The majority of lenses I buy are brand new, often because they are just coming onto the market.  I bought my 16-70mm f/4 Zeiss lens in an economical bundle with my a6000, and purchased my 70-200mm f/4 and new 16-35mm f/4 Zeiss favorites for my a7r online for delivery the day they were released.  But I like to fill in my collection with less expensive optics, often to pick up some relative bargains that I can use under tough environmental conditions on less-than-crucial shoots  Certainly I can slap a B+W filter on my most prized lenses, but why expose them to hazards when I’m just experimenting?

That’s why I’ve purchased more than a dozen lenses from KEH.com, with most of them costing less than $300, and a few for as little as $40. I picked up an older Sony A-mount 18-200 f/3.5-6.3  Sony 18-70mm f/4.5-5.6 A-mount lenses  for a pittance, and a “disposable” Sigma 28-80mm f/3.5-5.6 macro zoom for $40.00.  A few of my E-mount lenses were also purchased gently used from KEH at more modest savings.  When I buy from KEH, if I choose anything above their Bargain or Ugly grades, the lenses I receive are invariably indistinguishable from new. And, in many cases, we’re talking about some fairly ancient lenses.

The secret, of course is the glut of A-mount lenses sold with Minolta badges over the years.  I’ve got a 70-210mm “beer can,” 75-300mm zoom, and a selection of other great lenses at bargain prices.  They have all worked well, with full autoexposure and autofocus features, on my A-mount Sony cameras, which have included everything from early Alpha traditional mirror models (both full-frame and APS-C varieties), more recent SLT-era models, including my latest a77 ii, and, with an EA-LA2 (which I have since replaced with the EA-LA4) adapter, on my succession of NEX and a5xxx and a6xxx E-mount cameras.

Not all of these are the best-built or sharpest lenses in the drawer, but they all do the job and cost me only a fraction of the price of the equivalent new lenses. When I went looking for a 70-200mm zoom, I wanted to buy new. But browsing KEH.com for offbeat and older A-mount (and an occasional E-mount) is a sensational way of filling in your kit for not much money.