a refurb at the Canon price, you can probably save sales tax AND get a 1 year warranty (Canon covers the first three months and Adorama covers the rest of it).

Also, Canon refurbs aren't necessarily returns of defective or demo units; they can be units that failed some QC check during the actual manufacturing process, and were deemed feasible to adjust to factory specifications (i.e., you could very well have a brand new camera that just took a minor adjustment to make it through the process of being built).

Canon refurbished units are usually very high quality. In the time I've been dealing with people on POTN, etc, I've only heard one bad story about a Canon refurb (and it was recently, from a member that didn't provide much information (pictures, which lens, etc, just that his 'refurb' lens had scratches on the front element)). The fact is, there's a failure rate in even things that are bought brand new, so there's always an inherent risk (take, for example, the WD 500gb passports I bought on shellshocker from Newegg not too long ago; the first one I opened didn't work out of the box / wouldn't be recognized by the PC. The second one was.)

 

[cliffwang]

During last holiday season many 5D3 sales around 2600 without tax. If you can wait, you should see 2500 deal in 6 to 8 months. If you cannot wait, go to get the refurbished one. From statistics point of view, electronics items has high defect rate in the first few weeks use. Once there is no problem in the first few weeks use, they usually last for years.

 

[Rienzphotoz]

There are two advantages in buying a refurbished Canon or Nikon gear:

1. Lower Price

2. All refurbished items will have been 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 (ie by random sampling as it comes off the conveyor belt).

I bought a refurbished Nikon D7000 and it works perfectly. If I were you, I'd buy it right away.

 

[Wildfire]

I've bought both refurbished lenses and bodies directly from Canon. They were always indistinguishable from new items and worked great.

 

[Freddie]

I bought a 100-400L refurb from Canon not too many months ago and it's the sharpest one I've had with no problems yet. I just pulled the trigger on a 5D3 refurb on Monday, arriving Thursday. I'll post my impressions when it arrives. The price is great at US$2380.
We buy all our Macintoshes refurb too. So far so good.
Fred

 

[Mt Spokane Photography]

Also, Canon refurbs aren't necessarily returns of defective or demo units; they can be units that failed some QC check during the actual manufacturing process, and were deemed feasible to adjust to factory specifications (i.e., you could very well have a brand new camera that just took a minor adjustment to make it through the process of being built).

Sorry, but if a camera doesn't pass a QC test during production, it is sent to rework, repaired, and sold as a new camera (which it is). This is the case with Cameras, TV sets, automobiles, airplanes, satellites, ... virtually everything.
Even food is reworked and sold as new and is only sometimes marked as reprocessed.

Canon has a refurb facility in the USA which does testing and repacking. You should get a camera in very nice condition, but the battery will be used, and the manuals likely also used. I've bought a few and they were excellent cameras and never had a problem, but they were not new.

 

[Rienzphotoz]

Also, Canon refurbs aren't necessarily returns of defective or demo units; they can be units that failed some QC check during the actual manufacturing process, and were deemed feasible to adjust to factory specifications (i.e., you could very well have a brand new camera that just took a minor adjustment to make it through the process of being built).

Sorry, but if a camera doesn't pass a QC test during production, it is sent to rework, repaired, and sold as a new camera (which it is). This is the case with Cameras, TV sets, automobiles, airplanes, satellites, ... virtually everything.
Even food is reworked and sold as new and is only sometimes marked as reprocessed.

Canon has a refurb facility in the USA which does testing and repacking. You should get a camera in very nice condition, but the battery will be used, and the manuals likely also used. I've bought a few and they were excellent cameras and never had a problem, but they were not new.

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