What second hand Canon DSLR please?

LouiseTopp

LouiseTopp

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Aura
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I might bite the bullet and instead of going for a bridge camera, try for a second hand Canon DSLR. My budget is around £300 and I am looking for a camera which can do or has:

The ability for nuts like me just upgrading from compact, to DSLR
wide angle or Panoramic
Stitch assist
a good zoom (so wildlife etc don't run away when I whip my camera out)
The capability of catching night scenes (So I can set it between 100-200 ISO)
Must be either 12 0r 14 Mega Pixles
Viewfinder
Stabiliser (to stop shakiness)
Clear sharp shots (obviously)
On-screen guide help (what ever it's called)
Ability to delete rubbish shots
Tripod mount
Scene Modes (EG landscape, portrait, night, Macro, blah blah)

Must not be:

Too technical that I can't understand what all the buttons do :thinking:

Can't think of anything else at the moment (sure I will). Thanks very much.

:)
 
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LouiseTopp said:
I might bite the bullet and instead of going for a bridge camera, try for a second hand Canon DSLR. *My budget is around £300 and I am looking for a camera which can do or has:*

The ability for nuts like me just upgrading from compact, to DSLR
wide angle or Panoramic - this is related to the lens not the camera
Stitch assist - i think only recent sony dslr's do this
a good zoom (so wildlife etc don't run away when I whip my camera out). - again, this is a lens not a camera thing. If you want to do wide angle as well, you're either going to need two different lenses or a super zoom like an 18-200
The capability of catching night scenes (So I can set it between 100-200 ISO) you really want a high iso not a low iso for night scenes, unless you're using a tripod
Must be either 12 0r 14 Mega Pixles
Viewfinder all dslr's have one of these*
Stabiliser (to stop shakiness) you're probably looking at sony or pentax if you want this in body. Canon and nikon have the stabilisation in some of the lenses*
Clear sharp shots (obviously)
On-screen guide help (what ever it's called)
Ability to delete rubbish shots
Tripod mount
Scene Modes (EG landscape, portrait, night, Macro, blah blah)

Must not be:

Too technical that I can't understand what all the buttons do *:thinking:

Can't think of anything else at the moment (sure I will). *Thanks very much.

:)
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If these are all must have's you'd be better off with a bridge camera, as you might struggle to get a used slr with the lenses you're after for the budget you have.
 
viewfromthenorth said:
If these are all must have's you'd be better off with a bridge camera, as you might struggle to get a used slr with the lenses you're after for the budget you have.
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What is the closet budget please, and should I trust Ebay?
 
With that specification you have no chance of getting anything for £300
I dont know of any DSLR's that have stich assist
Unless its Sony/Minolta or Pentax the stabilisation will be in any lens you buy not the camera itself
Why the need for 12-14 megapixels ?
By a good zoom and other comments I assume you mean a telephoto zoom and for one of those with stanilisation you are looking at least £250 second hand.

You may need to revise your wish list
 
CaptainPenguin said:
With that specification you have no chance of getting anything for £300
I dont know of any DSLR's that have stich assist
Unless its Sony/Minolta or Pentax the stabilisation will be in any lens you buy not the camera itself
Why the need for 12-14 megapixels ?
By a good zoom and other comments I assume you mean a telephoto zoom and for one of those with stanilisation you are looking at least £250 second hand.

You may need to revise your wish list
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Hi I been looking for a camera for age's and its very difficult. Wanted 14 for clarity. Should I trust E Bay? The Cannon bridge has stitch assist. Also how does the Nikon D3000 Digital SLR Camera , compare with the Canon please?
 
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E-bay can be alright but I find people can pay over the odds.
You also have to be careful as the sellers are not always honest with the listings.
I would continue to look on the forum but some people are over ambitious with what they expect to get for their equipment.
The good thing about purchasing from this forum, is that the people who are selling, keep their equipment in very good condition.
 
piggin said:
E-bay can be alright but I find people can pay over the odds.
You also have to be careful as the sellers are not always honest with the listings.
I would continue to look on the forum but some people are over ambitious with what they expect to get for their equipment.
The good thing about purchasing from this forum, is that the people who are selling, keep their equipment in very good condition.
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Where do I find the second hand cameras on here please?
 
