Any tips on what I should be aware of when buying an used IQ180? What to test and check out? And, does the picture count number matter / influence the price?
As was mentioned above, the shot count is not critically important. However, in fairness, one would have to say that the fewer the shots, the better chance the internals have not been impacted and damage of some sort has been initiated. Of course, it only takes 1. You could shoot 225,000 shots and on the 225,001 shot, you bonk into a wall and it jars the internal circuit board. Or someone could do that on shot # 3277. But eventually someone may do it, and with more shots, there has been more opportunity. Lower shot count units do fetch a higher price due to the market value and perception of benefit of the lower shot count.
The most common repairs are a re-calibration of the sensor ($600 service check) or a circuit board replacement (around $2,400 on average). But in terms of performance, no real issue with shot counts at all. That same quality - assuming a healthy unit - will be there regardless of the shot count.
We thoroughly test and inspect each digital back that we offer as Certified Pre-Owned, and provide the same 1 year warranty that a brand new unit comes with. What we see most often if there is an issue when someone trades in a unit is that:
- there is a 1 pixel wide line (or series of lines) going through the image. (the method we test with we will see it). This is is usually a corrupt calibration.
- the IR Filter has slight little nicks, that may elude detection in most images (the method we test with we will see it).
- some other issue, won't tether reliably, cf card issue, interface not cooperating, etc. These issues usually lead to board replacement.
Steve Hendrix/CI
