[madison_wi_gal]

Local photo store has 3rd party guy there buying up camera equipment until Saturday end of business.

I'm thinking of bringing in the Tamron 18-250 and the Sigma 70-300 because why not. I rarely if ever use them, when I do the pictures are meh (but that might be me).

I paid $155 for the Tamron and $75 for the Sigma (both used) so not high end by any means. Did I pay too much? Maybe, my LBA was new then.

Wondering what would be the lowest I'd accept? I do know they have to resell.

KEH says: $33 for Sigma $34 for Tamron (assuming excellent).

Almost easier to donate to local camera club (like I did for ME Super) and be done with it.

What would Pentaxians do?

[MarkJerling]

I've got real good images out of my Sigma 70-300. I must be lucky and have a good copy.

[aslyfox]

. . .

Almost easier to donate to local camera club (like I did for ME Super) and be done with it.

What would Pentaxians do?

various things


donations are good

and good karma can be created thereby

[madison_wi_gal]

I've got real good images out of my Sigma 70-300. I must be lucky and have a good copy.

Ooh, nice! Maybe I need to give it another chance.

[Rondec]

I never liked my Sigma 70-300. It was a fine enough lens, but the contrast was poor and it flared pretty terribly.

I think the bigger thing is to flip gear that you don't use and use the money to try gear that you might like better.

[wadge22]

I know what I would do.

I would stick it in a box, rarely if ever use or think of it, and go buy some other lens. Surely... the one I really need, this time...
And then just repeat that process until one day I perish in a junk-valanche of my own making.


Not saying it's a good idea, but it's what I would do.

[madison_wi_gal]

I know what I would do.

I would stick it in a box, rarely if ever use or think of it, and go buy some other lens. Surely... the one I really need, this time...
And then just repeat that process until one day I perish in a junk-valanche of my own making.


Not saying it's a good idea, but it's what I would do.

Been there done that

[jimr-pdx]

I have a pile of nikon lenses that haven't moved at the café, perhaps I'll let a local shop see them on my way to goodwill. Even run-of-mill Pentax lenses move fairly well when I look at the shopgoodwill site.

[UncleVanya]

I would do the following. Look at eBay prices for recent sales of these lenses. Set a price lower by 10% or less. Put on the forum marketplace and consider taking offers that are below that but above the price keh offers.

Or just give the lenses away. I’ve done both.

[madison_wi_gal]

I would do the following. Look at eBay prices for recent sales of these lenses. Set a price lower by 10% or less. Put on the forum marketplace and consider taking offers that are below that but above the price keh offers.

Or just give the lenses away. I’ve done both.

Ah, just looked on eBay. Sigma going for ~$100 (with box, not sure I have that). The Tamron was $90 (Japan). I think I'll plop mine on the new K-3 III and see how they do before I decide anything. Looked again at the Pentax reviews and they are not too bad.

The local store is Nikon/Canon shop so I think trying to sell them a PK will end badly for me.

Thanks all!

[MarkJerling]

Ooh, nice! Maybe I need to give it another chance.

Thank you. At one point, (some 9 years ago) this was my only longer lens so I made do.

[35mmfilmfan]

FWIW, I have had 2 Sigma 70-300 lenses, not happy with either. Now have Pentax 55-300 (non-PLM), and we get on well together.

[madison_wi_gal]

Thank you. At one point, (some 9 years ago) this was my only longer lens so I made do.

Plant buying road trip today. Taking the K-3 III and the Sigma.

[BigMackCam]

If I was absolutely certain I wouldn't use a lens (or any other piece of equipment) and the money tied up in it wasn't hugely significant, my first port of call would be one of my preferred charity shops. Some will sell the lenses in the shop, but most these days seem to put them on eBay - and because they're charities, quite a few bidders will pay a bit more for the items (or won't haggle on the Buy It Now asking price with Make an Offer), since they know the money is going to a good cause. If I'm buying an item from a good, legitimate charity, I always pay full asking price - and if I'm in one of their shops, I'll normally pay more than they're asking. I suspect I'm not unusual in this respect.

Otherwise, giving them to a local camera club or another Pentax user would be a nice gesture...

EDIT: Just an additional thought... I've acquired a lot of lenses over the last decade. A few are outstanding, some are good or very good, most are at least half-decent if used to their strengths, and a small few are downright stinkers. I've always viewed any lens that's less than good as a personal challenge to get the best I can from it. With a real stinker, sometimes no end of stopping down still won't sharpen it up, or it might flare as soon as you look at it, and post-processing to improve the results is putting lipstick on a pig... at which point, the challenge alters somewhat: instead of trying to get the best from it, I try to use its characteristics and flaws creatively. Of all the lenses I own, I think there's only one that I've utterly failed to wring anything decent from. With all the others, I managed to get either decent or somewhat attractive results, and I have a number of favourite "keepers" in my image library taken with some very mundane glass. Your Tamron 18-250 and Sigma 70-300 are at least half-decent, probably quite good, when used to their strengths. You might want to see what you can get out of them at various aperture settings, for different distances and with different types of subject etc. You could end up surprising yourself - but either way, you'll have some fun experimenting and perhaps learn something along the way. If you still don't like them, a charity or camera club will be just as delighted to receive them in a few weeks or months instead of right away

[biz-engineer]

A few are outstanding, some are good or very good, most are at least half-decent if used to their strengths, and a small few are downright stinkers.

The lens you believe are stinkers are actually excellent lenses made out of high grade glass elements, it's just that they don't perform well enough on a tiny sensor the size of a postcard stamp. Large format lenses are not even as good as the worst lens you've even seen on a digital camera, but with the image projected on a surface 80 times larger, the LF camera still easily out-resolves any digital camera. The best f1.4 digital prime lenses with aspherical elements are actually very very high-tech molding, machining and nano-tech surface treatments. We just take all this for granted.