The price to performance of used cameras is absurd. My view is that digital photography tech hit maturity in 2008 with the release of the Canon 5D Mark II and Nikon D700.
There is an overwhelming amount of professional gear out there at rock bottom prices. Consumer gear can be a blast when it’s cheap enough. The right camera for a style of shooting is going to be better than whatever the newest camera happens to be. (Unless you’re doing sports/action/wildlife. AF tech is getting absurd.)
Third Party Battery Paranoia
I have had batteries fall apart, fail within months, and with a capacity far below what’s on the label. It’s difficult to find good quality third party batteries.
There is an easy way ANYONE can inexpensively capacity test camera batteries. Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to capacity test camera batteries. It is a simple DIY project that only requires, ~$30, a screwdriver, and pair of wire strippers.
Picking Out Vintage Lens Winners
All lenses aren’t equal, especially when it comes to vintage and early digital camera lenses. Modern lenses will give you images that are razor sharp corner to corner. Vintage lenses can set themselves apart by how they render, the color you can get with them, interesting bokeh, or other characteristics not valued by current photographers.
On the other hand, many vintage lenses are not good. Their performance may not be good enough to set them apart from other lenses. Worse, as time has gone on some lenses have defects such as haze, fungus, balsam separation, or degraded grease, that will render them worthless because of the difficulty in repair.
I’m somewhat indiscriminate in my purchasing of gear, so I get a mix of good, bad, and average. The lens reviews will help you find a lens worth owning. These are popular film cameras that recieve frequent lens questions.
The D3000, and other cameras in the 3000 series sold millions of units. Everyone stuck with the kit lenses. People that bought these cameras did not buy more lenses.
Nikon didn’t produce a large variety of DX lenses, which were designed for APS-C cameras. This was also done to push hobbyists into the more expensive full frame (FX) lenses and camera bodies.
F-mount lens compatibility is a mess. Not even all DX lenses are compatible with the D3000.
The D3100, and other cameras in that series sold millions of units. Unfortunately, few people bought additional lenses.
Nikon didn’t produce a large variety of DX lenses, which were designed for APS-C cameras. This was also done to push hobbyists into the more expensive full frame (FX) lenses and camera bodies.
F-mount lens compatibility is a mess. Not even all DX lenses are compatible with the D3100. The newest AF-P lenses are not fully compatible!
The Pentax K1000 is one of my favorite 35mm film cameras ever made. K-mount lenses, sometimes listed as PK lenses, are affordable and easy to find.
The three first lenses I would consider would be the SMC Pentax-M 50mm f1.7 ($50), SMC Pentax-M 28mm f2.8 ($60), and the SMC Pentax-A 135mm f2.8 ($100). They produce beautiful sharp images without being difficult to find.
Stay away from zooms as they have not aged well.
Marketing jargon and elitism are as big of a problem as the overwhelming number of choices out there.
There are an overwhelming number of camera models to sort through.
“Flagship” professional cameras have aged significantly better than swaths of newer entry level bodies. They will have additional features, we likely be weather sealed, have superior specs, customizable buttons, and accessories.
Lists of Cameras Available Under $X 16 Cameras Under $250 24 Cameras Under $500 20 Cameras Under $750 14 Cameras Under $1,000 18 Cameras Under $1,500
Here are the 6 best cameras I could find for less than $100. Take note of memory card requirements. Make sure to get a charger included because none of them can be charged by USB.
Prices are pulled from eBay using the ‘Completed Items’ filter.
Facebook Marketplace, Craigslist, thrift stores, Kajiji, Gumtree, Yahoo Auctions, flea markets, swap meets, garage sales, and estate sales are other good places to look.
Affiliate LinksOutside the Shot is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.
LP-E6, LP-E6N, and LP-E6Nh batteries have different capacities. They are all forward and backwards compatible.
There are 19 different models that are compatible with the batteries.
In my testing, all third party battery manufacturers overstate the capacity of their batteries. Considering the price of OEM Canon batteries, third party options can still be compelling.
Compatible CamerasThese are the 19 models that use LP-E6 batteries.
It’s impressive how long Canon has stuck with the battery format.
