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Purchasing Vintage Gear

You just bought pre-owned gear from us. What to do in order to make sure this is the right piece of gear for you.

When purchasing pre-owned gear from Camera West we want you to know that you are in good hands. When it comes to any pre-owned camera gear, especially vintage gear we want to make sure that you take the following steps in order to make sure that your gear is going to meet your needs for the long run.

  1. Unbox and check your gear as soon as it arrives if you can't purchase it in-store. When you do this make sure the item is in good working order, it is as we described it, and everything went well during shipping. If something is off, we want to catch this ASAP. This is why we offer a 24 hour inspection period on all pre-owned gear so that you can get that "in-store experience" of checking the gear out for yourself before committing to using it.
  2. If it is a vintage or analog camera, get some film in it as soon as you can, and get it developed. The only step in the testing process we are unable to perform in our efforts to check and ensure a camera's soundness is running film through the camera and sending it off for development. As soon as you can do this you can make sure your recently acquired camera is going to take pictures properly. If you are new to film photography, we recommend using thedarkroomlab.com for developing your images. They will provide you with high res scans only a few days of sending your first roll(s) of film in from your new-to-you camera or lens. 
  3. Communicate with us about any questions or concerns you have with the gear you purchased from us.