https://www.keh.com
https://www.mpb.com/en-us/
https://usedphotopro.com
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/browse/Used-Equipment/ci/2870/N/4294247188
https://www.adorama.com/Used

These are recognized by many here as top tier used photo equipment dealers. If you peruse all their sites' inventories, you'll likely find what you want, unless it is rare or in high demand. Read their return policies and used equipment warranties carefully.

Generally, I've never found much of a difference between a highly-rated used item and a new one. Sure, there is no *manufacturer* warranty, but someone else has taken the depreciation "hit" on the item's value.

Then there's the "bathtub curve" of product failure — Most products that fail will do so during the first days of use, or at the end of a long, useful life. If you graph the failure rate over time, the curve looks like a cross-section of a bathtub... Gently used gear typically has a very low failure rate.

Also consider refurbished gear from the equipment manufacturer's site.

Be sure to check the current selling price for a NEW item before purchasing used. It's rare, but occasionally, a sale will price a new product at or below the price of a used one. Especially towards the end of a product's market life cycle, manufacturers drop the price dramatically to clear the inventory and make shelf space for a replacement item. If the product meets your needs, it is a particularly good value, since the "bugs" in the firmware have been swatted, features have been added via firmware updates, and the product has been refined mechanically for optimum stability. It's like buying the last model year of a car... Reliability is likely to be as good as it gets for that generation of design.

Since retiring from my career as an Industrial Engineer, I have been serving as a substitute teacher in my local school system. It's a fairly large system, with well over 20,000 students in the 9 high schools (grades 9-10) and senior high schools (grades 11-12). I've been spending most of my days at our STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art, and mathematics) academy. I initially focused on science and math classes, but have become friends with the art teachers, spending quite a bit of time in their classes. I will tell you that there is a lot of interest in photography done with a "real camera," whether that means a pinhole camera built from scratch or an SLR (the school has Nikon D3xxx and D5xxx cameras available for use).

I will tell you that even though just about every student is quite skilled with his/her smartphone camera (both for still and video), a significant number of them are drawn to and have become quite skilled with the DSLRs available to them. They understand exposure, composition, and post processing, and many have won awards in the photography division of various art competitions and participated in juried exhibits in the local district, the region, and across the state. I have personally had the privilege to worked with students, both guys and gals, who are 'doing' photography at very high level, and at least 2 of whom would like to pursue it as a career. These four are from a student body of 450 folks. There are probably a total of 30 or 35 very competent photographers in the school, not including the 12 or so who are on the yearbook staff and routinely take photographs as part of that responsibility.

My experience is that the only limitation of involving these kids in photography is our prejudging that they can't possibly be interested, because they can effectively use their phones. I've found that a kind spirit, an encouraging word, and valid, correct instruction will spur them to do great things.

What they will not respond to is any sort of judgmental atmosphere or unkind treatment. They would stay in an environment like this forum for maybe 15 minutes at the most, so we would never be privy to the proportion of them who stayed with it

While I’m sure the 14-30 Z lens justifies its cost in most general photography, the application in your example can be well managed for a few hundred $$ of gear.

In case you intend to do a good amount of this type of scenes, you might consider what I assembled with no shop tools. I bought an F-mount to Sony adapter with built-in shift motion. (Acoarst yours would be to Z-mount.) To that I directly fitted an old Vivitar 17/3.5 lens. Now I have a ready to use 17mm shift lens !

Your 14mm is actually no wider than a 17mm after you do your perspective correction in post. 17/3.5 was a pretty common spec. Tamron made one thaz not too hard to find. There were some camera brand 17s as well, but those cost more.