I've only bought a refurbished lens a few months back. Other than the brown box, it was absolutely new. No signs of use, no tell-tale marks on the mount. No dust, no fingerprints. Other people here have bought many refurbished lenses and bodies with the same experience. With Cameta giving a 1 year warranty, I don't think you can go wrong. I believe refurbs are mainly returns during a store's return period. I HAVE NO DATA, I'M JUST GUESSING, but I would bet a large percentage of refurbs were returned just because the customer changed his mind or didn't know how to use it. They go back to Nikon, get checked out, and sold as refurbs. There are no real lemon-like problems on the d7000 or any of the d5x00 either. I don't think any big problem or well worn cameras will end up in the refurb stream. If someone's camera starts acting up after 6 months, its theirs forever. They send it in to Nikon and they fix it and return the same camera to the same owner. No routine exchanges. A 'Used' camera would be a different story. That could be worn out or have ongoing problems and probably has not been checked out by Nikon.
I understand your concern, I just returned my daughter's iphone with a bad power button and got a refurb back with a good power button, but a poorly focusing camera. I don't think we have seen refurb problems with Nikons.
