need advice on buying a used D60 + lens

I have a friend who Is selling a used canon D60 with a canon 50mm 1.8 lens on

it, he is selling both body and lens with a 256mem card, battery, charger,

original box & manual all in good condition for $350can. is this a good deal?

ive checked out ebay and what the camera is going for on thier and it seems

like he's hooking me up... just wanted to see if anyone has a D60 or knows

much about it that could give me some help, I really want to upgrade from film

to digital, but im not sure if this camera is a good starting point...

 

anyones advice is much appreciated, thanks

 

Sean.

I have been using a D60 for two years now and have not yet really found a reason to upgrade for the type of shooting I do. 6MP is enough for all but the largest prints and the colour rendition is superb (many say better than the later x0D variants).

 

A few issues you should consider though:

1. If you need to autofocus in low light or on rapidly moving subjects the autofocus may prove difficult.

2. Often these cameras were used by pros and have had a hard life. I just replaced the shutter in mine and have a friend who had to do the same a few months ago. If you have a history on the camera you are looking at this shouldn't be a problem.

3. Some of the gadget freaks will laugh at you for having a four generation old camera (I just laugh back considering all the money these people go through upgrading perfectly good cameras every year!)

4. The frame rate (3fps?) is much slower than the more recent variants, again this will limit action shooting.

5. It is not kitted out to recieve EF-S lenses and this will limit your super wide angle options.

 

The 50 1.8 is a fine lens also.

 

For C$350 it sounds like a steal and unless you are planning to shoot sports, birds in flight or super wide I'd say go for it.

 

Greg

I'd certainly buy one in the box and all accessories, software, and manuals for that price. I shoot with a D30 and several film bodies, so it would be a digital upgrade that also is compatable with two very nice older Sigma lenses that I have recently bought.

It will definitely produce superior pics to what you can get from a 350CDN digicam, so that would make it seems like a good deal. But if it breaks, it's 'totaled'. Why don't you suggest to you friend that you both share the loss if it breaks in the next 60 days? That might prevent stress on your friendship if something goes wrong.

I still have my D60 that I bought within a few weeks of introduction. (2002?) I don't use it, but I've lent it to a friend several times. I've photoshopped and printed her best images. I'm still impressed by the high quality.

That sounds like a great deal to me. I have used a D60 for a couple of years and it is a fine camera. Shortcomings compared to the modern Canon offerings include high ISO noise (400 barely acceptable, 800 and 1000 only for emergencies), slow and unreliable AF, small display and generally pretty slow respone. The image quality at 100 or 200 is spectacular even compared to a modern digicam in this price range. One added benefit of a D60 is that it is compatible with some older Sigma glass which modern Canons are not - you can get yourself a nice deal on e g a 70-210/2.8 APO like I did...

$350 can, what's that about $100 US (just kidding). If you don't want it, I'll buy it.

Thanks for all the help everyone, Im definatlley going to buy it, when I think about it it's only half my paycheck, and im no professional so thiers no need for me to spend $2000+ which is already way outta my price range at the moment expecially for a hobby.

 

Thanks again!

 

Sean