What should I offer?

Mike Kennedy · Feb 19, 2008

This is the most outlandish bit of 35mm kit I have ever handled.A 200-500 f6.9 Tamron Adaptall weighing in at approx.6 lbs.
It's been sitting at the local camera shop for a year or so and the manager would like to sell it.

Ian Grant · Feb 19, 2008

Ask for a trial first, if he's waited that long he might let you

It's probably not brilliant, it's slow. Only the Tamron SP lenses are really worth buying the rest are fairly mediocre. It's not worth very much at all.

Ian

Mike Kennedy · Feb 19, 2008

The manager has offered me a free test drive I must wait until the snow level drops a few meters.

Ian Grant · Feb 19, 2008

Take the "test drive" my guess is it's a very uninspiring lens.

Ian

BobbyR · Feb 19, 2008

Mike Kennedy said:
This is the most outlandish bit of 35mm kit I have ever handled.A 200-500 f6.9 Tamron Adaptall weighing in at approx.6 lbs.
It's been sitting at the local camera shop for a year or so and the manager would like to sell it.

I have a Tamron 70-350 of the same era, and it is a good deal better than average.

Of course I did not buy at a gamble as I read the Mod. Photo. test of it, which was tested about the same tine as the one you are looking at.

I wish I could remember exactly what they said about this one, but as far as I can remember, it was about equal to the Nikon very large zoom of the time, which also was not really awe inspiring, but neither was it a bad lens either.

I do not know what he wants for it, but the 5.6 version of this lens shows up on ebay, not rarely, and what I have seen of the 70-350 lens, all have sold in the 400s or higher. (the 70-350 does is not listed often.)

copake_ham · Feb 20, 2008

BobbyR said:
I have a Tamron 70-350 of the same era, and it is a good deal better than average.

Of course I did not buy at a gamble as I read the Mod. Photo. test of it, which was tested about the same tine as the one you are looking at.

I wish I could remember exactly what they said about this one, but as far as I can remember, it was about equal to the Nikon very large zoom of the time, which also was not really awe inspiring, but neither was it a bad lens either.

I do not know what he wants for it, but the 5.6 version of this lens shows up on ebay, not rarely, and what I have seen of the 70-350 lens, all have sold in the 400s or higher. (the 70-350 does is not listed often.)

Seems like we're on a similar wavelength.

For a f6.9 Tamron I'd stick right around $250-$300 (give or take $25).

Remember, the seller is stuck with this old, film camera lens - and so will you be. Only pay what you think you can afford to just enjoy it without considering that it has a next to zero resale value.

benjiboy · Feb 20, 2008

As little as possible, start with $100, I can't imagine that customers are knocking the shop door down to buy a second hand lens of this type especially for a film camera, and in the current economic climate.
I'm a former photographic store manager, and would have been glad to get something like this off my inventory to use the space to stock something more saleable.
Don't forget that if you can't get it cheap you can always walk away, there's always another deal

pauliej · Feb 20, 2008

Why does he not try to offer it on ebay, craigslist, etc? That would widen his potential buyer's group somewhat, and give him some realistic offer prices. Someone may even just want it for parts or something. Just wondering.

Also, I have noticed that a bunch of folks on here will quote in full or in part a previous post, and wonder why they do this? It would take a lot less bandwidth to say "refering to previous message #3", and would get the message across very well, I'm a thinkin'. Sometimes I wade thru a lot of repetition to get to the next original thought. Think of the planet next time, folks. And, have a good one today,and a better one tomorrow too.

Paul

David A. Goldfarb · Feb 20, 2008

A few hundred bucks is about right. Tele-zooms like this one usually aren't that impressive in terms of resolution, and they aren't usually fast enough for what people use long lenses for, like sports and wildlife. For birds and wildlife a fast single-focal-length tele is more useful. On the other hand, if you shoot an outdoor sport that takes place during daylight where people move around on the field/track/court, it might be a useful thing.

What should I offer?

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What should I offer?

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