The Nikon 180-600 I had been waiting months on arrived,.... used and also broken.   I figured I could live with used/refurbished, but still the page on Amazon I ordered from made it look like it was from the Nikon store.

It arrived and I noticed immediately it was extremely tight to mount on the camera body.   I inspected it and couldn't visibly see any damage or deformation of the mount.
Next AF was extremely slow,  way slower than I would expect from a Nikon Z era lens even if in the budget line.  Though it was definitely transmitting lens data to the camera and I could change the aperture and such.

And then when you press the shutter release..... nothing happens.   I thought the lens mount had been damaged and was torquing something physically on the camera and possibly freaked out a bit.  I removed it and tried my other lenses which worked fine, but I am definitely not putting it back on any camera I own and have already sent it back to amazon for a refund.


TLDR:  Check the amazon page very carefully when you order these days.  Not only are major manufacturers disappearing and being replaced with no-name junk but it seems they will sell used/renewed items with only tiny or no disclosures until you've already ordered it.



Their 30day return is a lifesaver though for sure.

That’s why I don’t buy anything from Amazon.

Dude - don’t buy anything off there not bought and sold by Amazon.

At minimum look into the seller - pretty easy to see if they are legit. Go to their name, look up their address.

If it’s a real store with a website and obviously legit merch ok. If it’s some unbranded warehouse or something else don’t risk it

The problem is it's either in fine print it's a reseller now,... or in this case I would swear it looked direct from the Nikon store on Amazon.  I gave them a shitty review, but I doubt it will ever be approved.

I received a counterfeit ham radio antenna from Amazon and they refused to post the warning I wrote in a review. If I order from them, I'm very careful about it.

I don't buy anything involving optics or electronics

I am definitely moving away from using them from now on.  I dealt with it a while because it was convenient, but their gaming the reviews for no-name resellers and vendors and almost nothing shows up on time anymore.

In the meantime I was gonna rent the 800mm PF for the eclipse since this didn't work, but it's not available so I may be humped.

On the product page look Right under the price and add to cart/buy. it should say bought from and ships from.

Amazon is also selling a lot of counterfeit products.  People order items and then return a fake which gets sold as genuine.

On something in that much of a demand, Amazon is one of the last I’d trust. I’m still 2nd on the current wait list at fwc. I cancelled my B&H preorder as they’re just shipping November orders.

I liquidated some crypto (at a loss) and ordered the z mount 600mm f/6.3.    I should have over a week to practice before the eclipse.  Hopefully I don't have to work someplace too far from the umbra and the weather cooperates.

I caught a lens I wanted at a really good price - new for the same I had just purchased used the day before.

I was going to snag one anyway... then I noticed the seller was in India. HowTF did that listing get into the US store?

I'll stick to Adorama or KEH for used gear, or Nikon refurbs.

And same places for new.

I do the same for in stock/used gear. If it’s possible to get burned, it’ll happen to me.

Now for the 180-600, I went with Fort Worth Camera. I’m 2nd on their list, probably 130th at B&H.