Used dslr: where is the best budget buy?

[vladcjelli]

Simpo Two said:

Fairy nuff. If clever you might be able to sneak an upgrade later and she'll never know...

You've done this before.

And yes, I have looked closer at the black one over the silver one for exactly this reason.

[vladcjelli]

Simpo Two said:

I'm single; I could go out and buy a Hasselhof Fandango MkIV tomorrow - but don't need one.

Yeah but the mark III had better focopixic intensity, so you could probably save a couple of quid if you can put up with the glossy finish instead of rubberised grips.

[vladcjelli]

Okay had a little play today, handled a 350d (£170) and a Sony a200 (£159).

The 350d was a little worse for wear cosmetically, but seemed to shoot okay as far as I could tell. Seemed expensive when other branches had the same camera and lens at £129 or so.

Quite liked the Sony, but a bit put off by the "not one of the big two" issue of lenses going forward.

So my final bit of interweb research concluded that I will tonight be pulling the trigger on.....

...A Canon 400d for £109 and the 18-55 lens for £39.

Have I made a reasonable choice?

[vladcjelli]

RobDickinson said:

400d sounds like a goer, try and get the IS version of the 18-55, shouldnt be much more and its a MUCH better lens.

Might be too late for that particular nugget, but thanks for thinking of me.

Just realised I need a compact flash card, so that's on order too. Does £11 for 8gb sound about right? Not dealt with CF before.

Daren't try and sneak a bag past her yet, she may suggest hollowing out a section of my anatomy for that purpose.

[vladcjelli]

The eos has landed...

[vladcjelli]

....but I reckon the battery is about kaput.

Put about 75 shots through it, with some extraneous fiddling around, and it's pretty dead.

Oh well, third party replacement for a fiver off amazon, see how that goes.

[vladcjelli]

flat-planedCrank said:

vladcjelli said:

....but I reckon the battery is about kaput.

Put about 75 shots through it, with some extraneous fiddling around, and it's pretty dead.

Oh well, third party replacement for a fiver off amazon, see how that goes.

From fully charged? IIRC batteries should last days of shooting with a 400D (depends on how much you use the rear screen in my experience)

It seems to go green in the charger unnaturally quickly, like 45 minutes.


I'll leave it in the charger a while longer and see if it makes any difference.

[vladcjelli]

RobDickinson said:

Probably old and tired, new cameras will tell you the health of batteries.

After a little battery exercise (run down, longer charge, repeat) it is currently on its third day since charging, with two sessions of snapping (approx 300+ shots) and the battery indicator hasn't moved yet.

Reports of its demise may have been greatly exaggerated.

[vladcjelli]

flat-planedCrank said:

vladcjelli said:

After a little battery exercise (run down, longer charge, repeat) it is currently on its third day since charging, with two sessions of snapping (approx 300+ shots) and the battery indicator hasn't moved yet.

Reports of its demise may have been greatly exaggerated.

Good stuff


How are you finding the new camera?

So far so good, I guess. Been randomly playing with it, admittedly pointing and shooting for the most part. Shot a lot of crap, but caught a couple of nice moments of the kids which if I'd not had the (more) rapid shooting ability, I almost certainly wouldn't have got.

Surprised at how self conscious I am of wielding it in public!

Will be interesting now the wife and kids are on summer holiday, as we will be going places and doing things, so should give me plenty of scope for trying different stuff.

Now, if I could only get the cats to stand still for a moment...

[vladcjelli]

Post holiday update -

Family holiday, away for a week and taken the 400d almost everywhere with us.

Here are a few shots offof it:



















Accepted behaviour at this point would be to ask for C & C?

Really enjoyed messing about with it. Could just do with a little more zoom...

Need more holidays now!

[vladcjelli]

Thanks for the feedback, this is all new territory.

Exposure still feels a bit of a mystery to me, I really need to rtfm.

With regards to the castle shot, I was too busy trying to catch the two diablos in mid air to give it any more thought.

I'm interested in RAW, but won't be able to free up funds for a purchase of that size at the moment. If there are any free options, for Linux, I'd be interested to hear.

Thanks again, here's hoping my beginners luck holds up!