Trading Old Camera Gear for New Inspiration

Recently, Photo Pro, my local camera store had a Cash for Cameras promotion.

The invited people to bring in their old camera gear and exchange it for cash. Even better, if you took in house credit instead, they’d give you 10% more for your gear.

I around the office and found several lenses that I wasn’t really using including a big 400mm f3.5 manual lens. It was an amazing lens but since I picked up a 600mm f4 lens, I hadn’t used the 400mm f3.5 in a long time.

My goal was to get enough for my old camera lenses that I could take a big dent out of the New Nikon 105mm 2.8 G macro lens. I already had an older 105mm f2.8 macro but it was designed for 35mm film cameras like my old F4 and F5. I knew the G series 105mm would be even sharper since it was designed to be used with high megapixel digital cameras.

I arrived at Photo Pro a few minutes after they opened and people were already in line looking to trade in their gear.

Finally, it was my turn.
On the way there I was trying to decide how much I would need to get from the trade to pull the trigger on the new 105mm. I really couldn’t reach an answer and decided I would wait to see how much I got from the trade.

The guy from Photo Pro asked how much I was looking to get from everything and of course, I said, “As much as I can”. He went over each lens carefully, operating the aperture ring, shining a line through the lens to check for any anomalies and jotting down notes after each lens he looked at.

I asked if they had the 105mm in stock and he confirmed that they did. I said I’d like to apply what I get towards that lens which would give me an extra 10%. He said wouldn’t it be nice if these were worth enough to trade even up on it? I agreed but figured I’d still have to pony up a few hundred dollars.

My old camera lenses ready to be traded in

Saying goodbye to my old lenses

Finally, the results were in… I had enough to trade for the 105mm and still have in store credit left over for another purchase! What was even better was that Nikon had an instant rebate that the guy running the register looked up for me before he rang up the lens. Even better!!! I said goodbye to my old gear and headed home to get the new lens unboxed and loaded up to go shooting.

There’s nothing like new gear to get you motivated to get out and go shooting. I had shot macro images before but at the time knew nothing about focus stacking images. Focus stacking is basically taking a series of photographs of the same thing but shifting the focus slightly each time and then combining all the images together to make a single photograph with everything in focus.

Not only did I now know about focus stacking but with this new lens coupled with my Nikon D850, they would do the focus stacking for me! All I had to do was set the camera for the number of images I wanted it to take, set the distance I wanted the focus to shift after each shot, focus the camera where I wanted to series to begin and hit start. The camera and lens would shoot the entire sequence automatically.

Normally this time of year in Iowa isn’t the most photogenic. The color of Fall has faded and the beauty of the Winter snows haven’t arrived. So everything is basically kind of drab brown. When you have a macro lens however, it opens up a whole new world for you. The smallest thing, something you probably overlooked dozens of times suddenly becomes a subject to photograph.

So what do you do if you don’t have a local camera store or they don’t have a cash for cameras campaign?

You’re still in luck. There are places like KEH that will take in your old camera gear and sell or trade you for other used camera gear.

If you don’t have anything to trade, you can still buy gear from them at a fraction of the cost new gear would run you.

My 600mm f4, 200mm f4 macro and 135mm f2 DC lenses all came from KEH. Their rating of camera gear is spot on. I usually stick with “Like New” or “Excellent” but the lessor ratings will still give you optically great images, they may just look a little rough around the edges.

So if you have camera gear sitting around gathering dust, why not see if you can trade it in and pick up something that you’ll get a lot more use from? You’re giving someone else the opportunity to use gear that you no longer use and in return, you’re picking up some photo gear that you’ll use and not just sit on a shelf or tucked away in an old camera bag.

Have you traded in gear before? If so, let me know how it went for you in the comments below.