EH - Essex > Hebrides...the next step of the adventure?

fru-girl

@Essex: you reminded me of my first ever dslr purchase - a Canon Digital Rebel (yes that era..), then the 2nd one was 50D (I sold the Rebel and bought the 50D - of course more money as it was new). My DD smashed the 50D when she was a baby... long story, I ended up selling all my Canon lenses and paused my hobby (sad times). After that I stopped buying DSLRs... but I miss those days and made it now a savings objective - but this time it won't be a new camera and I won't put in on a CC. I will probably get it end of next year IF I pay off my debt until then.

You shouldn't feel guilty at all for buying an expensive camera - it helps you do something you are passionate about. It's sad to let go of our dreams...

cazmanian_minx

I'm going in the opposite direction - I've been thinking for some time about selling my DSLR and buying a CSC instead, the reason being that I take about 95% of my pictures on my phone these days because it's a half-decent camera and I usually have it with me, as opposed to the rucksack that the Canon and lenses requires. My mother did the same a couple of years ago, going from Nikon DSLR to a Panasonic 4/3rds and an Olympus CSC, and couldn't be happier, so I think the time has come for me to bite the bullet. I've eBayed old cameras in the past, but looking at their secondhand sold prices, my 50D, 17-40L and 100-400L are going to fetch around £1,000 and I'm not 100% certain I want to trust eBay/PayPal/Royal Mail with that amount of kit. No London Camera Exchange up here, but apparently Jessops offer trade-in, so I've emailed them to see what they'd do for that kit against an Olympus E-M5II. If it's within £150-ish I'll probably drive it down to Inverness rather than go the eBay route.

fru-girl

@cazmanian: I sold cameras and lenses on ebay (not auction though) and it worked. I was careful to sell only to users with excellent ratings - and rated by least 10 other people.

Most expensive item was a camera lens that was over £500. My Canon 50d body didn't fetch too much but that was because I sold it "for parts", not as a working body (the exterior was too damaged - but still some people need some parts that are inside so they'll but it 'as is' if you are honest about its condition).

Also, you could specify even on eBay - pick up only, but not sure how lucky you will get with interest from locals. Other places are FB groups, we have some local to us that seem to work. Or photography forums...

MistyMountainTop

How was your weekend?

cazmanian_minx

Thanks fru-girl - I used to run a business that was mainly eBay based and I had too many problems to really want to go down that route for this, though if I don't get decent quotes back from Jessops and/or Wex (whose form I'll be filling out tomorrow) I might consider it. I live about 40 miles west of John o'Groats, so pick-up only doesn't tend to attract bids :p

fru-girl

@Essex: sorry for hijacking your thread

EssexHebridean

cazmanian_minx wrote: »

I'm going in the opposite direction - I've been thinking for some time about selling my DSLR and buying a CSC instead, the reason being that I take about 95% of my pictures on my phone these days because it's a half-decent camera and I usually have it with me, as opposed to the rucksack that the Canon and lenses requires. My mother did the same a couple of years ago, going from Nikon DSLR to a Panasonic 4/3rds and an Olympus CSC, and couldn't be happier, so I think the time has come for me to bite the bullet. I've eBayed old cameras in the past, but looking at their secondhand sold prices, my 50D, 17-40L and 100-400L are going to fetch around £1,000 and I'm not 100% certain I want to trust eBay/PayPal/Royal Mail with that amount of kit. No London Camera Exchange up here, but apparently Jessops offer trade-in, so I've emailed them to see what they'd do for that kit against an Olympus E-M5II. If it's within £150-ish I'll probably drive it down to Inverness rather than go the eBay route.

Caz once you've got the price from them on the 17-40L give me a shout - if you'd be happy to post to someone you know, I might be interested in beating what Jessops can offer for that. I'm with you on not eBaying camera gear too - when I sold my 30D I got stitched first time around with a dodgy transaction - thankfully eBay spotted it in time but it was still a pain in the proverbial.

The CSC's are getting SUCH good write ups at the moment aren't they - Canon have gone that route with the EOS-M series I think? It's a great halfway house for anyone who doesn't want the hassle of lugging heavy DSLR kit about, but still wants more flexibility, and less shutter lag - than a compact or bridge camera will offer.

