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Bargain Deals On Great Products – Where can i buy cheap digital SLR cameras?
Monday, March 1st, 2010
Where can i buy cheap digital SLR cameras?
Look at your local camera dealer. The ones that are still around are still here because they offer better service than the big-box stores or mail order. You can usually tell the good ones by watching who's coming and going for a while. If everyone is buying cheapo point & shoots, well, that might tell you something. But if you see professional-looking people moving “big” gear you're probably in the right place. They often have digital gear that's 1-2 generations old. This stuff tends to go quickly, you may want to get on their waiting list or check back often.
Ebay can be good if you find a seller who has a good rep.
I've heard of a lot of people with good experiences with Adorama and B&H Photo & Video. There are MANY, MANY sketchy outfits doing business via phone order and Internet. Check out a site like photo.net for some good guy/bad guy lists.
I already had Canon EF lenses, because I'm a Canon fan…I don't know the nikon or Minolta systems very well. In Canon, you'll be looking for a d30/d60 (same camera, but the d30 is 3mp, d60 is 6mp) but I'd suggest you go for a 10d/20d if you can afford it.
The 10d/20d focus MUCH faster, have much better flash exposure computation, and still use all the Canon lenses we know and love.
Even the current 30d (NOT to be confused with the old d30) is a relative bargain at around $1,200 body only.
The important things to remember are that you can't really go wrong these days. All of the cameras are so good that even the “wrong” camera will still do almost all that you need it to. There ARE some cameras that are better at certain things.
Nikons do flash computations significantly better than Canons.
Canons focus significantly faster and quieter that Nikons.
Minolta (now Sony) and Pentax tend to be less expensive but much less used gear is out there.
Pentax now has “pancake” lenses that are less than 1″ thick!
Sigma has its own lenses that are not compatible with anything else out there, so there's no used gear available.
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