Keep as a second body or get rid??

Twizzel

Twizzel

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Rach
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A few weeks ago I bought a Canon 40D and am thrilled with it :) I kept my 350D body as a spare, they aren't worth a huge amount now and I thought it would be good to keep if something went horribly wrong at an event, it would be my backup.

I had an email from the pro I freelance for, saying he's pleased I bought a 40D, as the shots from my last event were slightly soft and the exposure wasn't right, however as soon as I swapped to my dad's 40D that I had borrowed, they were pin sharp and exposure was spot on. He didn't know at what point I had swapped bodies, so there must have been a marked difference.

I mentioned this earlier to dad, who immediately said get rid of the 350D, it's absolutely no good. Fair enough, but this is the first time my shots from it have been on the soft side, and who the hell is going to buy a 2nd hand 350D that's had a lot of use and is now not working great?

No money to mend it at present, so do I keep it for those (hopefully very few and far between) emergency moments, or sell it for next to nothing? :shrug:

I'm leaning towards the first option at the moment...
 
Can the photos be rescued with a bit of PP? If that's the case, you might as well keep it, and just remember that you'll need to tweak and sharpen a little if you need to use it. Some slightly soft, but fixable shots are considerably better than no shots at all!

I don't have a backup body, as I do photography purely for my own enjoyment, but if I was serious about getting into the business, or was working with/for pros, I'd say a backup is pretty essential!

Chris
 
I started with a 350D and now also have a 40D. I say keep hold of it.

I use my 350D a few times a year, mailny when I want a smaller lighter camera, for example when I am cycling. I get better results from my 350D today (even with the kit 18-55 lens) than I did 18 months ago when I bought the 40D, I put this down to improved technique.

20070629-IMG_2276.jpg


350D, 28-105 canon f3.5
 
Dont forget running two bodies can actually be amazing in terms of cutting downtime, say you have a 17-55 on one body and a 70-200 on another, you can simply swap to the other camera for a different shot style rather than swapping lenses and maybe missing the shot
 
Keep, if you're freelancing it's a no brainer really.
If the 40D goes down, do you want to go home, or carry on shooting what you turned up for?
 
On a recent job, shooting a mountain bike race, I got an 'Error 99' on my 40D - I was soooooo glad I kept a back-up body - She's a keeper ;)
 
as you say, the money you spent on it is more than its worth back now if you were to sell it. Infact a 350d is worth so little that IMO its better to keep it than get rid.

also as above, use it for activities where you'd like to use a decent cam, but maybe not your pride & joy, so biking, walking, running, travelling in dodgy areas, sporting events where its going to get knocked about etc.
 
I use a 40D with 350D as back up. Will often stick lenses on both and use both for an event or something. The only difference I see is in file size. I honestly see no difference between my 350D and 40D in image quality using the same lenses.

Did you use a different lens on the 40D than you did on the 350? could explain the 'softness'.
 
Cheers guys that's fab advice :)

Jimmy I used exactly the same lens on both bodies, it literally came off the 350D and went onto the 40D. I did find that it focuses a lot quicker on the 40D so this may be the problem?
 
Twizzel said:
He didn't know at what point I had swapped bodies, so there must have been a marked difference.
Click to expand...



It will have been obvious at what point you swapped bodies for 2 reasons (at least!), #1, the file name/number would suddenly be out of synch and #2, the filke sizes would change. Then, of course, a quick run of the cursor over the filename in MyPictures shows the camera used. Without seeing the original photos, it's hard to say what the problem with the images from your 350D is - softness can be caused by all sorts of things.
 
Keep it. Really ueful in sport to have a second body with a shorter lens on it, plus when I get a car rig the 400D will be going on it for starters, rather than my 50D. As was mentioned - having a spare body was invaluable when my 40D shutter broke and I was without it for 8 weeks.
 
Im in a similar boat in that i bought a 50D couple weeks ago and have my 40D spare not sure if i should sell or keep it at the moment.
 
seeing as its worth FA I'd keep it, had similar with my 450d when I bought my 50 and I just couldn't justify not selling it
 
I am on the Nikon side of that... :)

Currently using a D300 and have my old D40X spare, I still like the D40X as its small and lightweight. Which is good if hiking or walking. Still gives good results, but is at about 25k actuations of the tested 50k, so not really worthwhile selling.

Must admit though, I will be getting another D300 as a spare if I take weddings seriously. Have now done 1 as a 2nd and got 1 as a primary in August.

Id say keep... really not worth selling, but if using as a backup, I would test the focusing and make sure its not the camera causing the soft shots.
 
Another vote for keeping as a second camera.

Even as a hobby tog i find having two bodies so much easier. I went to London for a shoot at the start of July and had the 10-20mm on one body and the 50mm on the other.

Again this weekend i'll use both bodies at WHF with a mid zoom on one and a wider lens on the spare.

If photography is your business then i would say having two of the same bodies would be an advantage as there is no crossover. But who can justify having a high cost body thats only used 25-50% of the time.
 
If your 40D shutter blows, the XT keeps you shooting until you get it back.

Selling the 350D for 150 is not worth losing that security for.
 
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