Second hand gear
I’ve always been wary of buying used stuff. Of any sort, so when I got into photography I figured I’d buy new, as good a camera as I could within my budget. Basically, the cheapest model with weather-sealing.
18 months later I sold that camera body to upgrade and got less than half the new price – during that time a new model came out. What ya gonna do.
So. I brought the upgrade second hand. The Panasonic Lumix G85 that I got new hurt to sell for so little, so the Panasonic G9 that replaced it I brought second hand. And it did well. Which lessened my caution of buying gear second hand, a bit. Upgraded firmware, and never missed a beat in the 10 months I owned it.
So I started looking at decent glass to add to my kit, having had the chance to try a Leica 50–200mm on it. It was good, but not as amazing as I expected. It still didn’t seem sharp?
I got curious about Fujifilm gear, having been on my radar as possible kit to change to. It was still kinda small (not really) but more importantly, for having a larger sensor than micro four thirds, the Fujifilm lenses were a comparable price to the good micro four thirds lenses. So I arranged to borrow an X-H1 and 50-140mm f2.8 from someone I know, and went to a street sprint to cover the event.
A couple of weeks later the G9 and lenses all went up for sale. Yep, a whole day shooting motorsport convinced me. Even with the excessive battery consumption of the X-H1.
Over the next month I managed to sell off my G9, 12-60, 45-150, and 100-300. I bought a used X-H1 from a friend that infrequently used it as a second body to his X-T3, and a new 50-140 as I figure that’s a lens I’ll keep basically forever – I don’t mind paying so I know it’s in good condition.
A couple of months later and I would randomly get F0 faults on the camera, which I worked out was the camera body losing connection with the lens. Borrowed a lens and confirmed the X-H1 body is faulty. I could get it to work by reseating the lens sometimes, but not often.
The guy I got the body of feels so bad, but it’s not his fault. It worked perfectly with I got it. Such is the risk of second hand gear; it has no warranty.
It is now with Fujifilm NZ and I’ll see what they come back with for a repair/cost.
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