On the subject of part ex offers, and second hand kit purchases, I sold my 7D to MPB photographic. I've bought from them in the past, too - they were extremely fair and the price they quoted based on my honest assessment of the camera was honoured when they got it. I'd happily recommend them to others.

EssexHebridean

Absolutely no problem about thread hijacks when the subject at hand is camera gear! And on the subject, my new baby is apparently out for delivery so fingers crossed it'll get here this afternoon!

The weekend was ace - met my pal on Saturday night and visited a few pubs we've not been in for the last few times we've been up there - there are some amazing pubs with beautiful interiors in Birmingham - always a pleasure to drink somewhere like that! :beer: Sunday was the Food Show of course and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves - it was better than last year's was, which was good, we did debate about whether or not we were going back after last year as it seemed to have lost its edge, but was back to being better again this time. Stocked up on some favourite products - we've got enough rapeseed oil to take us through the year now, both plain and infused, some nice goodies for christmas, a few christmas presents for people too, plus some lovely cheeses (and Wyke Farms fabulous 2kg bag of chunks of their vintage cheddar which will get frozen and will keep us going for cheese for sauces, grating etc for some time to come - £5 for 2kg of cheese - bargain or what?!)

Greying I know you'll appreciate the next bit - the Spice people I mentioned before were there so I now have a bag of sumac, have re-stocked on cinnamon sticks and kaffir lime leaves, have some kashmiri chilli powder for the next time we make that Korma, and most excitingly I am the owner of a bag of dried black limes! (I had to google them when I saw them - and found that Yotam had this to say - looking forward to using them, now!

Partly as a result of that spice purchase tonight's meal has evolved slightly I think - rather than the chicken and sweetcorn risotto I was going to do I'm now looking more in the direction of chicken and sweet potato couscous - I need to use up the sweet potatoes anyway and this just strikes me as more wintery and tempting for the very cold weather we're having. I'll probably make flatbreads to go with them. (Although I'm also tempted to take a stroll down the road to the Turkish supermarket at lunch and buy a pack of theirs which really are rather special!) Actually if I do that it will leave me the last of the greek yogurt to make a dressing with. I think a plan has just formed! :T

cazmanian_minx

I would be more than happy to post it to you if you find the price acceptable Nothing back from Jessops, so I've contacted Wex today and also MPB, who I'd not heard of before so thank you for the tip-off.

Greying_Pilgrim

EssexHebridean wrote: »

Sunday was the Food Show of course and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves - it was better than last year's was, which was good, we did debate about whether or not we were going back after last year as it seemed to have lost its edge, but was back to being better again this time. Stocked up on some favourite products - we've got enough rapeseed oil to take us through the year now, both plain and infused, some nice goodies for christmas, a few christmas presents for people too, plus some lovely cheeses (and Wyke Farms fabulous 2kg bag of chunks of their vintage cheddar which will get frozen and will keep us going for cheese for sauces, grating etc for some time to come - £5 for 2kg of cheese - bargain or what?!)

Greying I know you'll appreciate the next bit - the Spice people I mentioned before were there so I now have a bag of sumac, have re-stocked on cinnamon sticks and kaffir lime leaves, have some kashmiri chilli powder for the next time we make that Korma, and most excitingly I am the owner of a bag of dried black limes! (I had to google them when I saw them - and found that Yotam had this to say - looking forward to using them, now!

Partly as a result of that spice purchase tonight's meal has evolved slightly I think - rather than the chicken and sweetcorn risotto I was going to do I'm now looking more in the direction of chicken and sweet potato couscous - I need to use up the sweet potatoes anyway and this just strikes me as more wintery and tempting for the very cold weather we're having. I'll probably make flatbreads to go with them. (Although I'm also tempted to take a stroll down the road to the Turkish supermarket at lunch and buy a pack of theirs which really are rather special!) Actually if I do that it will leave me the last of the greek yogurt to make a dressing with. I think a plan has just formed! :T

Definitely a bargain - was looking at their 'ordinary' cheddar in HF this arvo - £1.89 for 350g. No comparison!

Love the evolving meal plan

Off to look up what Yotam said.........

Greying X