Used Gear Purchase Policies - Pro Photo Rental
Used Gear Purchase Policies (the "fine print")
Pro Photo Rental Used Gear Information
Thanks for your interest in our used equipment. You can trust us to provide quality used gear for sale at a fair price. We value you as a client and will never take advantage of you. Our policies below regarding used equipment purchases show our commitment to you.
How we rate used equipment (adapted from Adorama Camera Company)
| Condition | Cameras & Photo Gear | Lenses |
|---|---|---|
| Dm | Little or no signs of wear. Almost new. | Little or no signs of wear. Almost new. |
| Ex+ | May have slight wear but only visible under close inspection. | Barrel may have slight wear but only visible under close inspection. Lens glass is flawless.* |
| Ex | May show signs of light wear and/or usage. LCD may have very slight blemishes. | Barrel may show signs of light wear and/or usage. Lens glass is very clean.* |
| Ex- | Shows signs of moderate wear and/or usage. LCD may be scratched. | Barrel shows signs of wear and/or moderate usage. Lens glass may have some dust / spots that should not affect picture quality. |
| VG | Appears well used and may include dings, scrapes/scratches, heavy brassing on body or LCD, but is in fully functional condition. | Barrel appears well used and may include dings, scrapes/scratches, heavy brassing. Lens glass may have marks or haze that should not affect picture quality. |
| G | Appears to have been used heavily, showing multiple dings, scrapes/scratches, cracks and heavy brassing but functions correctly. | Barrel appears to have been used heavily, showing multiple dings, scrapes/scratches, heavy brassing. Lens glass may have excessive dust, and/or scratches that can affect picture quality. |
*Used Lens Glass Disclaimer - Lenses, even when brand new from the factory, may have a slight amount of dust visible between the lens elements. This is an unavoidable result of the manufacturing process and will not affect image quality or resolution.
General policies & guarantee info
- All of our "For Sale" gear is still in active rental inventory. We pull the for sale items last, but there's still a chance it could be out on rental. Be sure to call or write first to check availability if you need it in a hurry!
- We include original factory paperwork, packaging, accessories (charger, battery, neck strap, cables, caps, tripod mount, case, lens hood, etc, as applicable). It is extremely rare that we do not have this for an item, but ask if it is of utmost importance to you & we'll be happy to check.
- We offer free UPS ground shipping anywhere in the continental US. Checkout will force you to choose local pick up, but just let us know you need shipping and we'll work with you to get it shipped.
- You get 7 days from the time your item(s) arrive to check it all out and see what you think. If you find something wrong with the gear that we haven't already mentioned, or if it's significantly different from how we described it, we will refund your purchase in full. If you find that it's just not what you're looking for, we simply treat it like a rental and refund the price difference to you.
- For items rated DM, Ex+, Ex, Ex-, or VG: We stand behind these used products. If you have a failure within 90 days of your purchase that isn't caused by damage or abuse, we'll stand behind it and work with you to get it fixed. Items rated "G" are sold as-is, and are specifically exempted from this 90-day policy.
Shutter Count
Without a doubt, the most common question we get on our used bodies is "How many shutter actuations does it have?". This is a bogeyman. Let's look at why.
Unfortunately, this has become the de facto standard to find out how used a body is. However, shutter actuations are NOT the same as miles on a car. It is one very tiny way of quantifying how much use a camera has seen, and not a very accurate one at that. To wit:
- It is very possible that a modern DSLR was used almost entirely for video. So the actuation count is very low, but the "power on" time of the camera is incredibly high. Video use stresses the sensor much more than photo use, but there's no way to quantify it, so it gets skipped over when buying a used body.
- We have owned hundreds of bodies over our years in business, and have had ONE shutter failure in that time. The one camera that failed was "rated" for 150,000 actuations, but failed at about 12,000 (less than 10% of its rating!) That one failure represents an incredibly tiny percentage of our stock, and furthermore, happened while the camera was still under warranty.
- Some of our cameras have had over 300,000 actuations on them, and they were still going strong. Those cameras have been sold to buyers who are still using them to this day.
You can see that shutter count is not a very good way to measure how "used" a body is, and is almost never a failure mode that requires replacement.
In fact, we are so confident that it's a non-issue, we are offering something unheard of in the used camera industry: a shutter guarantee.
Our Shutter Guarantee
If you buy a used DSLR body from us, we guarantee that the shutter will not fail under normal use for a period of 12 months after your date of purchase. If the shutter does fail during that time, simply send the body back to us and we will pay to have a new shutter installed. Note that this guarantee does NOT cover any damage due to misuse, neglect, abuse, water immersion, drops, impacts, etc. We and our chosen repair facility will be the sole authorities on whether or not the damage was due to normal use. We have earned the reputation of being a fair and honest company, and are very interested in keeping that reputation. You can trust that we will always treat you right.