If you are desperate for image stabilsation I'd suggest a cheap second hand Sony alpha or Pentax. You won't get stitch assist though. I'd also recommend buying and reading a proper guide book for the camera as well to understand technique as well as functionality.

You could get a used Sony a200 with 18-70mm lens for about £200.00 and another £100.00 would get you a 70-300mm lens. Because the stabilsation is in the body, all lenses would be stabilised.

The pixel quality from a DSLR is going to be much better than that of a compact or bridge camera, so the chances are that you won't need as many. For a first time DSLR user, 10MP should be enough :)
 
manualfocus-g said:
If you are desperate for image stabilsation I'd suggest a cheap second hand Sony alpha or Pentax. You won't get stitch assist though. I'd also recommend buying and reading a proper guide book for the camera as well to understand technique as well as functionality.

You could get a used Sony a200 with 18-70mm lens for about £200.00 and another £100.00 would get you a 70-300mm lens. Because the stabilsation is in the body, all lenses would be stabilised.

The pixel quality from a DSLR is going to be much better than that of a compact or bridge camera, so the chances are that you won't need as many. For a first time DSLR user, 10MP should be enough :)
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Thanks thats good to know so 10MG would give me good results like if it was 12M megapixels?

:)
 
Aura, try not to get too hung-up on megapixels. As manualfocus-g says, 10mp is probably quite adequate unless you plan to print very large images. Plenty about but have a look in the classifieds on here :thumbs:
 
PeteMo said:
Aura, try not to get too hung-up on megapixels. As manualfocus-g says, 10mp is probably quite adequate unless you plan to print very large images. Plenty about but have a look in the classifieds on here :thumbs:
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OK never thought of that. Will look in Classifieds. Sorry to ask so many questions. So I wouldn't get grain on the image with just 10mp?

Where do I find the classifieds please?
 
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Sorry, I did not realise that you had not been around very long.

If you look in this section

http://www.talkphotography.co.uk/forums/announcement.php?f=11

You will find this.

Classified Access & Abuse

The classified sections are intended to be a facility for contributing members to pass on or purchase unwanted equipment to / from other forum members. It’s an added benefit of your membership and should be treated as a privilege.

Classifieds activity should be used as it was originally intended - as part of regular forum contributions. We will not tolerate people abusing the system. We are first and foremost a Photography Forum, we are not eBay and additionally, we have members who pay to be advertisers and it is wrong that others may seemingly get the same benefits for free.

Site staff will closely monitor the ratio of posts in classifieds against other forum activity. Any member that we feel has a heavy bias towards the classified section will, at staff discretion, have their access to that section removed.

We are also aware of people joining up and, on reaching (or getting close to) the required 60 days of membership, spraying the forum with “nice shot” type posts to get up to the 25 post limit to enable their classified access. Again, we consider this an abuse of the classified section. Anyone found to be dramatically increasing their posting to reach 25 after their initial 60 days, to then suddenly try to sell something may find their thread removed, their post count dropped and/or access removed.

The classified sections are invisible to guests. This is prevents guests from signing up purely to grab a bargain, never to be seen again. Goods offered for sale should be available to forum members, not people "just passing".

As for getting you a camera, I think your only option is Ebay @ this time.
 
buy a used basic Nikon D40 with kit lens 18-55 from here

learn from it ...............THEN move up when you know what you want / want to do

that's what i did
 
Yardbent said:
buy a used basic Nikon D40 with kit lens 18-55 from here

learn from it ...............THEN move up when you know what you want / want to do

that's what i did
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What features does it have on please? :)
 
Pixels don't have as much to do with sharpness as you think its down to lenses and light, on that note you really don't need over 10mp unless your looking to print over A3 size hell with 14mp your entering a1 size prints (see where Im going here) more mega pixels isn't a good thing for consumers.
 
daza said:
Pixels don't have as much to do with sharpness as you think its down to lenses and light, on that note you really don't need over 10mp unless your looking to print over A3 size hell with 14mp your entering a1 size prints (see where Im going here) more mega pixels isn't a good thing for consumers.
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Sorry to be aa pain so 10 mega pixels on a DSLR are enough?
 
Hiya.
I am a very noob photographer and have bought an old Nikon D40X and i will put it up against most if not all bridge cameras for quality. I don't think you would regret getting a cheap DSLR i never have.

