Canon 50D Options

[Game Warden]

Canon's latest is examined here: www.dpreview.com/reviews/canoneos50d. It looks good: will anyone here be getting it? Does that mean the 40D will be dropping in price and become more accesible to the likes of me?

[Game Warden]

Canon's latest is examined here: www.dpreview.com/reviews/canoneos50d. It looks good: will anyone here be getting it? Does that mean the 40D will be dropping in price and become more accesible to the likes of me?

[Guest_John Milbank_*]

Matt, the 40D has already dropped considerably in price in Oz in the past 12 months (something like 33%) with the introduction of other models, so I imagine the arrival of the 50D will certainly bring it down further.

You might even find a far cheaper secondhand one...people throw DSLRs out like so much junk because new models arrive so quickly. You can find very good used ones, but be careful not to get one which has been thrashed (Y saw a newspaper's 1D Mark 3 at the basketball tonight; it was only four months old but had taken 40,000 photos and looked like it ).

[Guest_John Milbank_*]

Matt,

From what I can see you can get a 40D body for around 650 poinds wheras the 50d is around a thousand.

That surprises me...cameras are usually much more expensive in Oz, but a 40D body can be acquired online here for the equivalent of a bit over 400 pounds.

[Hunting Dog]

40d seems to have benefited from a variety of offers (cashback in UK) which I personally think made it very attractive. Some friends of mine have been convinced by salesmen to go for the 50, but at less than half the price for the 40 I'm very happy with my decision. Only thing I'm curious about is the claimed advantage on low light work with the improved high ISO ranges on the 50, but I'm still not that curious that I'd go out and buy one any time soon.

[Guest_John Milbank_*]

The difference in price of cameras in different countries never cease to amaze me.It pays to shop around, it used to be that buying from B & H was good, but now there are other companies importing from Hong Kong etc, just ne sure that you look at the full price including duty, shipping and insurance.

The latter goes without saying. As far as B & H is concerned, Australian buyers are more likely to make reasonable savings the more expensive the item. I saved a few thousand dollars on my 300/2.8 nearly four years ago, after taking into account what the shipping and Australian tax would cost. Below a certain value, there's no Australian tax, but the price differential is nowhere near as big and shipping often takes a hefty chunk out of the possible savings. Now there are several online sellers in Australia who import direct from HK or Taiwan, and their prices (and excellent delivery record) compare favorably with B & H...though the very costly things are still cheaper from New York.

Both Yvonne and I buy our media (compact flash cards and film) from such enterprises because they're much cheaper than retail outlets at home.

The worst thing about B & H seems to be frequent closures to observe certain holidays...fair dinkum, I thought Aussie trade unionists were bad enough!!