At launch, the MSRP for the camera was $2,699 without a lens. Nowadays you can pick up a nice used body for $350 or less, which is about as inexpensive as a good full-frame DSLR gets. A lot of these cameras were picked up by enthusiastic amateurs based on the hype and then sat largely unused until their owners decided to trade them in on some new mirrorless hotness or other. Batteries are still available new and of course you can use the entire library of Canon EF lenses without having to worry about an adaptor.
One of the attractions of using the Canon EF lens mount are its "L"-series lenses, identified by their red rings, high quality construction, premium optics, and (typically) enormous price tags.
The latest version of the L-series midrange zoom, the 24-70mm f/2.8L II, goes for something like eighteen hundred bucks at BezosMart, but you can get the older version from the 1990s, the 28-70mm f/2.8L, for around six bills at KEH Camera Brokers if you're willing to settle for "Bargain" grade. (And you should be, because KEH grades very conservatively. Their 'BGN' would be 'VG+' most places.)
Introduced in 1993, the 28-70mm f/2.8L was noted for its optical qualities and indeed still holds its own at DxOMark. I use mine on my 50MP EOS 5DS without worrying about it not being sharp enough on the super high res sensor.
So there you go. If you're willing to shop used, you can get a very competent professional DSLR body and lens setup for eighty percent off.
(Cross-posted at the other other blog.)
The latest version of the L-series midrange zoom, the 24-70mm f/2.8L II, goes for something like eighteen hundred bucks at BezosMart, but you can get the older version from the 1990s, the 28-70mm f/2.8L, for around six bills at KEH Camera Brokers if you're willing to settle for "Bargain" grade. (And you should be, because KEH grades very conservatively. Their 'BGN' would be 'VG+' most places.)
Introduced in 1993, the 28-70mm f/2.8L was noted for its optical qualities and indeed still holds its own at DxOMark. I use mine on my 50MP EOS 5DS without worrying about it not being sharp enough on the super high res sensor.
So there you go. If you're willing to shop used, you can get a very competent professional DSLR body and lens setup for eighty percent off.
(Cross-posted at the other other blog.)
4 comments:
I've been using Pentax gear since I was a sprout since my dad worked for Honeywell and got fabulous discounts (they marketed the Asahi Optical Co. equipment in the US). I got his old Heiland H2 (no thru-lens metering) as my first one and learned to guess exposure pretty well. My brother and I set up a darkroom in the old coal cellar of the basement and processed and printed down there (B&W only).
As I got into my teens I acquired a couple of very nice used pieces of Takumar glass, including a 135/2.5 that was just incredible.
Dabbled my toe in the digital waters with a Pentax compact, and then bought a brand-new K100D back in 2007. Been shooting that 6MP dinosaur until this year, when I found a couple of K20D's, at KEH, for $120 each in perfect condition. I'm not a pro (only sold a few pics back in the late 70's) so I don't need more than the 14.6MP's, and they both have more available features than I'll ever use.
But what's really nice is that the old 35mm film lenses can be dropped right onto the Pentax K mount digital cameras (with a flush-fit mount adaptor) and work just fine. Obviously the lenses don't give electronic information to the camera about aperture or lens length and there is no auto-focus, but you can easily shoot in aperture-priority mode or full manual mode and it works just fine. In fact, I bought a 1960's vintage 400/5.6 from B & H for $150 that's amazingly sharp. Yup, big and heavy, but it looks brand-new and the only issue is the very tiny DOF when wide open. We live in NW Wyoming and there's lots of critters you really don't want to get close to when taking their portraits (elk, buffalo and griz come to mind). So the adaptor lives on the old K100D and is home to all of the old M42 screw-mount lenses, while I shoot with new (to me) lenses on the K20D's.
The first NEW lens I've bought since 2007 was a Pentax 1.4x teleconverter which now lives underneath a 55-300 on one of the K20D's, the other one has my "walking around" 18-270. The K20D is an APS-C sensor and so the 1.4x converter on the 55-300 gives me the equivalent of 77-420mm of 35mm, and with the 1.5x of the crop sensor I end up with a lens that ranges from about 2.1-power to 11.4-power telephoto, plenty even here in WY. The walk-around 18-270 gives me about 1/2-power to a little over 7-power and is great for landscapes and closer critter shots.
So all of my gear except the teleconverter has been bought used at either KEH or B&H, and I agree with you that the understate the condition of their used equipment. I'm still learning how to use the new K20D's and routinely surf through the manual (a .pdf) to learn all of the menu items and controls. It's pretty amazing for 25-year-old technology.
Tam, what are your thoughts on the generations of the L series lenses? I was browsing the KEH site, and the II cost about $100 more than the I, which I figured was probably worth it for a better coating. Also, thoughts on image stabilization for series for telephoto lens?
Matt,
You definitely want stabilization on anything longer than 200mm, shorter than that it isn't as big a deal. I use the heck out of an un-stabilized 70-200/2.8L.
I don't know that the "II" lenses are that big of a deal unless you're using really high-res sensors. You might notice a difference pixel peeping on something with more than 24MP resolution.
Blackwing1,
"But what's really nice is that the old 35mm film lenses can be dropped right onto the Pentax K mount digital cameras (with a flush-fit mount adaptor) and work just fine."
Yeah, using old Nikon manual focus film lenses on DSLRs is pretty cool. Nikon kept the F-mount the same from the start in 1959 to the current day. Pre-AI Nikkor lenses, made before '77, need to be modded to AI standard to use on newer cameras, but even modern DSLR lenses can be used on old film Nikons (albeit in manual focus mode only, obviously.)
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