For some time I had been looking to get my hands on the (relatively) new Olympus 100-400 zoom lens. I say relatively new as it has actually theoretically been available for some time but there have been none in stock in the specialist camera stores. I did a bit of research and established that £1400 would secure one from E-Bay or Amazon but given that the list price was £1100 I decided to wait but at least take some action!
Around about April I called into the London Camera Exchange store in Leamington Spa and got my name on the waiting list for a lens. I also established that I would be able to trade in some used equipment if I wanted to.
To be honest I wasn't too optimistic about hearing anything but then on 23rd June when I was sat in my car in the National Trust car park at Mwnt in West Wales I received a phone call from the store...actually I received two as the first one got cut off....I was amazed that there was a signal at all in this remote location. It was the LCE in Leamington advising that a lens was in stock and "it has your name on it". I arranged to pick it up the next week.
I now had to decide what, if anything, to trade in. My main focus (no pun intended) was on my Olympus 40-150mm f2.8 pro lens which was part of my OM-D E-M1 Mk II kit but which had seen hardly any use. With a trade in value of about £500 I decided that it was sensible to get rid! I also traded in the power battery grip which had been free with the camera but never used and a couple of old 4/3rds lenses. In the end my trade-ins were valued at £600 and I shelled out £500 for the new lens.
I was surprised by the size of the box that the lens came in but it was pointed out that there was a fair bit of padding in the box (as you will see from the picture). I have subsequently "road-tested" the lens and, although it is quite heavy, it can easily be hand-held. Expect to see some red kite images soon!