Spend some money on decent software it really helps, i got Photoshop Elements its cheap and there are tons of tutorials on websites and you tube its great. Also ask advice on these forums as much as you like its filled with helpful people with a tons of knowledge to give out.

Good luck with your decision.:)
 
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If £300 is the budget for everything, I would think strongly about splitting the budget in half and spend around £150 on the camera and another £150 on a couple of lenses. No point blowing a load on the camera unless you have some glass to stick on the front of it (unless you know a kind person who might lend you something?).

I only really know about Nikon's line up but looking at your criteria:

My budget is around £300

The ability for nuts like me just upgrading from compact, to DSLR - Scene modes are fully automated so you'll be able to pick up most lower end DSLR's and fire away. You'll probably get inquisitive about the manual modes but can learn at your leisure.

wide angle or Panoramic - pick up an 18mm 'kit' zoom and this'll cover you for most scenarios. Any lens wider than that will likely swallow up your entire budget on it's own.

Stitch assist - As other's have said, very rare on DSLR's and with good sticthing software being freely available it's not worth worrying about. A cheap tripod would be a better investment if you don't have one.

a good zoom (so wildlife etc don't run away when I whip my camera out) - A Tamron 70-300 or Sigma's equivalent is less than £100 to buy used. Both should be perfectly ok. You might struggle with smaller birds in the wild but you can always use bribes or stealth techniques to get them in closer.

The capability of catching night scenes (So I can set it between 100-200 ISO) - Night scenes on a tripod (i.e long exposures of several seconds), you'll be fine with any DSLR. If you want to capture images in dark conditions hand held you'll need good high iso capability. The cameras that are best at this are all pretty expensive. I honestly wouldn't worry about this too much with your budget. You'd be better buying a flash and/or a tripod.

Must be either 12 0r 14 Mega Pixles - I'd forget this. I've seen shots taken on 5mp DSLR's that will blow any 15mp compact camera out of the water. Unless you want to print poster size (which you probably don't even if you think you do! )

Viewfinder - All DSLR's will have one.

Stabiliser (to stop shakiness) - You'll either need to look at Sony who build this into their bodies or you'll need lenses with it built in. It's sometimes handy but I wouldn't say it's a necessity especially in good light. Good camera holding technique is probably worth more in terms of image quality.

Clear sharp shots (obviously) - Possible with just about any camera but you'll find any DSLR is more than capable in this department.

On-screen guide help (what ever it's called) - Not sure which models have this. A tenner spent on a user guide might be better to be honest.

Ability to delete rubbish shots - All DSLR's that I've seen have a handy delete button.

Tripod mount - Not seen a DSLR without one.

Scene Modes (EG landscape, portrait, night, Macro, blah blah) - Most lower end cameras will have plenty of these.

I'll echo what's been said above. In terms of Nikons, a used D40 can be had on ebay for about £150. It'll be more than enough to get you started. A D80 may be worth keeping an eye out for as well but they usually go for more like £200 but bargains are there to had. Just be sure to ask what the camera's shutter count is. Most are rated to around 100,000. Try to get one fairly low so you get plenty of use out of it before it might need servicing.

If you can forego the long zoom for now, it may also be worth looking at the D5000. It's a modern camera and has a lot of scene features and HD movie capability. I sold mine with an 18-55 lens (VR so reduced vibration) for £300 only a few weeks ago. A D3100 or D3000 might also be available at this sort of price.
 
How about canon 450d/ 30d with 18-55 IS - MIT just about fit in your budget. You can look up tech specs yourself but they'll do everything you want probably
 
Aura,

Megapixels don't mean sharp shots. More megapixels just give you the ability to print larger prints and crop your shots more without pixelating your image (making it look blocky).

Sharp shots is probably 90% YOU, and the rest is down to the light and the lens you are using. But it's possible to get blurry shots even from the most expensive lens if your technique is not up to scratch.

So...when you get your new camera practice practice practice. Post your shots on Flickr and link them to Talk Photography and you'll learn a lot in a very short space of time.
 
Check out MPB Photographic for used cameras and lenses. They are highly regarded on here and come with a 6 month warranty on everything.

I just bought a canon 20d from the classifieds here for my first dslr and I am very impressed with the quality of images.

Also don't limit yourself to canon look into nikon at the d40 d60 etc

Hope this helps

Ryan
 
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