4 second-hand purchases you need to be careful with

Talk about stating the obvious.
As if memory cards and batteries are only now being offered second-hand for cameras.
And the tripod and camera strap are easy to check and test to see whether they meet the requirements.
The only informative thing I find is that you can indeed suffer relatively extensive damage from consequential damage caused by an unreliable tripod or camera strap.

I don't buy batteries and memory cards second-hand anyway.
With tripods and straps, you notice quickly if something isn't right.
A camera or lens is a different story, you can also get those second-hand in the shop. But I think there's always some gamble when you buy something second-hand.

I would never buy a lens second-hand..

Of course you should never buy memory cards and batteries on Marktplaats. E.g. lenses or a body can be fine, but I would do that at a camera store. It's always more reliable and comes with a warranty. Personally, I wouldn't be so quick to buy a camera, only lenses are a good option.

Bernard wrote on Tuesday 20 April 2021 at 20:46  | reply

Dear Nando, I have come to expect better from you. This is really minimal. I had hoped there would be something about lenses and camera bodies. As far as memory cards are concerned, I don't share your opinion. They don't "wear out", after all. A bit is switched on or off by means of a small electric current. If you don't trust the matter, suggest to the seller that you first want to format a card in your camera before buying it. If that works, then there is nothing wrong. Errors with cards are usually in the contact area. Dirty or worn, or in the case of a CF card, a damaged connector. The connector in the camera may also be dirty, or have a bent connector pin in the CF slot. The other topics mentioned are, in my opinion, far-fetched and stating the obvious. If you buy something second-hand, common sense, knowledge of the subject and a little healthy distrust are appropriate. The second-hand photo equipment I have bought was always good. There was always only one thing wrong with it: it wasn't new...

wim hoppenbrouwers wrote on Wednesday 21 April 2021 at 09:10  | reply

Everything that's too good is too good to be true!

@Nando,
Apparently, it indeed isn't completely clear to everyone. Because of this, your story does add value after all.
Still, with this platform I would have expected much more that you would have gone into buying photographic equipment second-hand and what to look out for or avoid.

@Bernard
As Nando says, this is common knowledge and if you google it you will find enough evidence. I copied a section from a study between Google and the University of Toronto:

Do SSDs fail?

SSDs can fail, but in a different way than traditional HDDs. While the latter often fail because of mechanical issues, SSDs may fail due to the methods used to write information. To understand why and how SSDs fail, it’s important to understand more about the way they process, store, and access information in the first place.

As previously mentioned, SSDs use flash memory cells to store data. In this way, SSDs function almost like large flash drives, programming data onto these cells by changing their electric charges. However, once you fill the available memory on an SSD, the SSD can only add new information by erasing older data. This process is called a program/erase cycle, or P/E cycle for short.

Importantly, each SSD has a limited number of P/E cycles. Each P/E cycle gradually degrades the memory of an SSD’s cells until they eventually become worn down. At this point, you will no longer be able to rely on the SSD to store information. While the gradual wearing out of SSD flash cells doesn’t represent the same kind of failure as a mechanical malfunction on a HDD, it does mean the drive will no longer be usable.

While SSDs may fail with less frequency than HDDs, they do have a higher error rate that can affect the end-user experience. For example, so-called uncorrectable errors are relatively common in SSDs. Research shows that over 20% of SSDs develop uncorrectable errors over a four-year period, and 30% to 80% develop bad blocks. All of these errors can affect data retention and lead to effective failure.

Very thoughtful to inform people about this for once. You often don't stop to think about what you should pay attention to, and it's too late once the purchase has been made. Good article.