Is now a good time to buy a 2nd-hand digital SLR?

I was wrong Canon did call it the 5D lol oh well.

Still way to expensive for me to buy :'(

Numbering

I ‘m not sure if this is an accurate account of how many shutter activations the camera has made as im not sure if the camera renumbers if you delete any photos.
I would guess only the manufacturer would have access to an accurate count.

No it dosen’t reuse the file numbers if they are deleted. Read my early post re how acurate this can be.

I ‘m not sure if this is an accurate account of how many shutter activations the camera has made as im not sure if the camera renumbers if you delete any photos.
I would guess only the manufacturer would have access to an accurate count.

File numbering

I use continuous file numbering. I’m on folder 157 and the last photo in that folder is IMG_5752. So that would be my 5752nd photo?

Yes.

I use continuous file numbering. I’m on folder 157 and the last photo in that folder is IMG_5752. So that would be my 5752nd photo?

Image number

People have mentioned about the camera recording the number of exposures. Could anyone tell me how to access this information? Is it available straight off the camera or would I have to take it into somewhere like Jessops?

P.S. I’m using a 350D.

If you have continuous file numbering on, then the image number and folder number give you the count.

ie: in folder 206 image number IMG_0578.jpg is shot number 10578 on that camera.

This goes wrong if cards from another camera are formated in the camera as this can reset the camera count to that of the other camera and if the number setting wasn’t always contiuous. The only way to be sure is to get Canon to check it for you.

canon eos 5d

Hello

I got an interesting e mail from canon today announcing the release of two DSLR cameras one is the EOS5D and the other is the EOS1N (mark2) however there is not a lot about the EOS5D as we sell more of the high end cameras maybe they did not want to tell us more.

curlyboy

Only Canon can tell you.

Ok thanks. I’m just trying to work out the number of shots I may have taken. I would usually take a Gb worth on a normal spotting trip, so approx 300 shots. And I’ve been using the camera since the end of May. Around 1 spotting trip per week, so I guess I’m looking at between 3000-5000.

People have mentioned about the camera recording the number of exposures. Could anyone tell me how to access this information? Is it available straight off the camera or would I have to take it into somewhere like Jessops?

P.S. I’m using a 350D.

oh the CAnon 5D is a rumour and a hoax i think..the picture of that Canon 5D camera is a doctored photo of a 20D with stats from a fuji or something.

Returning to the original subject… It seems very likely that Canon will release at least one if not two new DSLRs later this month. This is likely to result in a number of older models coming onto the second hand market, although I suspect that they’ll mainly be 10D and 20D as the rumour machine suggests the new models are upmarket of those rather than in the 300D/350D category.

When buying a used DSLR, be aware that many are hammered harder than their film counterparts – how many times have you seen folks “machine gunning” with their digi – because large numbers of images don’t cost like they did in film days. It should be possible to check how many exposures the camera has taken – bear in mind that some digi bodies have shutters tested to 30000 images (which doesn’t mean it’ll fail at 30001, but it gives an indication of usage versus design life). Check that the sensor is clean (you don’t want to have to go straight into cleaning it), and that the previous owner hasn’t done an amateur job of cleaning it in the past and done some damage. Other than that, go ahead and buy if you can find a used body that is usefully cheaper than a new one.

Andy

EOS300D

I agree that sport mode is useless when it comes to shooting moving aircraft but the auto focus on mine just seems to get all confused, i was also told that sometimes the cameras functions are impaired if you try to sent too many shots to the CF card at once even though the camera has an internal memory buffer this maybe linked too this.

I may have been a little too harsh on the 300D as most of my photo’s are great but it is just the aircraft thing which is vexing me, i will have to see if i can rent a better camera for legends next year if i cant sort this out.

curlyboy

I can’t agree with you Curlyboy. I use the EOS 300D and it focusses fine, but it depends on the lens. My Canon 75-300 for example is rather quickly “satisfied” with the focussing and does a bit of a sloppy job now and then. Slow or fast, doesn’t matter.

The EOS 300D/350D doesn’t have a good servo autofocus though, if that’s what you mean. It only works in the Sport setting, which I find useless for photographing aircraft, and that one indeed isn’t fast enough. This is a known Canon-specific problem which has existed for over ten years already. Pity they can’t (won’t?) sort it out.

PS. There is a hack where you can enable servo autofocus even in other camera settings. It involves sticking a microphone jack into the camera. Haven’t tried it myself…

A quick warning about the 300D it IS a fantastic camera and takes brilliant pictures but be warned i have had problems with mine focusing on fast moving aircraft it cant do it and trying to do it manually takes too long.

Example: while at duxford recently i had a chance to take some shots of the P-51C while it was flying i took nearly 100 shots and got 3 usable ones and one of them was slightly out of focus. i am using a brand new 70-300mm USM lens and the camera just could not cope the only way i could get a picture was when the plane was either entering a turn or was banking.

I work for a large camera company and got some advice from a professional and he said that the 300D and the 350D suffer sometimes with too much information too handle and go into a sort of camera panic where there are too many variables to process so be warned.

curlyboy

Sounds like your F number could have been too small. Things such as out-of-focus shots aren’t often much to do with the camera, but the lense. With your lense the best aperture range tends to be F8-11. The higher the F number, the easier it tends to become to get a fully focused shot. Below F8 will give you a nice high shutter speed, but with these lenses makes it difficult to get a fully focused shot.

EOS300D

A quick warning about the 300D it IS a fantastic camera and takes brilliant pictures but be warned i have had problems with mine focusing on fast moving aircraft it cant do it and trying to do it manually takes too long.

Example: while at duxford recently i had a chance to take some shots of the P-51C while it was flying i took nearly 100 shots and got 3 usable ones and one of them was slightly out of focus. i am using a brand new 70-300mm USM lens and the camera just could not cope the only way i could get a picture was when the plane was either entering a turn or was banking.

I work for a large camera company and got some advice from a professional and he said that the 300D and the 350D suffer sometimes with too much information too handle and go into a sort of camera panic where there are too many variables to process so be warned.

curlyboy

If you are thinking about a D70 vs the D70S, I wouldn’t hesitate to buy a used D70 if you trust the seller. There is very little significant difference between the two.

I don’t think that is true for the Canon 300 vs the 350.

Can we make Nikon versus Canon arguments a banning offence please…?

As long as we agree that the grain on the D70 is appaling compared to the silky smooth Canon ISO-100! 😉
Not to mention the way Nikon deals with moiré effects… yuk! 😀

For those that do not believe that MPs are everything.

No i totally think that MP’s are the worst people in the world and not trustworthy unless your talking of military police because i do not know them.

Can we make Nikon versus Canon arguments a banning offence please…?

haha oki.. 😛 but i like my Lubitel and Yashica mat better!

What does Nikon have to match the 350D or the 20D ? and when did it bring out a camera to match the 10D?

For those that do not believe that MPs are everything the 350D is closely matched by the D70s. The 20D has no comparable Nikon at the moment.

The 10D and the D100 were fairly closely matched.