Second-hand best buys
Audley Jarvis reveals some of the best bargains
While we all would like to be proud owners of brand new Nikon D850s, Sony A7R IIIs or Canon EOS 1D X Mark IIs, such premium cameras are out of most of our budgets. Of course, by shopping around it is possible to find discounts and offers that will save you money; however the fact of the matter is that when shopping for a brand new camera there’s always going to be a limit as to what your budget can secure.
Buying second-hand on the other hand, greatly expands your purchasing power and enables you to consider cameras (and lenses) that would otherwise be out of reach. Indeed, for the savvy buyer happy to do a bit of research beforehand, the second-hand market can provide a way to acquire top- end equipment without you having to break the bank. This is especially true if you’re more concerned with the quality and value-formoney of your equipment rather than whether it happens to be the latest model. Buying second-hand needn’t take the gloss off your purchase either – especially if the camera is in ‘mint’ or ‘like new’ condition and comes in its original box with all the original accessories present and correct.
With this in mind we’ve pored over the websites and stock of all the most reputable second-hand camera equipment specialists to try to identify some of the best bargains out there. Over the next few pages we’ll reveal the cameras we think offer the best value for money when bought second-hand. While they are primarily older, long- discontinued models lacking some of the latest technological bells and whistles of their more recent descendants, they have all received favourable reviews when tested by AP. More importantly, they are all capable of great image quality in the right hands. Likewise, while the trend is to introduce cameras with ever-increasing resolution sensors there’s nothing wrong with buying an older model with fewer megapixels. After all, there are plenty of photographers out there taking better images with older 16MP models than there are with modern 40MP ones.