Refurbished Cameras? Good deal or junk?

On Tue, 16 Nov 2004 15:24:09 GMT, "Jeremy"
wrote:


"Michael A. Covington" wrote
in message ...
My own feeling is that refurbished gear is better than new, because it has
been examined individually by a technician.



Consumer Reports Magazine recently addressed this. They said that the price
of refurbished equipment often was not a good-enough deal to justify the
purchase. Also, the refurbished gear often came with a much reduced
warranty (90 days as opposed to one year).

There is simply no way of knowing if the gear was really repaired or was
given just a cursory examination and then repackaged.

I have always found that, whenever I tried to save a buck, it ended up
costing me more in the long run.

Especially on items with a fairly long expected service life, when you
amortize the savings over several years, it often becomes insignificant.

Bottom line: you must judge whether the cost savings is sufficient to
justify the degree of additional risk. I personally would pass those deals
by, but there is really no correct answer to this question.



One reason I am considering it is that Olympus offers an extended
warranty for a reasonable price...

Cynthia