PetaPixel recently had a piece on the things you can do with a cheap DSLR. The writer snagged a used near-dozen-year-old consumer-grade DSLR with a fixed 50mm prime lens for $80 and proceded to go shoot some pictures with it.
The camera in question was a Rebel 400D, known in the U.S. as the Rebel XTi.
It was Canon's 2006-model entry-level DSLR, meaning that in the hothouse world of camera technology, it's eight generations out of date (the current model is the 800D/T7i) and sells for
about a hundred and a half used even from online retailers, if you don't want to Craigslist.
Coincidentally, it's the same model camera as the one I bought, also used, five years ago to stick my toe in the DSLR waters...
It's the first DSLR I took to Blogorado or the State Fair.
Come to think of it, a fair number of the photos in my "Favorites" folder were shot with the Rebel XTi.
So, sure, if you want a bleeding edge DSLR, you're going to be out well over a grand, but if you just want to make you some pictures, you can do can do pretty darn good for a tenth of that. The bigger-better-faster-more nature of the electric camera market has morphed it into something very like the computer industry, where the depreciation curve is brutal, with the difference being that you don't need the latest hardware just to play.
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