Hi all, just wondering if anyone is offloading any dslr's after christmas upgrades? My budget only goes upto £150 andappreciate might be a little too ambitious, but if you don't ask you don't get.
I used to love my old slr but went digital point and shoot, but miss the fiddling and creativity, close up work etc, but small pockets and too many interests(oh and family) means pennies are always going to be thin on the ground.
Digital, I've still got my old slr set up but times have moved on since I got that 20 yrs ago, its a shame as all works but practically worthless.
35mm so last year lol
You will be hard pressed to find anything worthwhile with that budget particularly if you can't reuse you old lenses (if your SLR is a Canon EOS their EF lenses fit all EOS bodies made since) but, depending on what you want to do, there may be an alternative.
If you only want to be creative without using you old lenses or have the ability to swap lenses but still want good results then you could do a lot worse than one of Canon's 'high-end' compacts: a G series PowerShot.
I stopped using my SLRs ten years ago to go digital with a G2 and now use a G10 as it has full control over all the settings that a DSLR has and even shoots RAW. Even though I now have a EOS 7D and six lenses I still regularly use the G10 as it really is that good and small enough to carry in a bike jacket pocket or tank bag.
The G10 is 14.7mp but arguably noisy in low light. For the G11 that superseded it Canon reduced the resolution to 10mp and this gives a far superior image quality so that is the model I'd recommend. If still above your budget then anything from G9 upwards would perform very well.
Thanks for thedetailed respnse John, very interesting. Looks like I need to do a spot more research, didn't realise how advanced some of the higher end point and shoots have become.
Canon 10D is a fine performer if not a little heavy but will only accept standard old school EF lenses which be the way are what most high end canons use anyway so plenty about, you can also get a 50 1.8 which is an excellent performer for around £60 on ebay. 10D has 6MP which is fine up to A4 and will give un-decernable results at 7x5 compared to 12MP. The 20D is the next one along and may be a better choice. At around 11MP its a great camera, much lighter than the 10D and a little more compact. The 20D will work with EFS and EF lenses so lots of choice. You just have to accept that there is a bit of zooming when you put a EF on an EFS body due to sensor size and positition. Both these cameras area few years old now but where excellently built and came with a coresponding price tag at the time. They will both make excellent 7X5's.
You can get a 20D for around £120 including standard zoom which is fine for everyday use. Just got to shop around including Ebay.
There is a great deal of Hype about pixels, a typical 6X4 print is produced from 3MP or slightly less. People have got used to blowing there pics up on the screen and zooming in which is why megapixels arer useful, as well as croping etc. But to produce web quality and excellent 7X5 you really only need 6MP and some would say thats too much!
What you want to pay for anyway is sensor quality and good image processing. There are many camera that are 15+ MP which take really bad pics because so many other factors make a good photo. As John mentioned I took 7X5 print from my old canon 4G at 4MP and they are hard to tell the difference from the eos1'S.
The canon G range are excellent, even the 3G. I would consider the 20D or as above the G11 or 12. the 10 is excellent but they did cram extra pixels which did cause low light to suffer. It does however have a super wide lens. From my own experience I like the SLR for action as its much faster on the button but if going around the world with one camera would choose the G range as compact and have loads of options.
Check the 10D and 20D on ebay, you may even get a 30D for £150. Do check the use the camera has had, some are Pro backups and have been out in all weathers, while others have spent their life in cupboards. Everybody these days wants more megapixels so your sure to get a good deal. Limited experience of older Nikon DSLR's but sure they are also good.
More interesting details, thanks for your effort it makes an interesting read, and lots for me to consider, just as well I'm not gonna rush my purchase.
Not got anything for sale but just a comment .I gave up using a DSLR last year (Nikon D300s) I found them too big ,too heavy ,too expensive ,never had the right lens with me when I was out,got myself a Panasonic FZ200 never looked back awesome bit of kit! Light small ,full 1080p and slow mo video and the "piece de resistance " 25mm to 600mm constant F2.8 and all the manual settings you could wish for.New they about £450 but got mine SH on ebay for about £200 .Electronic technology moves so fast think the DSLR has had its day .