[Leica] Buying an ‘Ugly’ lens from Keh

[Don Dory]

On Tue, Jun 9, 2020, 12:24 PM Don Dory <don.dory at gmail.com> wrote:

> I can tell you directly.   They will not be able to tell you about a
> specific lens,  there might be 10 on the shelf and they won't go out and
> pull a specific lens.  If you are buying a $6000 lens whose value is
> dependant on a specific feature or serial number range then mostly they
> will confirm or deny.
>
> Now,  ugly falls into one of four categories not exclusive to each other.
> Ugly will always be functional unless specifically called out.
>
> 1) scratch or mar on the front element.
> 2) fungus inside
> 3) very visible haze, edge seperation
> 4) loose mount
>
> While I worked there we would periodically pull an ugly and an excellent
> plus lens and take photographs then pass those photographs around to see if
> anyone could tell the difference.   If you pay very close attention to
> contrast then sometimes you could.
>
> Two more points,  leica lenses are graded much more harshly than almost
> any other lens as they are looked over much more carefully by the leica
> community.   The point of that is if it is fungus it will be very small;
> large patches go to eBay.  An excellent Leica item might go LN- on any
> other brand.   This will be denied by KEH but returns are tracked to
> specific techs and the Leica community is very fussy.
>
> Last, I have bought two ugly items from my former employer.   The first
> was a Canon 300 2.8 L new FD.  The surface was beat to low finish levels,
> and the mount was loose.   Optics were superb.  The other was a contax III
> that was ugly but it was collectable with a frozen shutter(listed).
>
> Also,  if return shipping isn't a problem for you you still have return
> privileges for a full refund.   Don't be afraid of ugly,  but I wouldn't
> buy ugly if it was a lens that was going to support eating or paying rent.
>
>
>
>
> On Tue, Jun 9, 2020, 11:43 AM Susan Ryan via LUG <lug at leica-users.org>
> wrote:
>
>> I’ve never had any problem buying ‘Bargain’ lenses from Keh, but I’ve
>> never bought one rated ‘Ugly’? There’s an ugly 135 Tele-Elmer available. Of
>> course I’d call and talk to someone to see what the glass flaws are that
>> warrant the ugly rating, but has anyone had good or bad experience buying
>> ‘Ugly’ from them that they’d care to share with me?
>>
>> Thanks,
>> Sue
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Leica Users Group.
>> See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information
>
>