[dansamy]

Well, I'm very unhappy at the moment. The k2000 I bought, advertised as sellerrrefurbished & fully functional, has a frozen MF-AF switch. On MF of course. I bought this for my daughter. I've already opened my eBay case. Guess I might be upgrading mine after all & handing down my K-x.

[TinaS]

Well, I'm very unhappy at the moment. The k2000 I bought, advertised as sellerrrefurbished & fully functional, has a frozen MF-AF switch. On MF of course. I bought this for my daughter. I've already opened my eBay case. Guess I might be upgrading mine after all & handing down my K-x.

Hate to hear that. Sometimes it's hit & miss with eBay purchases. Usually I'm happy, but every now & then there's a big let down. It sounds like you have a good case by the description you gave.

[dansamy]

Every now and then, it's a total snafu. Most transactions go off without a hitch. Fortunately, eBay is good about the dispute process. It should be no problem.

[Just1MoreDave]

The description said the lens was in good condition. There was no mention of limited focusing range.
The seller had a good rating.
The photo's showed what appeared to be a like new lens.
The lens did indeed look new.
Im not a total newbee.
The seller simply failed to completely test the lens. That OR he was being deliberately deceitful in the product description.

That's how I learned to fix stuff, buying from eBay. For example, the M135/3.5 can be adjusted for infinity focus. Get a JIS screwdriver, either 2.5mm or #00 depending on who is selling them. Phillips #00 might work but might strip all the screws. Focus the lens to the infinity mark. Peel back the rubber grip. Under that are six holes. Three of the holes should line up with tiny screw heads. Unscrew those being careful not to lose the screws. Then you can pull off the hood and front barrel. Look at the front of the lens. There's a loose washer around the front element, recessed about an inch/25mm. That should fall out if you tip the lens upside down. Behind it are three screws holding the focus ring to the lens. You may find these are loose, which caused your lens to go out of adjustment. I assume when the focus ring is turned to the infinity mark, it actually focuses to 30m. So what you do is focus to the infinity mark. Loosen all three screws but don't remove them. You should be able to turn the focus ring back to 30m without changing the actual focus. Then tighten one screw. Now the focus ring will turn past 70m to the infinity mark. You'll need some fine tuning back and forth to get infinity on the lens and real infinity to agree. I have a convenient mountain range and a Pentax MX that I use. Live view can work, just find a good target.

If that doesn't work, focus to the minimum distance, grab onto the projecting front lens group and make sure that's screwed on tight. The rear group should be tight too, but it's harder to get a grip on. Maybe a common screwdriver in one of the tiny rectangular slots 180 degrees apart, but be careful not to slip out of the slot.

Why do all this work instead of just sending the lens back? To me, the seller is already careless and maybe not that camera-smart. Neither type are really interested in your problems, they only react when it looks like something worse might happen like losing a dispute. Most of the time I experience less stress fixing the lens myself than composing a sort of polite "got the lens today and it's crap" message. And it's quicker. The lens is now fine, I block the seller and move on. (Actually most of my eBay transactions went very well.)

[ramseybuckeye]

Just had a bad experience with ebay today. bought a 135mm for $22 (11 dollars for the lens 11 dollars for shipping) got it and it looks bran new, but the focus ring wont move beyond 30 feet. pretty much useless to me for what i wanted to use it for.

Contact the seller, even if it says no returns. They will probably help you out.

[tjkataras]

The US warranty is only for lenses purchased from US authorized dealers, so no. You might qualify for the "international warranty" but I'm not sure what kind of service that will get you in the US, if any.

If you're trying to save on lenses, wait until the black friday sale next week!

YOu can get a Square trade warranty from Ebay, but if you are a Costco member they are about 30% $400 for my K 50 which was Grey market from Japan, warranty through ebay was $72 but same warranty from Square Trade was $49 and for my 2nd owner DA-50-200 which cost under $200 its just $29 for a 2 year warranty