Canon 350D DSLR - Worth £180 ??

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Shewie

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Dec 15, 2005
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A guy at work's selling his 350D for £180 but knowing nothing about cameras I wondered if it`s worth that price.

I think it's a standard kit he's bought so I don't think the lens is up to much.

There's loads of storage with it though in various memory cards.

Any advice ?
 

chas brookes

Life Member
Jun 20, 2006
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Hi Shewie
sounds a reasonable deal to me for a reasonable digital slr, but the one of the best people for camera advice is Wayland. I just had a quick look on ebay and they seem to fetch more than that on there
Chas
 

DKW

Forager
Oct 6, 2008
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Denmark
depends on the lense provided with it, aswell as overall state of the camera.

Personally i'm not much of a Canon-guy, so as to what they normally go for, i cannot tell you.
Have a look at marketvalues elsewhere, In Denmark i would tend to think that 180 quid is a reasonable price nomatter what.
However if i where to buy in Germany as i usually do in such matters, i bet i would be able to buy a few quid cheaper.

As for the camera, i doubt many of us would ever need more than what the 350D can provide, however i would try looking towards getting a middle-range zoom with F2.8 throughout the zoomrange. It is a good addition, however not nessecarily a cheap addition.

Storagewise i would go for newer cards. Actually the fastest working cards i could find on any market. I however do action-shooting on Fieldtrials, and not landscaping, so i am a bit biased in this need for speed ;)
 

dommyracer

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May 26, 2006
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A guy at work's selling his 350D for £180 but knowing nothing about cameras I wondered if it`s worth that price.

I think it's a standard kit he's bought so I don't think the lens is up to much.

There's loads of storage with it though in various memory cards.

Any advice ?

The Original RRP for a Canon 350d Body was about £700, but that was back in 2005.

Looking at recently completed listings on eBay (a reasonable market indicator), new 350d have been selling for about £250, used ones have been going for £150 - £180.

It was replaced in the "entry level" range by the 400d, which was subsequently replaced by the 450d

Taking into account that it has a lens and memory cards, I'd say £180 is a reasonable price.

The standard 18-55 kit lens is about £100 odd brand new, about £40 - £50 second hand, and it's not as bad as everyone says. Sure, it's not as good as a more expensive number, but for a start off it's a reasonably wide angle lens with enough quality for most beginners.

You can see the full specs of all EOS cameras on the Canon website, including older models

http://www.canon.co.uk/For_Home/Product_Finder/Cameras/Digital_SLR/archive.asp
 

robin wood

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
Oct 29, 2007
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I am still using the 300d which the 350 replaced. I photographed all the images for my Book "the wooden bowl" including the cover image which printed out well at about 20" wide. It ihas been very reliable and easy to use. The 18-55 kit lens is just about OK, if you want better quality you would get far more improvement per £ by upgrading the lens than the camera, even a £50-80 second hand 28-105 is a big improvement.

£180 sounds like a fair price, not a bargain but a fair price for a low hassle sale.
 
My first DSLR was a 350D and did a decent job. I bought a new camera about a year ago after I started to need other features like spot metering.

The question as to how much the particular unit is worth depends on how much it has been used and how old it is. The sensor can degrade over time but just as important is the number of shutter actuations.

I can't remember the specs off the top of my head but I think the shutter rating for the XXXD series is 300000. Now that is guaranteed successful actuations - the actual shutter life should be higher than this.

So is it worth £180?
Well if it has 1000000 actuations then I would stay clear
If it has only 5000 then its worth looking at more closely.
If you look at it more closely and you can see problems with the sensor then maybe consider ignoring it as a potential purchase altogether.

As pointed out by others, it also depends on whether this is the body only or if it is with a lens, then which lens it is. The kit lens (the orginal 18-55) was pretty pants and sold for about £50 on its own - second hand value of that lens? Pretty low I would think. On the other hand if it was selling with the superb 50mm 1.4 ... I'd buy it just for the lens and then sell on the body.
 

Shewie

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Dec 15, 2005
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Cheers hedgepig ! Although I think you lost me there with the actuations bit.

I`ll do some googling tonight and get head round it properly.

How do I test for the actuations and how do I know if the sensor's okay ?
 
Rich - actuations is just the word for the shutter being released.

On the XXXD and XXD series cameras there is no surefire way of knowing how many actuations there have been. This is because the counter can be reset. Only the professional bodies have a counter that shows the total number of actuations. However, ask the guy how long he has had it, how often he uses it and see if it matches the counter (take a picture and see what number comes up on the back when you preview the image). It may not if he has set the camera to reset the counter every time he swaps out the memory card.

