Originally posted by derekkite Anything under $2000 is probably not worth fixing.
Completely depends on your mindset. I've been able to save numerous expensive electronics items for myself and family over the years by replacing a few capacitors. Pretty simple really, and saved a lot of money. And when my 8-yoa washer stopped working, I was able to replace a $40 valve and two years later it's still going strong. Saved close to $1000 right there versus replacing it with a similar model.
I suppose if you are not a DIY person, and your budget is such that you don't mind spending several hundred here and a couple thousand there for the sake of convenience, then your philosophy makes sense. I have a brother-in-law who certainly sees things your way, but he'st he kind of guy that can barely hang a picture on a wall.
Originally posted by derekkite This isn't Ricoh or Pentax. A friend uses a Nikon 2x extender, a very nice piece of glass, retails around $600 cad. The aperture lever was sticking. He sent it in and two months later after a bunch of calls and emails found out that there were no parts. He wasted two months of his life, and an enormous amount of time and energy banging his head on a wall.
Get used to it. Throw it away. Collectively we have decided we don't want to pay the cost of maintaining a service organization, so they don't exist.
Maybe that's true of Pentax and Nikon, and if so, then that's another big reason to go 3rd party. Tamron gives their lenses something like a 7-year warranty in the US, and Sigma gives 3 or 4 years and has an awesome service department. They even did major repairs on one of my discontinued lenses (100-300mm f4) quickly and at a reasonable price.