Condition / Origin
There are four kinds of non-new lenses:
- Open Box
- Demo
- Refurbished by the Manufacturer
- Pre-owned / Used and resold by the Dealer (or private user)
Open Box means literally that. The dealer needed to open the box, but the lens has seen no significant use. This can happen for events like Photo East, or to show a walk-in customer when a demo lens is not available. This should not, in our (DT's) opinion, include returned lenses since the amount of use is unclear but I don't think there is an industry standard on this as I think some of the big box stores sometimes use "open box" to include purchased-and-returned items - we do not. This is the best possible condition to buy a non-new lens in, but comes with the smallest discount.
Demo means the dealer purchased the lens (and is the original and only owner) and used it for needs such as demonstration (hence the name). In this case the history is clear, as is the warranty status. Condition is almost always excellent, though should be fully disclosed as even light usage can result in minor mars etc.
Pre-owned / Used - these are easy to trace origin of since the original owner is known by the dealer or user. You can get some idea of how much it was used and in what ways (was it a studio shooter, a location shooter, a every-day shooter or occasional shooter) etc. Condition can vary wildly and should be thoroughly disclosed or examined. Also the factory warranty is not reset in any way, so if a one-year-warrantied item has been used for ten months then the warranty to the new user is only two months. If there are any relevant accessories or packaging they may or may not be present.
Refurbished by the Manufacturer - the lens has returned to Phase One (or a repair facility) to be inspected and have components cleaned, serviced, or replaced as necessary. A full standard factory warranty is placed on the lens so there is a strong incentive for the factory to return the lens to as close to new condition as possible since they are on the hook for any repair. The origin of these lenses is wide and is NOT passed to the dealer selling them. The refurbishing and provision of factory warranty is meant to equalize the inbound sources.
Shot Count Availability on the Phase One system:
Lens - not available through the user interface. It may be available to the factory - I've never looked into this.
Body - not available through the user interface but is available to the factory or repair station (similar to Canon if you've ever looked through trying to get their body shot counts).
Digital back - available through the user interface under [Menu > About] on all modern backs.