As for the sensor being OK - you just have to look at the pictures the camera produces. Pixels die and whole bands can become noisy over time. They also pick up dirt and while they can be cleaned it is possible to damage them while cleaning. However, the bottom line once again is - look at the pictures the camera produces. If you are happy with the pictures (new ones obviously, not old ones) then that is all that matters. After all you wouldn't buy a pair of binoculars or a printer with first looking through them or seeing a test print!

Oh and as far as memory cards go - they were once expensive things, but are cheap as (memory, boom boom) chips now. The first 1GB card I got was about £90 ... the last 4GB card I bought was about £36! The cards he is selling probably have zero second hand value - depends on the make and model.
 

squantrill

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Mar 28, 2008
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A guy at work's selling his 350D for £180 but knowing nothing about cameras I wondered if it`s worth that price.

I think it's a standard kit he's bought so I don't think the lens is up to much.

There's loads of storage with it though in various memory cards.

Any advice ?
Shewie..

I had on of these camaras and they are good. the standard lens is 18:55 and takes good general photos to take niceer photos get your self a couple of lenses telephoto and wide angle sigma make good lenses for canon.

I would still have it only O dropped it and now have the 400D which is the newer version. I pade more than 1,000 euros for the 350 I think the body alone is a bout 500 euros but they maybe diffeerent in the UK now.

The camara takes Compact flash get the fastest flash card you can as the 350D is a fast camara and its a pain to wait for the photo to get saved on the card!!

Get your self body armour this will save it getting knocked apart from that it is a good little camara cant comment of the price but the camra is ok..

Have fun..
 

Shewie

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Dec 15, 2005
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It turns out it`s not a 350D it`s a rebel xt lite with only 6.2mp

I have however just got a 350D from the bay of e for £180, it's the body only so now I need a decent all round lens to buy. Any suggestions ? I don`t want to spend more than I`ve just payed for the camera mind.
 

dommyracer

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May 26, 2006
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It turns out it`s not a 350D it`s a rebel xt lite with only 6.2mp

No such thing as a Rebel XT Lite. the "Digital Rebel" was the US name for the 300d, the "Rebel XT" was the US name for the 350d. Probably the Digital Rebel.

now I need a decent all round lens to buy. Any suggestions ? I don`t want to spend more than I`ve just payed for the camera mind.

Depends what you want to do with the camera. Are you looking to do wide angle, or do you need a lot of reach? Will you need a 'fast' lens (Wide aperture) or not?

Remember that the body you have bought has a crop factir of 1.6 due to the small sensor, so a 28mm lens on your body will have an effective field of view comparative to a 45mm lens.

This is why the kit lens is 18-55mm - on that body it gives an effective field of view of 29 - 88, 'standard' zooms on 35mm SLRs were normally 28-80mm

Have a look at some of the Sigma / Tamron lenses, they are pretty good value compared to some of the Canon branded ones.

Also, bear in mind that lenses (as long as they are in good nick) keep their value better than bodies - When I got my SLR I bought a few lenses second hand to see what I would use, then sold some of them on again for almost the same value.

A fast prime (non-zoom) lens is alway handy - the 50mm 1.8 is one of the most popular lenses with EOS users - otherwise known as the 'nifty fifty' or the 'plastic fantastic' - it's a 50mm prime lens that is incredibly sharp for the price - you can get it for £50 second hand.

To be honest I'd be tempted to pick up the 18-55 kit lens and see how you get on with that - you'll soon get to know what ranges you use, if you need something wider or something with more zoom range.

If you really want an 'all rounder' - Sigma do a 28-300
 

Shewie

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Dec 15, 2005
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Cheers dommy

I managed to blag the 18-55 kit lens off a guy in the office for £10 so I`ll see how I get on.
 
Dommyracer is right, there was never an "XT lite". I've no idea* what he was trying to sell you.

Good advice also about the lens - although if you know where to look you can get the thrifty fifty for £50 brand new ;)

For a tenner the 18-55 will do the job until you find yourself in a position where you can't do something with it that you want to be able to do!


*Edit - just re-read Dommyracer's reply. I concur, it was probably the 300D.
 
the 300d was just the Rebel

maybe the XT lite was one of those versions made just for a specific retailer which seems to be a marketing trick where they cuut out a few features or in this case used the lower MP sensor like the older camera but the newer features etc
Jessops and others do it all the time over here

ATB

Duncan
 

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